Frank Miller appreciation thread

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I posted this a few weeks ago, but here it is BIGGER.....variant cover for upcoming Detective Comics 1000. No idea how limited it will be but I want one.

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Yeah, that's his style all right. He did some stuff for Star Wars too i think, maybe a cover here or there, but I'm pretty sure I posted this Luke/Vader battle on Bespin he did as a pin-up:

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And old promo poster for Ronin.....dedicated to a dear friend of mine that's been fighting cancer for two years and it seems to be taking a turn for the worst....I want him to live every day to the fullest. Hell.....we all should, every one of us, cause none of us really knows when our time is up.

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Here's that Ronin sketch I posted a while back but someone colored it....it's no Lynn Varley but it doesn't look half bad:


Ronin 2016 FM Ink Color.jpg

Look at the intricate lines Frank used in his prime in the 80s....such powerful images, just from the linework alone:

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No idea where the two page spread above originated or what year but it is my favorite era of his art. Has the detailed linework of the Lone Wolf covers, the Wolverine TBP cover, early Sin City before it got more and more minimal. And the grand opus, Daredevil Lives Again.

Dame shame he's suing Lynn Varley. I had always hoped they'd do at least once more work/piece together but lawsuits are probably the nail in the coffin,
 
You may have seen some "articles" today on "news blogs" talking about the "controversial" new Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child graphic novel. By all means, block whatever those normie tourists are saying and let's talk about what the book really is.

It's boring. It's. SOOOO. Damaammmmnnn. BORING.

I forced myself to read every panel, every page of Super Man Year One a few months ago, cause even though it was complete and utter garbage, I'm obligated as a mega-fan to read all of his works.

And it took me time cause I to take breaks but I eventually read the entire craptacular thing. The worse part was the weird narrative style, talking about the earth farting and stuff. It was a sloppy, lazy, jumbled mess of a book and I slogged through all 300 pages somehow just to say I'd read it.

The new one just came out. Superman and Wonder Woman's son floats around with a Liam Gallagher haircut straight out of 1996 for some reason.

I can't say a lot cause I could only handle the first 8 pages or so and just had to stop. I didn't wanna be a quitter, but I had to. Just had to throw in the towel. This book was another jumble of repetitive endless arguing from truly unlikable characters and I said......"Sorry Frank..." I can't finish this one.

Not cause of the tired, obvious, lazy shoehorning of TRRRRRUMMMMMMMPPPPP. I mean, I didn't enjoy that one bit. Not because of any kind of political feelings or affiliations.....I'm just BORED to ****ING DEATH with having to see that face every where I go, ever where I turn. He's on my TV, he's on my computer, he's all over my friend's phones, and now he's in MY comic books. I'm tired. This ridiculous throbbing hate boner for Trump just gets worse every day but I'm 100% over it. I'd love to wake up in a world where we don't hear that name every few minutes for the rest our lives, and as we turn to beloved comics for some brief escapism.......he's in there too. Can't escape him.

As powerfully obnoxious as that was, it's not even close to why this book sucked so bad I had to give up 8 pages in. First of all, Lara, is supposed to be a hero that the reader likes. But instead, she's a monster that would like nothing better than destroying all the weak feeble little humans. She's a super villain and quite a psychotic one at that. Very annoying. Batwoman isn't much better, basically screaming Anti-fa propaganda Frank (or his ghost writer) found on Wikipedia.

So it already sucks bad.......but the breaking point for me was that the Joker is the craaaazy surprise villain in cahoots with Trump.

Well it came as a surprise to ME anyway, considering how many times I saw Batman paralyze him in that tunnel of love, Joker uses the last of his strength to break his own neck, making it look like Batman killed him. He laughs. He dies. Batman spits on the body and it burns, It's a charred skeleton the last we see it. I re-read that issue a million times.

So now, 30 some years later.....he's back. He's fine. Nothing wrong with him. No mention of being dead or anything. Nope. Fine all along I guess.

Comic book writers and readers have an understanding. Sometimes they kill people and sometimes they get brought back. But you always at least acknowledge the ruse and maybe even apologize for it and the reader says, "OK, I'll give it a try."

As far as I could tell from the pages I flipped through, at no point is it ever addressed how and why Joker isn't as dead as he was 1986. Nothing....not a "That was my decoy and I slipped out a trap door" bulll**** trope like that? Instead, just nothing??

Well, that breaks the deal, and I will not and CAN not waste money on this.

The title character Batman, the Dark Knight.......doesn't appear in a single panel of this book. But you'll never guess who does instead!! It's GRETA!! Everyone's favorite cabbage patch climate ghoul, drawn in the artist's edgy edgelord style that looks like hurl but I'm sure he was impressed with cause he was like "look at all these little wiggly lines bro. I got a ton of em." Still looks like trash.

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Anyway, this was mostly not about the politics, even though they just bore the ever loving piss out of me.....I'm mostly disgusted at having the Joker in this without even a cursory attempt at explaining why he's alive........and also that Supergirl was a thunder**** (and yes I did use the C word that got censored cause that's what she is.)

My first un-finishable Frank Miller story. Well. At least I still have all the old stuff to revisit anytime.
 
I tracked down that French magazine that printed the two page story "The Chase" from 1988, which I had posted above.

I made some photocopies to try to get it cleaner, and I think it is, but unfortunately the pics I took curve around the edges.

Still......might be worth posting cause it's a little clearer, if you're interested in such things:

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Apparently Frank will contribute a variant to DC's latest line of $10 "anniversary" books featuring covers from artists through the ages. I bought Detective 1000 and I liked the cover but the insides were trash, so I think I'll be passing on this one.

I liked Tim Drake for about 5 years in the early 90s and then I must have grown up to the point where I felt Robin was lame. Never looked back. Still think Robin is lame.

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Found some more cool FM art that is in the hands of private collectors.....sigh. Wish I was rich.

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And here some lucky SOB has the actual pencils for the cover of the Wolverine TPB, one of my favorite comic book images of all time.

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Remember the time Frank drew a variant cover that was nothing but a huge close up of Wonder Woman's ass?? It's not even his best work. It's kinda lazy and sloppy and certainly not "sexy." I think it was a joke, nothing more.

A little more than a decade later, think of all the moral outrage and cancel culture nonsense that's been directed at comics since then....the banned Batgirl and Spider-Woman and Riri Williams covers. All cause fat blue haired women discovered comics after the Marvel movies came out and decided they were gonna ruin them.

I guess Frank is lucky this book came out before then. Not that it stopped these hoards of SJWs that weren't even alive when Frank's masterpieces were published constantly calling him a "racist, sexist, homophobic piece of **** and he's everything wrong with comics!!!!" on twitter. Oh freaking well. I'll never change their little narrow minds. I don't care. I appreciate Frank's art and always will, and I'll always have it until they break into my home and steal it from me I guess. Hope we still have some time before it gets to that point.

Anyway...here's the cover that could never be published now or else bomb threats would be sent to the publisher.

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