"A Never-Ending Battle" at New York Comic-Con (Oct. 13-16, 2011)

Attendees of the New York Comic-Con (next week; Oct. 13-16) will be treated to a special documentary preview of  “A Never-Ending Battle,” the first episode of a new film from the creative team responsible for the award-winning PBS documentaries “Broadway: The American Musical” and “Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America.”

The screening is made possible by special arrangement with Ghost Light Films,Inc., Reed POP and Bonfire Agency, LLC (this early heads up for Catacombs regulars comes from Ed Catto of Bonfire Agency). Featuring rare footage along with new interviews with industry legends such as Joe Simon, Stan Lee, Jim Steranko, Neal Adams, Michael Chabon and Jules Feiffer, segments of the first episode – “A Never-Ending Battle: 1938-1954” – will be previewed on Friday, October 14, 2011 at 4PM in Room 1B01 of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center at 655 West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan. An on-stage interview and Q&A with filmmakers and cultural historians Michael Kantor and Laurence Maslon will take place immediately following the screening.

With principal production funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, “A Never-Ending Battle” is slated to air as the first episode of a three-part series on PBS stations early in 2013. The series will explore the American art form of the comic book superhero and its complex interrelation with American culture over the last 75 years. Throughout this period, comic books artists, writers and publishers have unleashed thousands of exotic, bizarre, heroic and seductive adventurers upon the American public; some have become instantly recognizable all over the globe, many have crashed miserably under the weight of their own lack of inspiration, but all were created in the hope that they would connect with some aspect of the American consumer. In this regard, the film explores how the evolution of the costumed crusader reflected our social, political and cultural history. Fervent fans, casual viewers, and everyone in between will discover much to marvel over in this informed overview of the adventures of America’s most popular genre of historic fiction.