The film includes profiles of twenty-two notable and influential talents in the comics field, such as Charles Burns, Art Spiegelman, Françoise Mouly, Frank Miller, Stan Lee, Will Eisner, Robert Crumb, Harvey Pekar and William M. Gaines.

[1] Montages of comics through the decades, archival footage of an old 1950s show called Confidential File,[2] and a live-action Zippy the Pinhead are featured.

Ron Mann moved to Hollywood in 1985 following the success of Imagine the Sound and Poetry in Motion, but was $70,000 in debt after the failure of Listen to the City.

Mann called Joe Medjuck seeking work and received contract to write three scripts for Ivan Reitman.

After this he considered making a film about Dario Fo, titled Enemy of the Obvious, and received a $35,000 grant from the Canada Council.

However, he decided to not go forward as one of his friends made a film about the San Francisco Mime Troupe and gave back the grant.

The Ontario Film Development Corporation initially planned to give $25,000 in equity and $90,000 for interim financing, but invested $115,000 directly instead due to the Citytv license's long payment timetable.

[6] Mann sold the theatrical distribution rights to Cineplex Odeon Films for a minimum guarantee of $200,000 and an advance of $40,000.

[10] Due to running time constraints, Mann couldn't include footage with Scrooge McDuck creator Carl Barks, All American Comics editor Julius "Julie" Schwartz, and editor of the first all-woman comic book It Ain't Me Babe, Trina Robbins.

Mann sought help from art directors Gerlinde Scharinger and Steven Lewis after firing Besen, but did most of the work according to himself.

There were short theatrical runs in Vancouver, Kitchener, Hamilton, Ottawa, Windsor, Montreal, and Halifax that earned a few thousand dollars.

[15][16] Mann showed the film at the Independent Filmmaker Project and received distribution offers from Cinecom, Miramax, New Line Cinema, and HBO.

Mann sold the rights to Cinecom for $80,000 as he they distributed films from John Sayles, Jonathan Demme, and Ira Deutchman.

[20][21][22] Brian D. Johnson, writing in Maclean's, praised the film as "dazzling" and that Mann brought "static images to life with vivid editing and camera movement".

[23] Caryn James of The New York Times found the film deft and intelligent—it "takes off when it abandons the archives and focuses on the creators," but "it plays to the converted," and its attempt to relate comics to social context is "fleeting.