The Legend of Kingdom Come is a new documentary film about the creation of a comic book titled Kingdom Come. First published in 1996 by DC Comics, Kingdom Come was a hit set in an alternative universe where superheroes dealt with human emotions and futuristic conditions.
Artist Alex Ross joined forces with writer Mark Waid to create the four-issue series.
Chicago-based filmmaker Remsy Atassi directed Legend after his debut of Bad Animal in 2022 and Alex Ross’ business manager Sal Abbinanti served as producer.
The dynamic duo met up one afternoon at their office studio to talk about this special project.
JN: (Jerry Nunn) How did you both become involved with The Legend of Kingdom Come?
SA: (Sal Abbinanti) I met Alex in the late ‘80s and we met through mutual friends at Halley’s Comix on Lincoln Avenue and Belmont Avenue, which is no longer there. He asked me to help him and I started repping him. He later asked me to be his model for Captain Marvel and here we are…
RA: (Remsy Atassi) I linked up with these guys about nine years ago. We were doing some content for some projects that Alex was working on and some exhibitions that he was doing.
I am a filmmaker, so that's my background, and we worked together for years as projects continued to happen.
I was not originally a huge comic fan, although I grew up with comics and read the big stuff. After getting to know these guys, I came up with the idea of making a documentary about Alex’s work. It became obvious that Kingdom Come was what he was most excited to talk about and explore. I learned more about it through that process.
I read the book and I was blown away just because of the art, storytelling and characters. I was an outsider at first, but then I got it right away. That's the cool thing about Alex is he’s accessible and his art is so impressive that it can pull anyone in.
That was the beginning of the film journey. We were sidelined through COVID, but after we came out of it, we committed to the project.
Something like this takes a long time and in 2023, we did a lot of the supplemental interviews to bring it together and now here we are, all finished up!
JN: I wanted to work in the comic business years ago, but I thought you had to live in New York to pursue that.
SA: For a long time, it was like that, but now most of the publishers aren’t in New York. There was a comic book artist group here in Chicago, but the scene was smaller. A large part of the industry, like you said, was in New York.
JN: Is he coming to the Music Box event?
SA: We want him to, so we shall see.
JN: He signed my comic book at Chicago Comics.
RA: We were filming there during that time. He hasn’t signed there too many times.
SA: No, just once in a while, because he’s friends with them.
JN: Is using people as models a common thing in comic art?
SA: Not really. Artists will use references for posing and staging, but Alex was more of a J.C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell kind of guy. He liked to use the lighting in his approach to the material.
When comics started heading into the independent market in the ‘90s, Alex headed the other way.
JN: Using his dad as a main character was a brilliant idea.
SA: Norman McCay.
RA: It’s the realistic depictions of the characters that benefit from the photography. Older comic artists would have a very exaggerated foreshortening and movement.
Sal knows better than I, but I think Jack Kirby was just churning out pages, wasn’t he?
SA: Yes.
JN: Was Alex’s mom in the comics?
SA: She was an illustrator. They both went to the American Academy of Art, which is not there at this time.
JN: Television personality Svengoolie was in your documentary.
SA: Yes, he and Alex became friends over the years. Rich Koz is one of the nicest guys in the world. We reached out to him and had him stop by this studio.
RA: We were able to use an archival clip when Alex went on Svengoolie’s show. The gag of it was that Alex can go so deep with these characters that he goes on and on. He puts Svengoolie to sleep in the bit that they do, but the truth is, Rich really is a comic book fan.
SA: The thing is, we didn’t want to force him to wear the Svengoolie makeup. People don’t recognize him without the makeup.
RA: It takes him a long time to put on the makeup, too.
JN: Where else are you taking this documentary besides the Music Box Theater?
RA: We are looking into other cities where there are a lot of fans. We are putting together a theatrical road show of our own over the next couple of months.
We have the physical Blu-ray now and people can stream it on demand at legendofkingdomcome.com. There are two hours of bonus features available on the website for folks.
After that, there will be a wider distribution in the second half of this year. For now, we are relishing the opportunity to bring it to the fans.
JN: Is the bonus material from the cutting room floor?
RA: Yes. It is from extensive interviews, such as with Mark Waid, with longer segments. Alex does a deep dive into the book for one part of it for about 30 minutes. Those are the heavy hitters on the bonus features.
We included outtakes from the interviews and stuff that didn’t make the cut. It’s a lot of material!
JN: What would you like viewers to take away from the film overall?
RA: It’s about showing the fans the real person that they love. There are some things they will discover about him, making the Kingdom Come comic, along with hidden Easter eggs and little stories.
For a more general audience, they will be introduced to Alex and they will see why he’s so beloved by the comic book community. Alex Ross is very accessible as an artist and he deserves to be seen by everyone.
JN: I’m a John Byrne fan from his art and making an early gay superhero. I heard he’s pesky, though.
SA: He can be.
JN: Do you have another documentary in the works?
RA: We have some other comic projects that are in production and development. Sal and I have some projects that are cooking, but it’s too early to say anything about them.
SA: People can keep up with his work at alexrossart.com.
RA: Ra-imaging.com is my company.
JN: Anything else you would like to tell our readers to encourage to see the film?
SA: It delivers for the comic fan and the fans of the Kingdom Come book. We also made it for the public and they don't have to know a lot about the background of the story. All they need to know is that it was a great book that came together during a pivotal time in comic history.
It's a Chicago story, which is why we wanted to have it at the Music Box and have it premiere here in town.
RA: It’s a movie for fans of comics and the visual arts. It’s for people who like Alex's work or if they don’t know it, then they can learn about a subculture with a time capsule of this world.
SA: It has a lot to say about comic books in the ‘90s.
RA: I was very interested in that time period.
JN: I remember that time being a very saturated market where people thought comic books would be worth a lot of money.
RA: Yes, they were speculatively buying comics. The reason comics were valuable was that they were scarce and there were not many copies. They started making millions of prints and the industry crashed on them.
SA: Before that, there were the golden and silver age comics. During the war, they had enormous paper drives and people’s parents would throw the comics in the garbage.
RA: There’s a sense of nostalgia that people want to go back to their childhood while reading and collecting comics.
SA: People want a piece of the world when life wasn’t so complicated.
RA: We all want that now! [All laugh]
The Legend of Kingdom Come comes to the Music Box Theatre, 3733 North Southport Avenue, for its North American Premiere on May 10, 2025. Tickets may be purchased at legendofkingdomcome.com and dressing in costume is encouraged.