“You’ll find I’m full of surprises,” Luke Skywalker said as he stared down Darth Vader in the carbon-freezing chamber of Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back. It’s a philosophy that Mark Hamill has taken to heart as a performer.
“My goal is to never stop trying to entertain and surprise people, and tenacity is my middle name,” he says. “I’m really determined to continue directing, and writing, and hopefully surprising people for years to come.”
Star Wars fans may know him best as a motion picture actor, but Hamill can be found in a wide spectrum of media forms, jumping from one to another with deft skill. He has performed on stage, on radio, in video games, and on television, each new experience challenging preconceptions some may have about him and his characters. “I remember when it first started hitting the airwaves that I was the voice of the Joker [on the Batman animated series], the most common expression at that time was, ‘you mean that Mark Hamill?'” he laughs.
The latest addition to Hamill’s library of works is his directorial debut, Comic Book: The Movie. The direct-to-DVD release stems from Hamill’s outspoken love of the comics medium, another rich field to which he has contributed. “I’ve always loved comic books,” he says proudly. “I’ve always been fascinated by why they seem to have a hold on me years after I, through peer pressure alone, should have given them up.”
Comic Book: The Movie is a Valentine’s to comic book aficionados, and an vivid encapsulation of that yearly pilgrimage to San Diego that so many comics fans hold dear — Comic-Con International. The mockumentary chronicles the transformation of a classic (though fictional) Golden Age comic book hero into a gritty, modern franchise film, and the journey of one intrepid fan who is determined to make sure the studios get it right.
But the movie didn’t start off that way. Comic Book: The Movie, fittingly enough, finds its secret origins in a comic book. Hamill had been shopping around The Black Pearl, the title that he wrote for Dark Horse Comics, for development into a feature. Though he started a dialogue with Creative Light Entertainment, a live action Black Pearl just wasn’t feasible.
“That seemed to be too ambitious a project for them. They weren’t really in the business of making even low budget feature films so we decided to just move on,” Hamill explains. “Creative Light didn’t want to give up the idea of working with me, and having done DVDs of two Star Trek actors interviewing each other and Kevin Smith interviewing Stan Lee, they wanted to know whether I could do a project that was in that range in terms of budget.”
A tight budget doesn’t really allow for an epic scope, a cast of thousands, and exotic locales, but putting his head to the puzzle, Hamill found inspiration. “I didn’t think I would be able to do something, unless it was just a talking-heads interview situation. Then, I thought if it were possible to get permission from the San Diego Comic-Con to film down there, I could do something that would appeal to genre fans, and that was about something that I cared about.”
Comic Book: The Movie centers on the fictional Commander Courage, a patriotic Golden Age superhero who would smash through Nazi forces alongside his good-natured teenage sidekick, Liberty Lad. The hero has since been re-imagined as the modern Code Name: C.O.U.R.A.G.E., a gun-toting revenge-seeking maverick out to kill terrorists, accompanied by his curvy sidekick, Liberty Lass.
It’s the edgy, cynical latter incarnation of the hero that has been greenlit to become a major motion picture, and the studios bring aboard the biggest Commander Courage fan they can find. Donald Swan, played by Hamill, will act as a “consultant,” to placate the fan community with assurance that their voice is being heard.
While it would have been easy to focus on the Hollywood types, played with relentless insincerity by Roger Rose (Rugrats in Paris: The Movie) and Lori Alan (The Freshman), the movie instead follows those with their hearts in the right place, even if they may be a bit naïve.
“What struck me was how quickly we forget, living in New York and Los Angeles, what genuine people there are in that great expansive land between coasts,” Hamill says. “If I were playing a documentary filmmaker, then I’m really satirizing show business, and then there’s no point-of-view in the film that’s strictly comic book. Instead, I crafted a character that was a high school teacher who was also a Golden Age comic book aficionado.”
This of course begs the obvious question: how much of the heartland-bred Don Swan is Mark Hamill? Mark describes Swan as an exaggeration of some of his passions. “I have, to a certain degree for different topics, that kind of obsessive-compulsive nature to voraciously devour everything related to something that interests me,” he explains. “When the Beatles first appeared, I wanted to read about who they were and where there were from. I felt the same way when I saw Bonnie & Clyde. In putting together the movie, I realized that I had to be the comic book fan, not only because I know the minutiae of the Overstreet Price Guide and all the details that go along with the hobby, but because there was no one else in the movie yet to represent that.”
Treading into the fandom-filled waters of comic books and conventions, Hamill took care not to target a group of often-targeted people for derision. Historically, genre audiences have had to put up with such labels as freaks, geeks and nerds, but Comic Book: The Movie doesn’t seek to mock its subject matter.
“I resisted the term mockumentary, because I don’t really mock anything,” says Hamill. “It is a mock documentary if you use the term as ‘not real.’ I think that was a concern of the Comic-Con people when it came time to make this. I think they got a little nervous, and they’re protective of the people that participate. They wanted to know if I was going to be … well, ‘snarky,’ was their word.”
The organizers of Comic-Con International — the largest annual popular media convention in the world — needed Hamill’s assurance that his film would not end up being a carnival sideshow full of snide humor, but would instead celebrate the genre culture from within. Hamill was able to persuade them that he wasn’t the shallow, judgmental detached Hollywood producer that would appear in his film, but was really a fan at heart. He gained permission to shoot the bulk of his movie on the fan-packed floor during Comic-Con 2002.
“Comic book fans are really great people,” says Hamill. “I think they really get a bum rap because they’re marginalized by the mainstream media as goofballs and weirdoes. But Hollywood is more than willing to take their wallets. I think we’re gaining on them, though. Sure, we all love the Comic Book Guy from “The Simpsons,” but that’s just one tiny faction of fandom — the guy that can’t do anything himself and just criticizes everything else. He’s meant to be the outsider. I wanted to make this where the fans were the ones who were the normal, genuine ones.”
A Cast of Thousands
Fandom has long followed Hamill in the wake of the phenomenal success of Star Wars. Die-hard fans of the Force have chronicled Luke’s entire life, from farmboy to Jedi Master, from the films to the latest novels, from creating the most painstakingly accurate lightsaber props to stitching together detailed costume replicas. Though Hamill could rattle off the most obscure trivia about E.C. Comics, the Adam West “Batman” show, or the Kinks, he is not about to go toe-to-toe with the most fervent Luke Skywalker trivia-maven.
“It’s one of the ironies that there are so many people who know so much more than I do!” he says. Luke has gone beyond a character of three films and appeared in dozens of novels, video games, toys and more. Skywalker has rebuilt a new Jedi order after the fall of the Empire, is married, and is the proud father of a baby boy named Ben. A lot of this comes as news to Hamill, who considers his work on the saga wrapped as of Return of the Jedi.
“I really was very much immersed in all of it years ago, and wanted to know all the details,” he explains, “but once my job was over, I didn’t have to read the flight manuals and supporting novels and comic books and games. It’s not that I don’t like them — it’s really a question of time.”
Despite a busy schedule, Hamill still devotes time for his passion of comics new and old. Just as the medium has grown and diversified with different themes, target audiences and subject matter, comics fandom has also become too varied to be painted by a single brush. As a fan of comics, Hamill keeps an open mind, sampling fare as varied as Carl Barks and Alan Moore.
“There’s such a bizarre twist to looking with grownup eyes at material we enjoyed as children,” says Hamill. “As a kid, I remember thinking how Batman was so much more realistic than Superman. Because, you know, you could build up your body and become a great detective, and I bet you if we caught mom in a good mood, she’d let us dig a Batcave under the garage. Then, you grow up and realize it’s a guy in a bat suit fighting crime. I love the fact that Bathound has to wear a mask. I mean, what the hell are they putting a mask on this dog for? Is it to protect his identity from the other dogs in the community? I love all this silly stuff, as well as the real raw, grown-up fair too. I loved Watchmen. I felt it was one of the best comic books I’ve ever read.”
Don Swan isn’t as open-minded, it would seem. From silly to serious, Commander Courage mirrors the history of popular comics, from the earliest super-patriots of WWII and the atomic age, to the cartoony antics of the 60s and 70s, to the grim antihero tales of the 90s and beyond. Hamill has constructed an elaborate backstory to Courage, and purist Swan can’t see beyond the classic Courage of yesteryear.
“It was very important that Commander Courage be not only from the Golden Age, but also a patriotic character. A character that was born of World War II — because I really felt there are parallel sensibilities between post-Pearl Harbor and post-September 11th,” says Hamill. “There’s the fact that blatant patriotism can seem corny.”
Such corniness is not new territory for Hamill. It’s the same label applied to the happy-go-lucky spirit of the first Star Wars, and the gee-whiz adventurousness of Luke Skywalker. “George Lucas did it with religion in the Star Wars movies. He was able to talk about this Force, and kids who need that sort of spiritual rejuvenation can have those stirrings without feeling like they’re out of the mainstream, or that it’s too corny to talk about. I thought the same thing about Donald being an unabashed fan of the way in his mind America used to be, before MTV, Janet Jackson and the Super Bowl, or whatever. You know, the good old days.”
Hamill even changed his appearance to communicate Swan’s heart-on-his-sleeve retro roots. “His hair is like a cross between Buster Krabbe in Flash Gordon and Robin the Boy Wonder. I also thought a good stylistic choice would be to make him sepia toned, like a faded old photo album,” he says. “At one point, he’s literally wearing rose-colored glasses.”
Joining Hamill in Comic Book: The Movie is a veritable who’s who of leading voice actors. Billy West (Fry and Dr. Zoidberg on “Futurama,” and everyone’s favorite overstuffed dimwit kitty, Stimpson J. Cat) plays Leo Matuzik, the last surviving relative of Commander Courage’s fabled creator. Jess Harnell (Wakko on “Animaniacs,” the Human Bullet on “The Tick” and many more) is the perpetually wasted cameraman Ricky. Tom Kenny (Spongebob Squarepants himself) is Don’s comic-loving sidekick Derek Sprang, and Jill Tally (“Stripperella,” “Spongebob Squarepants”) plays his convention-enduring wife. Also in the cast is Jim Cummings, the voice of Darkwing Duck, Winnie the Pooh and The Lion King’s Ed the Hyena.
While Hamill describes these actors as “ear candy,” the eye candy designation goes to Donna D’Errico (“Baywatch”), who plays (the actress who plays) Liberty Lass.[ Mark Hamill: Full of Surprises ] “She was a complete surprise to me,” admits Hamill. “I was scared. What if she turned out to be some kind of diva with 16 hairdressers, a manager and a lawyer in tow? But she is so nice, so sweet, and she doesn’t take herself seriously.”
In addition to these characters, a number of well-known fixtures in the comics and genre community appear as themselves. “I could get Kevin Smith to do a bit for me because we hit it off so well on Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. We had the same sensibility,” Hamill explains. “Stan Lee had actually done voices on shows I’d done, like ‘Fantastic Four’ and the mid-90s ‘Spider-Man’ show.”
Other cameos include Bruce Campbell, Paul Dini, Mark Evanier, Chase Masterson, Ray Harryhausen, Billy Mumy and Hugh Hefner. Sharp eyed Star Wars fans will spot a nod to the saga with the inclusion of Peter Mayhew, David Prowse and Jeremy Bulloch in cameo appearances.
With a cast full of so many well-known genre faces, Hamill was able to bring the movie in on so tight a budget by favors and friendship. As an example, the padded Commander Courage costume was crafted by a leading effects house, KNB EFX, which delivered convincing practical effects for films such as Kill Bill and Once Upon a Time in Mexico.”Greg Nicotero was able to get me a basic foam musculature onto which we built the costume,” says Hamill. “Were I just a regular movie studio, or an A-list film, I’m sure it would have been 10 times what we paid for it.”
The lessons of film economy can be traced back to Star Wars. Though the films have become synonymous with big budget blockbusters, many forget that the original A New Hope was shot on a very modest budget. “One of the things I remember George saying about the original Star Wars was that it’s the most expensive low budget movie ever made. He was basically saying that in terms of all of the cast being unknowns, every penny winds up on the screen and that’s what I was hoping for with Comic Book: The Movie,” says Hamill.
“I remember reading in the trades, Hamill brings in his directorial debut for under $1 million, and I was stunned,” he says. “Well yeah! — so under a million! Why didn’t you say under $500,000? Why didn’t you say under $400? $300?” he laughs. “One of the reasons I got the idea of doing it in the backdrop of the San Diego Con is that it’s like a billion dollar set!”
Behind the Curtain
For a directorial debut, the rather non-traditional and non-linear approach to making Comic Book: The Movie seems an ambitious first step. “This was a trial by fire,” Hamill admits. “I mean I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, because there was an uncertainty there, which I do like.”
Hamill worked without a net — in this case, without a script. The actors were armed with character briefs, and there was an arc for Donald Swan to Leo Matuzik to go through, but much of the film is marked with improvisation and seat-of-the-pants guerilla filmmaking. “It gives it a kind of a dangerous air,” says Hamill, “like a toboggan hurtling down the mountainside at great speeds and you have this fear that it’ll either arrive safely at the lodge at the bottom, or there’ll be the horrendous accident from which there are no survivors.”
Over the four days of Comic-Con 2002, Hamill and his small crew roamed the fan-packed floors, capturing moments, interviews, and scenes. Hamill wore a Don Swan badge and never broke character. Dozens of hours of convention footage needed to be distilled into the finished film, and it was not an easy task. “Going though it was scary and I didn’t really have time to relax and enjoy myself at the Con,” he says. “Especially going into the editing room and looking at all this footage. You’d look at 45 minutes that makes bad ‘Saturday Night Live’ look like Molière. It’s like going into your room and seeing someone’s kicked over all your jigsaw puzzles and it looks like a mess. But you’re able to pick out all the pieces that you like and make something out of it.”
Comparing Comic Book: The Movie to its most similar contemporaries, like the works of Christopher Guest (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind) reveals big differences in approach. “We did it in an even more unconventional way,” says Hamill. “He writes a complete script but just leaves the dialogue out, so that every beat is clearly delineated. I think there’s a happy medium between what I did which is really dangerous, and having something that is completely written out in advance. Somewhere between those two extremes is probably the way I’d do this again.”
Despite no story credit to the DVD, there is a story. A tale of Don Swan, an unlikely hero who champions for the everyman comic book fan in the face of an uncaring money-hungry Hollywood. The audio commentary on the DVD fills in further backstory and tales of tribulation behind the making of the DVD, and a second disc of supplementary material goes extensively behind-the-scenes on the making of the movie.
In discussing this type of behind-the-curtains material and the sheer accessibility of escapist entertainment these days, Hamill echoes Don Swan’s wistful recollections of an earlier era, when fantasy films like The Wizard of Oz and even Star Wars were only available in the theater, or on network television once a year.
“It’s not an event anymore if you can just push a button and there it is,” say Hamill. “Or if you can pause it and go to the bathroom and you haven’t missed anything. I really resist giving away the magic.”
Hamill recalls his reluctance to host behind-the-scenes specials during the making of the Star Wars. He hosted SPFX: The Making of the Empire Strikes Back in 1980, and From Star Wars to Jedi in 1983. “I remember saying to George, why do we keep making these stupid ‘Making Of’ specials? They give away everything! Let’s just tell people it’s a real lightsaber! They don’t need to know everything!” he recalls. “I said I feel like a magician’s assistant. When people worked in the magic shows on Broadway, they had to sign a piece of paper saying that they wouldn’t tell you how they achieved some of these effects.”
In this new era, future generations will now grow up with Star Wars on DVD, complete with supplementary material pulling back the curtain on the magic that has entertained millions. “It’s impossible to turn back time,” he says. “We’re in a multi-channel universe where there’s just so much material that goes out there. In the old days, there weren’t VCRs or DVDs, but in a way, comic books were the antiquated version because every picture is a freeze frame. You could analyze the storytelling process. You could go back and see the parts that you skimmed over, and you can own the story. I think that’s really important. People look at their DVD shelves and look with pride. It’s very satisfying to a collector to own these things, and that feeling was only achievable in our modest means through comic books.”
Comic Book: The Movie, the two-disc DVD set, is a Miramax release of a Creative Light Entertainment production.
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