 Larry and Andy Wachowski, the creators of The Matrix, were comic
book fans long prior to their work on that 1999 film, which utilized and synthethized many
comic book names and concepts. As the stunning ads for the movie debuted, asking ambiguously
"What is the Matrix?", viewers were encouraged to visit the movie's website -- where, in an
equally ambiguous site design, one could find comics set in the universe of the film. Sporting
major creators, these comics served to drive interest in the film -- particularly among comics
readers, many of whom felt invigorated by such an interesting film showing such respect for the
medium. This was only accentuated by The Art of The Matrix, a nicely-designed
book showing the design of the film.
Following the stellar success of The Matrix, as the world awaited
the inevitable sequels, the only new Matrix material was the new comics being posted online.
Two sequels -- The Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions -- were shot
simultaneously, continuing into one another and appearing in the summer and winter of 2003.
While the sometimes illogical choices made these sequels left many disappointed, these two
films were part of a cross-media blitz of impressive quality and foresight. The video game,
Enter the Matrix, showed some of the events of the sequels from another perspective,
actually adding to the appreciation of the movies. Between the two films, a collection of
animated shorts entitled The Animatrix was released straight to video and DVD: as with
the Matrix comics, The Animatrix featured major talents in animation -- particularly
Japanese animation (or anime) -- and showed a similar love for the important medium of
adult animation. The first first short of the collection, entitled "The Final Flight of the
Osiris," actually foregrownded the events of the sequels. Two shorts (entitled "Second
Renaissance") continued into one another, telling the rise of the machines and foregrownding
the entire Matrix universe; most remarkably, these shorts used the events and designs featured
in "Bits & Pieces of Information," one of the first Matrix comics, written by the Wachowski
brothers and illustrated by master draftsman Geof Darrow. This kind of respect for comics,
animation, and video games typified this unprecedented cross-media blitz. An impressive art
book showing the design of the sequels was also offered, mirroring the original such book
offered after the original movie. And, throughout it all, additional comics kept appearing on
the website.
In November 2003, following the release of the third film, The Matrix
Comics responded to demand for a printed version of the online comics by collecting twelve
of those comics in a trade paperback on quality paper. It was the first publication of
Burlyman Entertainment, a new publishing company that went on to publish new, non-Matrix comics
work.
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