BIOGRAPHY:
"I wasn't Man With Pen In Head until
I got a phone call from the folks who made the Daredevil movie.
You see, those lying bastards at Marvel Comics pretended I
didn't exist. But the movie crowd showed class and invited
me to the set... Sure, I had pleasant conversations with Jen
and Ben - and the director, Mark Steven, and I hit it off like
old school buddies from high school - but I was just Man
With Pen In Head."
Frank Miller, from Autobiographix (2003)
 The
Comics Journal Library Volume 2 contains everything
you should ever need to know about Frank Miller. Highly recommended.
Interviews:
Suicide Girls (2005)
Underground Online (2005)
The
Beat (2005)
The Pulse (2002)
The
Onion (2001)
Dark Horse (1999)
Resources:
Recommended by... Frank Miller
Sin City Movie Site
Dark Horse: Sin City Zone
The Comics Reporter: Frank Miller On-Line
Ninth Art: Frank Miller Profile
Paul Gravett: Frank Miller Profile
Reviews:
Time.comix:
DK2
Ninth Art: Batman: Year One
Ninth Art: Daredevil Born Again
Ninth Art: Elektra Assassin
SELECTED
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Batman Books:
DK2: The Dark Knight Strikes Again (2002)
Spawn vs Batman (1994)
The Dark Knight Returns (1986)
Batman:
Year One (1986)
The Sin City Series:
Hell & Back (2000)
Booze, Broads & Bullets (1998)
Family Values (1997)
That Yellow Bastard (1996)
The Big Fat Kill (1995)
A Dame To Kill For (1994)
Sin City (1992)
The Daredevil Saga:
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear (1994)
Elektra Lives Again (1990)
Elektra Assassin (1987)
Daredevil: Love & War (1986)
Daredevil:
Born Again (1986)
Daredevil: Visionaries Vol 3 (1982-1983)
Daredevil: Visionaries Vol 2 (1981-1982)
Daredevil: Visionaries Vol 1 (1979-1980)
Martha Washington, with Dave Gibbons:
Martha Washington Saves The World (1999)
Martha Washington Goes To War (1995)
Give Me Liberty (1992)
Other Books:
300 (1999)
Bad Boy (1997)
The Big Guy & Rusty The Boy Robot (1995)
Hardboiled (1992)
Robocop vs Terminator (1992)
Ronin (1984)
Frank Miller's Spider-Man (1979-1984)
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ESSENTIAL
READING: |
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DC, 1984
A dishonoured 13th century samurai is reborn in a corrupt and computerised 21st
century New York City with one last chance for redemption. His quest takes him
through the violent Manhattan netherworld, and brings him face to face with passion,
betrayal, murder... and the reincarnation of his sworn enemy, the ancient demon
Agat. On this bleak and decaying battleground, the two foes wage a final war:
to settle past debts, and for the soul of a dying civilization.
"It's a super-hero, science fiction, samurai drama, urban
nightmare, gothic romance."
Frank Miller, from the introduction |
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Dark Horse, 1992
Described by Rolling Stone as "intricate, kinetic, and thoroughly outrageous!" Hard
Boiled is the story of one crazy psychotic dude... Carl Seltz maybe a
suburban insurance investigator, a loving husband, and devoted father. Or is
he Nixon, a berserk, homicidal tax collector racking up mind-boggling body counts
in a diseased urban slaughterhouse. Or is he Unit Four, the ultimate robot killing
machine - and the last hope of the future's enslaved mechanical servants. Stunningly
detailed art from the artist responsible for the look of The
Matrix, Geof Darrow.
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Dark Horse, 1999
Historical drama - Miller style! The army of Persia - a force so vast it shakes
the earth with its march - is poised to crush Greece, an island of reason and
freedom in a sea of mysticism and tyranny. Standing between Greece and this tidal
wave of destruction is a tiny detachment of just three hundred warriors. But
these warriors are more than men... they are Spartans.
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Dark Horse, 1992-2000
"Frank Miller's Sin City series takes Raymond
Chandler and - yikes! - goes one up on nihilism. His characters are classic movie
archetypes: the whore with a heart of gold, the good girlfriend turned bad, the
stoic hit man. But in Miller's work the hero - or antihero - usually ends up
dead."
Playboy
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Dark Horse, 1992-1999
Martha Washington is living the American nightmare
in the slums of Chicago and decides to fight for the American dream. Frank
Miller and Dave Gibbons won an Eisner
Award for this darkly ironic tale about one woman and her battle for
freedom. |
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DC, 1986
The book that redefined an entire genre and added dark gritty realism into
the superhero books. The Dark Knight Returns is
a graphic novel masterpiece which re-established Batman as
a brooding presence on the streets of Gotham City. It is ten years after an
aging Batman has retired and Gotham City has sunk deeper into decadence and
lawlessness. Now as his city needs him most, the Dark Knight returns in a blaze
of glory. Joined by Carrie Kelly, a teenage female Robin, Batman takes to the
streets to end the threat of the mutant gangs that have overrun the city. And
after facing off against his two greatest enemies, the Joker and Two-Face for
the final time, Batman finds himself in mortal combat with his former ally,
Superman, in a battle that only one of them will survive. This collection is
hailed as a comics masterpiece and was responsible for the launch of the Batman
movies.
"The comic-book storytelling draws on many influences,
including Japanese and European comics, and Miller's artwork
is strong and impressive, occasionally stunning. Where Miller
succeeds is in the romance, in the telling of a high adventure,
in taking superhero comics as far as they can go and still be
superhero comics."
Neil Gaiman
"...probably the finest piece of comic art ever to be published
in a popular edition"
Steven King
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DC, 2002
Set three years after the events of The Dark Knight Returns and
the apparent death of the Batman, a brave new world has arisen where peace
and harmony reign across the globe. But this perfect society has a deadly flaw,
and the salvation of all humanity rests upon the fabled hero as The
Dark Knight Strikes Again! Joined by his army of Bat-soldiers and his
female sidekick Catgirl, an elderly Batman wages a final war against a diseased
world in an epic tale that features Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Martian
Manhunter, and the Atom.
"I got to see Miller's DK2 proposal
stuff, and it consisted of a huge stack of character redesigns,
page after page of fabulous drawings of the Atom, Wonder Woman,
all of 'em. It was so exciting, it was like, YES! I don't know
why everybody's slagging DK2. I like
it. I love Lynn's colouring. It looks like a video game or something.
It's different. Not the same ol' shit. It's kind of punk rock."
Paul Pope, The Comics Interpreter Vol 2 #1
"I don't think the young hold any patent
on freshness or innovation or excitement. I got the same kind
of rush from Frank Miller's Dark Knight Strikes
Again, and he's
a sorta old guy."
James Kochalka, from the www.WinterMitten.com interview
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Marvel, 1979-1994
Before the Dark Knight, Sin
City and Ronin, Frank Miller made his name
working on the Marvel superhero title Daredevil with
stories that would later be the source material for the Hollywood Daredevil film.
"Daredevil was bristling with
innovation: cinematic storytelling without endlessly wordy captions;
writing rich with atmosphere, visually heightened by a liberal
use of black on the page... Not to mention one of the first truly
liberated and liberating female characters ever to be found in
four-color: the beautiful, strong, yet tragic, Elektra."
Diana Schutz, from the introduction to Daredevil:
Visionaries Volume 2 |
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