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Frank Miller

On Sunday night, the G4 network premiered its latest installment of Icons, a series dedicated to revolutionaries of pop culture. Even if 300 wasn’t slated to hit theaters next weekend, Frank Miller is an expected candidate for such a spotlight, what with his influential, nearly three-decades-long impact on the comic book medium.

Of course, he’d be the first to tell you that . . .

Like many fanboys, I avidly read comic books as a kid, but I didn’t consider the true potential of the medium until I read Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. By the time I discovered it, DKR was already five years old and its author had moved on to more sinful cities than Gotham; still, the material was just as fresh as the day it hit the stands, unique in its continuity-free boldness, political incorrectness, and unabashed abandon of the superhero paradigm. Just a lad to the collectors’ game, I wondered who this Frank Miller was, this long-haired weirdo credited with creating, and pictured on the back of, perhaps the best comic book every made.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t very proactive in my pursuit to solve the Miller mystery, but since then I’ve devoured nearly all of this work (intentionally saving some of the classic stuff so I still have a few things to look forward to), and I’ve seen him interviewed in three film-captured capacities: on the History Channel’s Superheroes Unmasked special (which aired when The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was released), the comics expose on the Unbreakable DVD, and this, G4’s Icons featuring Frank Miller. Each time, Frank exudes a subdued but unmistakable smugness, the essence of a man that has been told so many times that he’s a master of his craft that he undoubtedly believes it. In each forum he speaks of the comic book as a social barometer, reflecting or responding to the cultural changes of the world around it. (Regarding September 11th, Miller has claimed that the Dark Knight Strikes Back sequence in which Superman finds Lois Lane’s locket in the Daily Planet building debris is his succinct reaction to the Twin Towers tragedy.) His confidence is well earned if not only moderately stifled, so just as DKR was embraced in its time, so are any words Miller has to offer since about our beloved funnybooks.

The G4 special was bit more focused than those other interviews I’ve seen, using a brief biography to hype the forthcoming 300 blockbuster. Miller recounts that first experience with comics, the one he also shared in his introduction to Batman: Year One, and his fascination with the classic The 300 Spartans film that inspired his graphic novel. Miller spoke fondly of Neil Adams, who mentored him into the industry first with job on Golden Key’s The Twilight Zone, then on Marvel’s floundering Daredevil. With such an emphasis on Sin City, Dark Knight is surprisingly mentioned in mere passing, though Miller does comment that, while DC frequently bid for him, the Batman mythos seemed too intimidating until he realized – Batman is perpetually twenty-years-old, and he’d soon be turning thirty. “I’ll be damned if I’m older than Batman!” Miller joked, an interesting insight into the beginnings of our generation’s fondest comic book.

Further, while the behind-the-scenes of 300 segments were revealing enough, I’m sure that G4 will recycle the same footage for their Attack of the Show episodes dedicated to the film sometime this week, and that the DVD will unveil the same. No, it was Miller that was the real topic of conversation, with additional comments from Stan Lee and Paul Dini to name a few. Surprisingly absent was anyone from DC Comics’ editorial staff. I’ve heard Denny O’Neil and Paul Levitz voice their insights into Miller’s work before; with O’Neil as the DKR editor and Levitz as the current President over Frank’s uber-tardy All-Star opus, I thought we’d see them at least scoff at Miller’s newfound success. No, Miller didn’t even give them the chance, emphasizing that his work on the Robocop franchise drove him back to the comics drawing board to create Sin City, the embodiment of everything he likes about pulp fiction: tough guys, hot babes, and classic cars. “Comics and movies are getting married,” Miller says at the beginning of the special. If so, Sin City will always be the spoiled first child.

Incidentally, Miller mentioned his abandoned script for a Batman: Year One movie. Look up his treatment on-line, if anyone is still talking about it – the one about Bruce and Alfred working the car mechanics shop. The most ridiculous concept I’ve ever heard, and I’m pretty liberal by most purist fanboys’ standards. You can write 300, but you can’t always bat a thousand, eh?

At the end, Frank revealed that he’s tackling Will Eisner’s The Spirit as a future film project, and his Ronin is apparently in negotiation, as well. Interestingly, the Icons narrator implied that we’re in the midst of a Frank Miller renaissance, but fans like me know it’s been Miller time since the mid ‘80s. His career has just been born again, through the lens of the film industry that apparently jaded him all those years ago. Heck, when Jessica Alba says things like, “Frank’s are the most compelling graphic novels I’ve ever read,” you know something dynamic is happening. Like Jessica Alba’s read any other graphic novels before! Getting a hot actress to admit to even holding a comic . . . not only is that sticking it to Hollywood, but it’s iconic. Frank Miller strikes back.

Just ask him.