The Adventure Begins

The bright, hedonistic strains of the Charleston - the signature tune of the early twenties - were already fading into the background as this boisterous and oddly neurotic decade approached its close. In 1927 Charles Lindbergh achieved the first solo non-stop crossing of the Atlantic east-bound, from New York to Paris. The entire world began to experience a growing passion for travel and its necessary concomitant, high adventure. Comics of the period faithfully mirrored this fantasy, with the first appearances of the hard-bitten detective strip, and exotic escapades in a variety of far-away colonial settings. Nor was fantasy adventure limited to planet Earth: comic-strip heroes and heroines experienced danger, terror and delight in outer space - as, vicariously, did their millions of eager readers. The film includes interviews with Burne Hogarth, Lee Falk and Hergé, and features Tarzan, Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, Terry and the Pirates and Tintin.

Part of the series Comics, The Ninth Art