Frank Miller appreciation thread

[Otomofan]

 

[Otomofan]

Frank's new cover for the 30th anniversary edition of Sin City.

It's all right, but not his best work.



Now a while back I mentioned that my friend got a very, very good Marv sketch as a commission. In my opinion, it's even better than the new 30th cover. I've seen it posted elsewhere, so he's OK with it being posted. I'm very much looking forward to seeing this in person:



Compared to the other stuff Frank churns out for commission (and we're talking BIG BIG ASS money here) I'd say my buddy won the jackpot. A lot of people ended up with a sloppy mess but it looks like Frank really put some time and effort into this one.

 

[Otomofan]

Every time I think I've seen every amazing Frank picture I find one that blows me away.

I've never seen this before....I assume it was a gift to Chip Kidd in 2003. (If this is a fake this is the best fake I've ever seen, and I'll feel like an idiot.)

Isn't this AWESOME?? Man, this is just incredible.

 

[generalszabo]

I can't stand Miller's art in most of his books, in Wolverine it was great but not a fan of his more stylised, distinctive work. I put up with it for DKR as the story is so good

 

[slynger]

I recently got this completed after upgrading from a 9.4 set.

 

[Mondragon]

Frank Miller' references to that other Dark Knight, ...ZORRO!

From Year One - written by Frank Miller , illustrated by David Mazzucchelli:
-"...years since Zorro, ...the Mark of Zorro, ...since all sense left my life."

Zorro by way of Frank Miller becomes the last idealized thing Bruce Wayne saw, as an innocent...

(retroactively) followed by....

DKR , his return where Miller first reinforced Zorro as the movie/character and last ideal Bruce Wayne saw, before his life is irrevocably changed forever, the dark archetype becomes what he then again falls back on (now combined with his own dark totem animal) as a means to survive and reinvent himself.

As far as I know Miller only drew Zorro once, yet what an homage!
Familiar lightning motif.... (Topps Comics) Zorro #1

And the character he inspired... DKR

Wayne having left his masked persona behind, now a self described "hollow shell".
That night, triggered by his childhood memory, he once used to own his fear , and reinvent himself...

now again invokes his symbolic "baptism" a sequence of lightning and rain culminating in him being "born again" as a familiar creature of the night.

Towards the end .. after a nuke wipes out all electronics and modern gadgetry, symbolically plunging Gotham into the past, he is forced to revert to the rawest form, the pure, primal archetype- that inspired him as a kid.
Reemerging from the cave, lightning striking, riding a black horse through a Gotham, now plunged into archaic darkness.

If that wasn't subtle enough who he is channeling .... leaving the next gen baffled to its cathartic meaning
DK2 Strikes Again, he .."Leaves his mark. Why it's a "Z" I can't guess. Must mean something to him."

While traditionally the man who blames and endlessly pursues Zorro for permanently scarring his face, is reflected in the Joker. In DK2 's dystopian future the scar is instead branded on Lex Luthor, more closely paralleling the classic totalitarian oppressor nemesis, to Zorro as guardian of the people.

-

Another, less known and sadly not celebrated or ever acknowledged in the comicsphere fandom , is possibly the first female lead masked adventuring heroine film.
Before Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Catwoman, Elektra, Captain Marvel, or Black Widow films, was Zorro's Black Whip....

Homaged in SC -Dallas aka La Zorra

 

[kardon]

I like Frank Miller's big, beefy version of Batman. It makes sense to me that he would want to get as swole as possible so he could really **** up bad guys with ease. Definitely want a 1:6 scale Miller style Batman figure one day.

 

[Mondragon]

I like Frank Miller's big, beefy version of Batman. It makes sense to me that he would want to get as swole as possible so he could really **** up bad guys with ease. Definitely want a 1:6 scale Miller style Batman figure one day.

From the Jaxon Xu's 1/6 Scale Custom TDKR Batman figure thread:

OneSixthKit are taking orders for this custom Jaxon Xu The Dark Knight Returns Batman.

The initial listing claimed they needed 30 orders for the run to go ahead but it looks like that requirement has been met already.

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https://onesixthkit.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=3184
PRE ORDER

Cut off 30th Nov 2021

Available in Q1-Q2 2022

This link for Non-Refundable Deposit payment $40, total price is $280 and balance $240 will be charged once it is released

Jaxin Xu's 1/6 Scale TDR figure

TDR figure fullset:

Head sculpt
Phicen m35 body
Hands
Gauntlet
Boots
Custom base
Damaged Superman cape
Batarang
Plastic belt

 

[spindrift]

Like Picasso- Frank has churned down his style to the most utterly basic graphics to show raw images of emotional impact- you either love it or loathe it. I think we may never see another Miller drawn comic again. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Otomofan]

Unfortunately I agree. I think his days of doing any interior art are far behind him.

I feel like he only churned out "Xerxes" out of some sense of obligation, and not only was it awful, it was about 15 years late.

Every now and then one of his commissions he does is still really, really good. I'd love to see a collection of them. I'm a sucker and I'd even overspend and pay whatever ridiculous price they'd ask for them.

But like all the other major talents from the 70s/80s/90s he has no need to sit down and put the work in on interior pages.

(Apparently John Byrne still does it just for fun, but he's always been a little nuts.)

Here's Frank's most recent commission....not that great:

 

[spindrift]

He has this Robin series coming drawn by another artist(seen previews- looks good visually). I believe he has one project left after that on his five series deal with DC. He talks more Sin City- I think he will do more but as writer. The thing is he has drawn ALL of them up to now- to give it to another artist(Kubert?) just doesn't sit well with me.

I'd love to see him at least do covers/spot art but all I see lately is commissions. Great idea- a book of ALL his commissions would be terrific.

 

[Otomofan]

I personally hope that Carrie Kelley project never sees the light of day. I loathed the art and character design by some random tumblr artist. It hasn't been mentioned in a few years so I'm selfishly hoping it was just canned altogether.

Dark Knight III, and Dark Knight Last Crusade were OK at best.

Superman Year One sucked. I just have nothing good to say about it.

Dark Knight Golden Child was unreadable trash. Just awful.

And I couldn't possibly agree more that NO Sin City story should ever be drawn by anyone other than Frank. If that means we never get another one, so be it. As much as I'd love more, it's been over 20 years since the last one so I think his passion for the project has diminished. Even an 8 page Sin City "Coda" would be more than enough for me if he wrote and drew it.

In the meantime.....a slick hardcover book of all his commissions from the last 5 years or so would be a great project. A sad pipe dream for sure, but I can still dream....

 

[Otomofan]

Siiiigh. And now Frank's wasting his time drawing super expensive limited prints for the NBA for some reason.

And again, I hate to say it...they're really not very good at all....

The LA one realllllly sucks. I mean, I feel like I could have probably drawn that. At least the Celtics one has some effort, and the Raptors kind of shows his love for drawing dinosaurs.

Come on Frank.....we know you CAN do better than this...the question is, do you want to?

 

[Otomofan]

Frank's drawing for next year's Napoli Comicon.......not sure what the hell I'm looking at.

One of those clowns from the opera?

 

[Stront]

Awesome thread, thanks for your work on it. Huge fan of Miller’s work as well. Pretty much the only comics I return to read and look at after all these years.

 

[Squrrill]

Frank Miller is my favorite American comic book artist. (My favorite overall is Katsuhiro Otomo, but I'll get around to starting a thread about him later.)

I posted some pics I'd found the in Dark Knight III thread, but I have found some cool stuff lately so I figured I'd start a thread just dedicated to Frank.

It's in vogue these days to call Frank a cranky old man that's lost his mind, but this isn't about his personal politics. I just wanna focus on his art, and be glad that he's still around. He looked like he was absolutely on death's door for a while there. I don't know if he's out of the woods, but I hope he pulls through and gives us some more work, cause he actually hasn't drawn THAT much compared to his contemporaries, like say John Byrne or Walt Simsonson.

His art is almost as divisive as his politics. Some people think it's ugly, grotesque, lazy, etc. I've always thought it was gorgeous. His work with Lynn Varley is probably my favorite stuff ever printed. I love how his intricate detail lines get enhanced by her moody watercolors. But I love his black and white Sin City style too, as it evolved from that hyper detailed linework down to the spare economy of big bold lines.

I didn't think his art was remarkable on Daredevil, but it started evolving with Ronin, and then perfected with Dark Knight, and peaked with Elektra Lives Again.

OK.....enough talk. I'm just gonna start posting pics of his I love, in more or less chronological order.

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Does he still do autographs? I will even send items to get him to autograph. If you know please let me know? Thanks!!

 

[Otomofan]

Yes, he still does autographs.

Sometimes he attends conventions and you need to register in advance. Be prepared to spend $100 per signature!

He also sometimes has people mail stuff to his agency and he signs stuff when get around to it. Also not cheap.

For people with even more money, there's quick little doodles he does that cost like $500-600, and then there are full on commission pieces anywhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 to 16000.

Insane prices. But still. A chance to own an original work from the pen of one of our last living masters.

There seems to be about 3 companies that compete for his business so I don't know who to contact. Best bet is go to his official website and fill out the inquiry forms there. Good luck!!

 

[Solidus]

Great thread, Otomofan. And mentioning signatures, I met Frank Miller a few times at Midtown Comics in NYC. Once in 2018, and again in 2019. He charged roughly $50 per additional signature. Fortunately, with Midtown Comics, I believe they have a set price for signatures, so authors and artists can't overcharge if they're hosting a signing.

In 2018, I got my old, first printing of TDK signed, as well as the foil cover variant. I could've gotten them both CGC graded at the signing, but I chose to save the $200 .

In 2019, Miller was signing "Cursed". This is the picture I took while in the lineup. Can't say I actually like Cursed, but it was at least nice getting it signed. I also had my first copy of TDK III signed by Miller as well on the same night. Unfortunately, I currently have both of these books in storage, and will have to take some pics at a later date.

 

[Otomofan]

Man, "Cursed" was absolutely wretched, wasn't it?

I bought the hardcover for Frank's art of course, but it wasn't really very good.

The story though? Ugh. I left a scathing review on amazon saying I couldn't even read it sitting on the toilet. I wasn't kidding.

Hope Thomas Wheeler kept his day job.

 

[Solidus]

Yeah, I think most of us unfortunately bought this book for Miller's illustrations. I skimmed through it once, and didn't like it at all. Seems like it existed solely to promote the show on Netflix .