In an interview with a Scottish newspaper Mark Millar has described what is likely to be the most expensive comic book ever produced by Marvel Comics.  Entitled 1985, Millar's creation involves the hiring of almost 100 actors, the building of sets and the creation of superhero costumes and monster models.  Still photographs will be combined with real and drawn backgrounds in a computer-enhanced version of the old fumetti comics that used photos and captions to tell a sequential story.

 

Millar told the Sunday Herald that 1985, which follows the adventures of a Midwestern boy with psychological problems who sees Marvel villains menacing his home town, 'has the potential to be Marvel's Narnia.'  No one believes the lad, who has a history of confusing fantasy and reality, but then townspeople start turning up dead in mysterious ways. 

 

Marvel, which has experimented with fumetti projects before, is taking something of a gamble with this project since the fumetti format has never been very popular here in the States, though Tokyopop has scored some notable successes with its Cinemanga titles, which feature screen captures from popular cartoons and live action shows.  Perhaps the computer enhancement Marvel plans to use can overcome the static nature of the photographic medium and provide something approaching the fluidity of classic comic book art.