PAGE 8
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MOVIES
SOURCE: IMDR.COM
Summer blockbusters like The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man brought in hundreds of millions at the box office and helped increase sales for the comic books the characters come from, according to Craig Klotz, Free State Comicon organizer.
Superhero movies improve comic book sales
NATHAN FORDYCE
nfor@kansan.com
Hollywood's recent obsession with superheroes has boosted popularity of their comic book origins. Three of the summer's most popular movies, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-man, created a rise in readership for their respective comic book series. .
Craig Klotz, the Free State Comicon organizer, which happened earlier this month, said Hollywood has had a huge impact on the paper version of the comics.
"The current crop of Marvel and DC Films has helped, like the Dark Knight Rises and the Avengers," Klotz said. "And it's not just Hollywood films, it's TV too. Walking Dead is the hottest comic book on the market."
According to IMDB, over the summer the Avengers made over $620 million, the Dark Knight
Rises made over $440 million and the Amazing Spider-Man made over $260 million while in theaters in the United States.
Not only was the Avengers the highest grossing comic book film of all-time, it was also the third highest grossing film to date, behind Avatar and Titanic. The Dark Night Rises ranks third in comic book films behind the Avengers and the Dark Night. The Dark Knight Rises also was the sixth highest grossing film of
all-time in the United States.
Klotz, who also sells comic books at Comicon, said has introduced action heroes to new audiences on the big screen. They have become interested in reading the original comic books and progress through the chronicles and progression of the hero.
Jai Nitz, a film professor at the University of Kansas, has worked for DC Comics. Marvel and Disney producing comics and films.
He said that people today do
not know what it's like to not have super hero films because they have at least one film every summer and multiple throughout the whole year.
Nitz, like Klotz, acknowledges the success of films have increased the intrigue level on actual comic books, especial Marvel comics. He said comics book movies have an advantage over other series because they often have color patterns that repeat in each movie. For example Iron Man follows a
red and gold theme while Spider- Man uses blue and red. Viewers easily become attached to these patterns.
"The thing that is awesome about comic books and is that they can endure the test of time," Nitz said.
- Edited by Luke Ranker
CRIME
LSU latest college campus to evacuate after bomb threat
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Officers with a dog talk after searching Evangeline Hall in Baton Rouge, La., where a bomb threat was received Monday.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Students, faculty and staff evacuate LSU's main campus in Baton Rouge, La., after an emergency text message system was sent on Monday following a bomb threat.
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BATON ROUGE, La. — Thousands of students, professors and workers were evacuated from Louisiana State University's main campus Monday following a bomb threat, school officials said.
Chancellor William Jenkins called for the evacuation because of a threat phoned into 911 about 10:32 a.m., university spokeswoman Kristine Calongne said. The caller didn't direct the threat to any specific area of the campus.
The university put out a statement on its website announcing the evacuation an hour later, then distributed the information through text messages, emails and social media.
There are 30,000 students, professors and university employees located on the Baton Rouge campus, but it was not clear how many were there at the time of the threat.
"Monday is a very big class day, so I think the majority of that group was probably on campus at the time," Calongne said.
"A bomb threat has been reported on the LSU campus," the statement said. "Please evacuate as calmly and quickly as possible."
By mid-afternoon, the LSU campus was largely deserted and roads were closed, though some people and cars were still moving around. Police officers with dogs combed through buildings, including the computer services center.
state police bomb technicians were on the scene, said Louisiana State Police Capt. Doug Cain. He said authorities were talking to their counterparts in Texas, North Dakota and Ohio to see if there were any similarities to threats universities in those states received
"It's kind of been an epidemic. This has been the fourth in a week. But it's better to be safe than sorry," said communications disorders graduate student Joseph Vera.
Vera and a fellow graduate student were working in a language clinic with seven children near the edge of campus when they received the text message about the bomb threat. The pair walked the children across the street to an offcampus restaurant and they called the children's parents.
The university sent a follow-up message to students at 1:36 p.m. telling them not to return.
Catherine Lacoste, an 18-yearold freshman and architecture major, said she received notification
University officials in those states also evacuated their campuses, but police found no explosives.
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"I was in the middle of class and one of the guys in the back of the room raised his hand and said, 'The reason it's so loud outside is because there's been a bomb threat and we have to leave.'" Johnson said.
Kayla Johnson, 18, an English major, heard about the evacuation from a student who received the text message.
"I'm going to go home, take a nap and hopefully campus will be open again when I wake up," Lacoste said.
Students largely seemed to take the evacuation in stride.
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by text message while working in a studio on a project. She doublechecked the information and then evacuated.
"Nobody seems too worried about it," said Shelby Miller, 18, a biology major who was doing homework and eating Chinese food at the student union when he got word of the evacuation.
Miller headed to a nearby coffee shop right off campus to finish her homework.
Calongne said she doesn't know of any other time the entire flagship university campus was evacuated.
"I've been at LSU since 1990 if you count my student years and I don't ever recall us having an evacuation of the whole campus," she said.
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