Sequart Organization » Frank Miller

Alan Moore’s Marvelman, Part 1: From the Ashes of Obscurity…

James Kelly — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 14:00:01 +0000

Alan Moore brought new life to one of the most unoriginal superheroes. See how Alan Moore utilized Marvelman to explore and critique the Golden Age of Comics. [more]

Sequart Podcast #4: Humans and Paragons

Ian Boucher — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 12:00:32 +0000

Humans and Paragons" title="Sequart Podcast #4: Humans and Paragons" style="float:left;" />For this 3-hour mega podcast, the contributors of Sequart’s latest book, Humans and Paragons: Essays on Super-Hero Justice, got together to reflect on their essays. Have super-hero comics become more nuanced at exploring social issues… [more]

Fear And The Batman: An Examination Of The Role That Horror Plays In The World Of The Dark Knight

Jarrett Mazza — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 21:00:42 +0000

A band of thieving criminals flee to a cornered alleyway, running from the stalking specter descending upon them. As they run they turn around a sharp corner and stumble into a dead end where they… [more]

Frank Miller’s Daredevil Saga, Part 2: Enter Elektra!

James Kelly — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 19:30:56 +0000

Daredevil Saga, Part 2: Enter Elektra!" title="Frank Miller’s Daredevil Saga, Part 2: Enter Elektra!" style="float:left;" />Frank Miller's most iconic creation at Marvel Comics makes her debut; and will Daredevil save Bullseye, and should he? [more]

Smorgasbord #32: Kurtrissa Explains It All

Tom Shapira — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 18:00:24 +0000

In which one should know better than to pick a fight with Kurt Busiek, Iron Fist gets its showrunner, Frank Miller is not the father, war is still good for absolutely nothing at Marvel, and… [more]

“Through the Eyes of a Fan”: How Being a Fanboy Changes One’s Outlook Both In and Outside the World of Comics

Jarrett Mazza — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 22:00:52 +0000

I am not pessimist. Let me make that very clear before I begin this exposition. I am not some kind of troll who sits behind a computer screen, ready to pounce on the latest superhero… [more]

Who Will Save Us Now?: Dirty Realistic Fiction, Grim and Gritty Superhero Comic Books, and the Legacy of 1986—Part 2

William Bradley — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 11:00:42 +0000

All the reasons which made the initiation of physical force evil, make the retaliatory use of physical force a moral imperative! I read—and loved—The Dark Knight Returns when I was in the 7th grade, about three… [more]

Smorgasbord #18: …What is it Good for?

Tom Shapira — Mon, 11 May 2015 17:00:11 +0000

Avengers: Age of Ultron came and went, leaving audiences baffled and the podcast divided, as Shawn and Tom war it out for a bit before signing a peace treaty. Speaking of wars, the reviews of… [more]

Frank Miller, Bernie Krigstein, and “The Master Race”

Greg Carpenter — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 11:00:31 +0000

As many of you probably know, last Friday DC Comics announced plans to publish a new sequel to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. While details were sketchy, it was clear that Miller would be… [more]

The Frank Miller & Alan Moore Adaptations

James Kelly — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:00:47 +0000

As we near the climax of comparing Miller and Moore it's worth talking about the adaptations. Is there any good adaptation of Alan Moore's work? Is there a bad adaptation of Miller's work? [more]

Batman #1—The Ultimate Batman Comic

James Kelly — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 16:00:57 +0000

Batman #1—The Ultimate Batman Comic" title="Batman #1—The Ultimate Batman Comic" style="float:left;" />Batman's co-creator Bill Finger crafted in 32 pages every single tone and approach to his character that would follow in 75 years. Batman #1 is the single greatest Batman comic ever produced. [more]

Frank Miller’s Daredevil Saga, Part 1: Introduction

James Kelly — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 12:00:47 +0000

Daredevil Saga, Part 1: Introduction" title="Frank Miller’s Daredevil Saga, Part 1: Introduction" style="float:left;" />Introduction Few writer/artists have been able to leave such an impact on a character that it has forever transformed comics after. Frank Miller was able to breathe life and vitality to characters that had been… [more]

Newspaper Comic Movies: The Spirit

Harry Edmundson-Cornell — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 12:00:56 +0000

The Spirit" title="Newspaper Comic Movies: The Spirit" style="float:left;" />I have to admit, I like a bad movie. A certain kind of bad movie anyways. The kind that took effort. The results of a lone crazy man off in the woods with a camera.… [more]

The Super-Heroics of Miller and Moore Part 7: Legacy

James Kelly — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:00:37 +0000

Alan Moore and Frank Miller’s Impact on Comics Commercially The legacy and influence an artist has on all who follow him/her is always surprising. Some artists take a great work as an inspiration to try… [more]

The Super-Heroics of Frank Miller and Alan Moore, Part 6

James Kelly — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 12:00:33 +0000

The Tragic Villains of Miller and Moore Moore and Miller’s approach to writing is always comparable and yet vastly different. Miller is hard-boiled crime writer and Moore delves deep into culture and vast concepts with… [more]

Kevin Smith & Joe Quesada’s Daredevil: The Comic that Saved Marvel

James Kelly — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:00:08 +0000

Joe Quesada is the savior of Marvel. Simply put, without Joe Quesada coming in the late ‘90s to create Marvel Knights, Marvel Comics would be a defunct company. While many editorial decisions made by Quesada… [more]

The Super-Heroics of Frank Miller and Alan Moore, Part 5

James Kelly — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 12:00:22 +0000

Optimism Ultimately, there are two types of stories: tragedies and comedies. There are no inherent requirements for tragedies or comedies. In the days of Shakespeare tragedies ended with death and comedies ended with weddings. But… [more]

The Super-Heroics of Frank Miller and Alan Moore, Part 4

James Kelly — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 12:00:09 +0000

Late ‘90s to ‘00s Superhero Work In the middle of the 1990s Alan Moore did something that confounded everyone, he agreed to work with Rob Liefeld. Liefeld was a bold creator and entrepreneur and his… [more]

The Super-Heroics of Frank Miller and Alan Moore, Part 3

James Kelly — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 12:00:51 +0000

Early 90s Superhero work I have been alluding at various points the real-life history of my two subjects in my past articles, but context is vital in understanding the next period of superhero writing for… [more]

The Super-Heroics of Frank Miller and Alan Moore, Part 2

James Kelly — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 18:00:52 +0000

Prime-Era Superheroes After a falling out with British Comics publishers, Alan Moore began working with DC Comics writing the horror-book Swamp Thing. Most of Swamp Thing avoided utilization of most superheroes sans some supernatural characters.… [more]

Frank Miller’s RoboCop: A Retrospective Review

James Kelly — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 12:00:38 +0000

Frank Miller’s RoboCop: A Retrospective Review" title="Frank Miller’s RoboCop: A Retrospective Review" style="float:left;" />I have to give it a hand to the Avatar people for pushing for Frank Miller’s original RoboCop 2 script to be adapted onto the comics’ page. The story of RoboCop 2 is always fascinating,… [more]

The Original Science-Fiction Hero, Part 2: Buck Rogers and the Art of the Reboot

Greg Carpenter — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 12:00:43 +0000

In last week’s column, I wrote about the original novella from Amazing Stories that first introduced Buck Rogers. This week I want to look at two recent attempts to reboot the character. Whenever I talk… [more]

The Super-Heroics of Frank Miller and Alan Moore, Part 1

James Kelly — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 18:00:20 +0000

Introduction— Frank Miller and Alan Moore defined modern comics. While they were not the first writers to bring darkness, contemporary political issues or realism to comics, they helped shape the modern comics industry. For better… [more]

Eternal Return: The Enduring, and Problematic, Influence of The Dark Knight Returns

Paul Jaissle — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 11:00:53 +0000

The Dark Knight Returns" title="Eternal Return: The Enduring, and Problematic, Influence of The Dark Knight Returns" style="float:left;" />When the Man of Steel sequel was officially announced at Comic-Con back in July of 2013, director Zack Snyder claimed that the film would be “inspired” by Frank Miller’s classic Dark Knight Returns. Even though… [more]

A Tale of Two Dark Knights…

Christopher Maurer — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 19:00:13 +0000

Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns (or DKR) has long been considered one of the greatest works in comic books. Since its release in 1986, it has been lauded as an industry-changing story that helped… [more]

Banned Books Week 2014 Features Comics

Ian Dawe — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 20:00:04 +0000

This year for Banned Books Week, always an important week for libraries and literature awareness, the focus will be on comics. By encouraging people to choose and read a book that has been challenged, somewhere… [more]

Thoughts on Frank Miller’s Creative Evolution

Julian Darius — Mon, 19 May 2014 17:00:08 +0000

In the original Sin City, Marv is a tired old man. The events of the story turn him into an uncompromising hero, whom you could say is in the ultra-violent, Ayn Rand-inspired mold of some… [more]

With Ronin on the Way from SyFy, Can We at Least Discuss Frank Miller?

Julian Darius — Sun, 04 May 2014 07:00:35 +0000

Ronin on the Way from SyFy, Can We at Least Discuss Frank Miller?" title="With Ronin on the Way from SyFy, Can We at Least Discuss Frank Miller?" style="float:left;" />With SyFy having announced that work has begun on a Ronin mini-series, can we at least discuss Frank Miller’s views? Miller’s Holy Terror was deeply Islamophobic. He plead ignorance of not only the history of Islamophobia… [more]

“‘Cause It’s Witchcraft, Wicked Witchcraft”: Wicked, Broadway, and Revisionist Super-Heroes

Greg Carpenter — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 11:00:40 +0000

Wicked, Broadway, and Revisionist Super-Heroes" title="“‘Cause It’s Witchcraft, Wicked Witchcraft”: Wicked, Broadway, and Revisionist Super-Heroes" style="float:left;" />When you write a weekly column, it doesn’t take long before you find yourself talking about something you don’t know anything about. For me, that moment is now, and I just want to get that… [more]

300 Things I Hate about 300: Rise of an Empire

Greg Carpenter — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 17:00:32 +0000

300: Rise of an Empire" title="300 Things I Hate about 300: Rise of an Empire" style="float:left;" />[NOTE: the following essay contains spoilers. As to whether a film that’s already rotten can be “spoiled” … well, that’s a debate for another time.] You know it’s a bad sign when you only have… [more]

Superhero Accessories: Part One: Masked Vigilantes

Lance Parkin — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 14:00:41 +0000

Perhaps the most damning criticism Alan Moore made about superheroes has been overlooked in all the controversy around the ‘Last interview’: ‘the origin of capes and masks as ubiquitous superhero accessories can be deduced from… [more]

In Praise of Bad Batman

Greg Carpenter — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 12:00:26 +0000

“Bless me Father Jack, for I have sinned. It’s been . . . well, this is my first confession. Actually, I’m not even Catholic.” Father Jack puffed on a cigar and squinted. “Well, this ain’t… [more]

On Canons, Critics, Consensus, and Comics, Part 3

Greg Carpenter — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 18:00:57 +0000

This week marks the final installment of our search for a comics canon. As I mentioned in the first column, I recently conducted a survey of the people who contribute to Sequart. A total of 25… [more]

On Canons, Critics, Consensus, and Comics, Part 2

Greg Carpenter — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 18:00:35 +0000

As I explained in last week’s column, I recently asked my fellow Sequart contributors to answer the following question: “What are the 10 greatest works in the history of the comics medium, and who are the… [more]

Everything’s (Not) Fine, Honey: Finding Identity in Hard Boiled

Stuart Warren — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:00:37 +0000

Hard Boiled" title="Everything’s (Not) Fine, Honey: Finding Identity in Hard Boiled" style="float:left;" />In dystopian literature things generally go out with a bang, a revolution, a euthanasia, but not so in Hard Boiled. Dark Horse released Hard Boiled, rather sporadically, in the late summer of 1990 as a… [more]

1986, The Year That Changed Comics: Introduction, Part 2

Peter Sanderson — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 11:00:51 +0000

Over the course of the coming months, Sequart will be serializing chapters from my forthcoming book, currently titled 1986: The Year That Changed Comics, here on their website. This book originated as a year-long monthly… [more]

1986, The Year That Changed Comics: Introduction

Peter Sanderson — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:00:38 +0000

In discussions of graphic novels, three works that are regularly cited as landmarks of the medium are Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s highly acclaimed Watchmen, Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus, and Frank Miller’s Batman: The… [more]

Frank Miller’s Year One Screenplay

Julian Darius — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 10:00:52 +0000

Year One Screenplay" title="Frank Miller’s Year One Screenplay" style="float:left;" />Late 2000 seems, by all accounts, to have been a turning point for the languishing Batman franchise. It was then that both Batman: DarKnight and the live-action Batman Beyond were cancelled, with Warner Bros. focusing… [more]

The Anxiety of Influence and Failed Sequels: Frank Miller and The Dark Knight Strikes Again

Forrest Helvie — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:00:52 +0000

The Dark Knight Strikes Again" title="The Anxiety of Influence and Failed Sequels: Frank Miller and The Dark Knight Strikes Again" style="float:left;" />“I mean the criticism teaches not a language of criticism […] but a language in which poetry already is written, the language of influence, of the dialectic…” (Bloom 25). In his controversial work, The Anxiety… [more]

Reading Holy Terror’s First Act

Julian Darius — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 12:00:15 +0000

Holy Terror’s First Act" title="Reading Holy Terror’s First Act" style="float:left;" />After its three-page thematic introductory sequence, Holy Terror shifts to the Fixer chasing Cat Burglar across Empire City’s rooftops. It’s a sequence not without its charms, including a few powerful images. It depicts an eccentric, hard-boiled… [more]

Reading Holy Terror‘s Introductory Sequence

Julian Darius — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:00:48 +0000

Holy Terror‘s Introductory Sequence" title="Reading Holy Terror‘s Introductory Sequence" style="float:left;" />It’s hard for me to describe the mixture of pleasures and pains, both of them quite intense, that I feel reading Holy Terror. The pleasure tends to be artistic, primarily visual. The pain tends to… [more]

A Place for Bold: Understanding Frank Miller

Julian Darius — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:20:43 +0000

No one seems to get Frank Miller. Despite the flurry of digital ink spilled over him, most critics seem to be left scratching their heads. Indeed, the entire body of Frank Miller criticism can now… [more]

Frank Miller Controversy

Mike Greear — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:00:23 +0000

Having written a recent column dealing with Frank Miller’s “Holy Terror” graphic novel, and subsequently one regarding the Occupy protests, I feel that it would be pertinent for me to follow them up with a… [more]

Who Needs Killing?: Frank Miller and Blanket Morality

Kevin Thurman — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:00:46 +0000

Needs Killing?: Frank Miller and Blanket Morality" title="Who Needs Killing?: Frank Miller and Blanket Morality" style="float:left;" />Each day we get closer to having to admit that some of our heroes have views we disagree with. Some views we might even call nuts. Sure, we might love our heroes to be a… [more]

Superheroes are More than Propaganda

Mike Greear — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:00:34 +0000

It’s been five years since he originally announced it, and ten years since the events of Sept. 11, 2001, which inspired the story, but Frank Miller’s graphic novel Holy Terror has finally been released. The… [more]

DCU Animated: Some Meditations on Adaptations

Cody Walker — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:00:54 +0000

Of all the comics I’ve read throughout the years, I think I’ve read Batman: Year One the most, so it’s sort of strange that it’s not a particularly memorable comic to me. Sure, there are… [more]

It Takes Two – Text & Image in Comics

David Balan — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:00:23 +0000

So, comics as an art form! A truly legitimate art form, unique and self-actualized, with debacles and triumphs all its own. Not the bastard child of film and literature, and not just for kids, male adolescents, or… [more]

All-Stars: How does the Miller / Lee Batman stack up to the Morrison / Quitely Superman?

Timothy Callahan — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:36:09 +0000

Once upon a time, Tim Callahan and Chad Nevett completely disagreed about some comics. This is that time. Tim Callahan: So All-Star Superman #12 finally came out, and I wrote about the whole series at… [more]

In the Beginning… #2

Chris Chopping — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 12:57:44 +0000

It’s Miller Time In the last few years, Hollywood has been comic book crazy. You can’t visit your local multiplex without coming across a comic book flick or two, as well as posters and trailers… [more]

Valiant Days, Valiant Nights: A Look Back on the Rise and Fall of Valiant

Ryan McLelland — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 15:46:34 +0000

Some might remember Valiant Comics for their rich storytelling and astonishing artwork. Others might remember Valiant for their innovations like issue zeros, chromium covers, and free comics. One thing for certain is that the nineties… [more]

Did the Dark Knight Strike Again? Frank Miller’s New Digital Reality

Robert A. Emmons, Jr. — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 02:00:21 +0000

Reality" title="Did the Dark Knight Strike Again? Frank Miller’s New Digital Reality" style="float:left;" />The longevity of comics depends on the effort to give them relevance and context in history. The medium’s survival relies on its connection with its contemporaries. In the hands of writer / artist Frank Miller,… [more]

A Trip to Sin City

Matt Martin — Sun, 22 Aug 2004 19:28:19 +0000

Frank Miller is the man generally credited for taking Batman and returning the character to his roots (through his groundbreaking works The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One) as a take-no-prisoners hard-ass. For a… [more]

The Cult of the Writer

Julian Darius — Sun, 25 Aug 2002 11:00:33 +0000

One of the major phenomena occurring in American comic books in the last two decades has been the cult of the writer, often in competition with the cult of the artist or illustrator. Various years… [more]