With comics- and fantasy-based movies at a peak of popularity in Tinseltown, it is only fitting that comic artist extraordinaire Alex Ross (Kingdom Come) was chosen to create a poster for the Motion Picture Academy's annual self-congratulatory awards ceremony. Ross used the occasion of the awards ceremony's return to Hollywood to pay homage to Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns. The fact that Miller's sequel to DKR, the Dark Knight Strikes Back, is currently driving a sales boom in pop culture stores somehow brings the whole thing full circle. After all Miller's original Batman opus was followed by Tim Burton's hugely successful Batman film, the movie that ushered in the modern age of comic-related films.
The success of Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and Harry Potter has raised some hopes that a comic or fantasy based film might eventually win more than just a technical award on Oscar night. LOTR, which has already won the American Film Institute award as 'Best Picture,' is probably the genre's best bet ever to capture a major award (see 'LOTR Tops Box Office For Third Week'). The Oscar nominations aren't announced until February, but retailers might have more reasons than normal to follow the Academy Awards. Oscar exposure means additional time in theaters for the films that win, and LOTR might benefit inordinately, since moviegoers, who generally don't go to 'fantasy' films, might well want to check the film out if it receives the Academy's imprimatur. 
