Meet Frank Miller

Hello again, this is Kris bringing out information about Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' creator, Frank Miller. Miller (In no way related to yours truly, thank you very much!) is associated best with The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, Sin City and 300. He stands with Alan Moore by breaking the tradtional mold of the comic book by injecting gritty atmospheres, sophisticated storylines and literary mechanics into what we know about the graphic novel today. Miller is also known for blending an eastern style found in manga with a film noir atmosphere.

Miller's early work involved Gold Key Comics' Twilight Zone in 1978 and John Carter, Warlord of Mars #18. His first work at DC Comics was Weird War Tales #64. While working for Marvel Comics, Miller fleshed out the superhero Daredevil, a character whose own bi-monthly comic experienced poor sales. With Miller's film noir touch, Daredevil became well known among the Marvel Comics pantheon. He also created Daredevil's love interest/rival, Elektra. Miller worked on Daredevil until 1983, along with the storyline Daredevil: Born Again and Daredevil: Love and War.

Batman is another character which Miller gave reviving energy too. He successfully ripped away the 1960's camp image of the Adam West figure and replaced him as a multi-layered character ridden with trauma who experesses it with violent vigilantism. Miller left DC Comics over creators' rights dispute, for the company want to create an age rating system which Miller suspected was censorship.

After leaving DC, Miller worked for independent comics creator Dark Horse. His other famous project, Sin City, progressed throughout the 1990s. Sin City utilized the fluid style of manga with black and white imagery topped with a sharp film noirish edge. Miller has borrowed heavily from Eastern comic influences such as Goseki Kojima, who used cinematic influences for Lone Wolf and Cub.

On Miller's personal life, his political views border on the right winged. While speaking on National Public Radio, he walked about the second war in Iraq:

"Mostly I hear people say, 'Why did we attack Iraq?' for instance. Well, we're taking on an idea. Nobody questions why we, after Pearl Harbor, attacked Nazi Germany. It was because we were taking on a form of global fascism, we're doing the same thing now.

It seems to me quite obvious that our country and the entire Western World is up against an existential foe that knows exactly what it wants... and we're behaving like a collapsing empire. Mighty cultures are almost never conquered, they crumble from within. And frankly, I think that a lot of Americans are acting like spoiled brats.

For some reason, nobody seems to be talking about who we’re up against, and the sixth century barbarism that they actually represent. These people saw people’s heads off. They enslave women, they genitally mutilate their daughters, they do not behave by any cultural norms that are sensible to us. I’m speaking into a microphone that never could have been a product of their culture, and I’m living in a city where three thousand of my neighbors were killed by thieves of airplanes they never could have built."

The Dark Knight currently read in class has almost a "right winged" mentality, even with Batman against Superman who sold out to a facist government. Ever get to the scene where Batman leads a bunch of skinheads to keep order when electricity goes out in Gotham City? It's an example of a strong figure leading the community to fix things up, where people afraid of great change are protected by a figure who despite his different methods upholds the same views as the people do.

Personally, I do not consider myself a right winged individual but that did not stop my enjoyment of The Dark Knight Returns to its fullest.

The reason I bring up Miller's political views is because they differ strongly from Alan Moore's views and views of other comics writers and artists we will be studying in class. All I have to conclude is that Miller is talented and that The Dark Knight along with the rest of his works should stand up to the test of time.

- Kristopher