Movies - Frank Miller

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Frank Miller (born 27 January 1957 in Olney, Maryland) is an American writer and artist best known for his film noir-style comic book stories. He is acclaimed as one of the most influential and popular creators in comics today.

Biography

Early career

Raised in Montpelier, Vermont, Miller was a comic fan from an early age. Setting out to become an artist he eventually received his first published work in The Twilight Zone for Gold Key Comics in 1978. This was followed by various pencilling work for anthology titles from DC Comics and his first work at Marvel Comics in John Carter: Warlord of Mars #18. It was at Marvel that Miller would settle in as a regular fill in and cover artist, working on a variety of titles. One of these jobs was drawing Spectacular Spider-Man #27 and 28. These issues featured Daredevil as a supporting character. At this time Daredevil was a minor character with his own poor selling title; however, Miller saw something in the character he liked and asked then Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter if he could work on Daredevil's regular title. Shooter agreed and made the decision to make Miller the new penciller on the title.

The early 1980s and Daredevil

Miller's first issue of Daredevil was #158, which was the last part of an ongoing story written by Roger McKenzie. Although still conforming to traditional comic book styles, Miller infused this first issue with his own film noir style which proved to be a success. After this issue Miller became one of Marvel's fastest rising stars and also started plotting stories with McKenzie. Miller's art was highly detailed but still noirish as his run progressed. Learning from Neal Adams, Miller would sit for hours sketching the roofs and streets of New York in an attempt to give his Dardevil art an authentic feel not commonly seen in superhero comics at the time. Miller was so successful on the title that it became a monthly title after being bi-monthly for many years. From issue 168 in 1981, Miller took over full duties as writer and penciller, with Klaus Janson providing inks. This issue saw the first appearance of Elektra, a character who would become incredibly popular in her own right.

Miller began to infuse the comic with darker themes and stories heavily influenced by Japanese manga strips. This peaked when in issue 181 he had the assassin Bullseye kill Elektra. Although deaths of supporting characters were commonplace in comics at the time, a death of a major character like Elektra was not. Miller made it clear with the next few issues that he intended Elektra to remain dead but nonetheless she was revived during his time as writer. Miller finished his Daredevil run with issue 191; in his time he had transformed a secondary Marvel character to one of the most popular and best-selling characters. Miller himself had become the industry's hottest creator and was in demand.

During this time Miller and writer Chris Claremont had produced a four part Wolverine mini series in 1982, spinning off from the popular X-Men title. Miller used this title to expand on Wolverine's character while featuring more of his manga-influnced art. The series was a critical success and further cemented Miller's place as a major talent. Miller also found time to draw a short Batman
Christmas story for a DC Comics Christmas special. This was his first encounter with a character who, like Daredevil, he would become closely associated with.

Miller rounded out this time by writing and drawing The Elektra Saga, a mini series explaining the origins of the character, and Ronin for DC Comics, his first creator-owned title. Ronin was a six-issue mini series first published by DC from 1983 to 1984. With Ronin, Miller not only refined his own art and storytelling techniques, but also helped change how creator rights were viewed, and proved that comics in new formats could be commercially viable. Ronin was also his most clearly manga-influenced title, drawing mainly from the black and white Lone Wolf and Cub
series. After Ronin, Miller was relatively quiet in 1985; his only published work was a single issue of Daredevil (issue 219), inspired by the film High Plains Drifter
. Things would be much different in 1986 as Miller reached a peak of creativity and would redefine one of the industry's oldest characters.

The late 1980s and The Dark Knight Returns

In 1986 DC Comics released the first issue of The Dark Knight Returns (commonly shortened to DKR), a four-issue mini-series printed in the new "prestige" format, and written and drawn by Miller, with colours by Lynn Varley and inks by Klaus Janson.
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Movies - Frank Miller

Biography

Early career

The early 1980s and Daredevil

The late 1980s and The Dark Knight Returns

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