more frank miller?

Now this was a comic I read over and over. Some of the best choreographed fights in comics I had seen at the time. And, unless I’m forgetting something, they were only bested by Miller’s own future works.

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So, what is up with all the Miller nostalgia? Well, the last post was written simply to capitalize on the fact that I had just read the “Daredevil: Man Without Fear” miniseries. I have a hard time reviewing anything because I feel my memory is not fresh and accurate enough, unless I have just finished something. Even then, I doubt my conclusions and feel I need to take another look. I read so many positive reviews of “Man Without Fear” online after panning it that I felt like I needed to read it again just to be fair to my childhood hero. Haven’t been able to bring myself to do it again. I don’t like the art and I don’t like the writing. Hard to give it a second chance.

Since writing that post I have meditated on just how much Frank Miller dominated my adolescent imagination. Over and over his works raised the bar for just how awesome comics could be for a male adolescent. I have been so disinterested in his work for so long that I had lost touch with how much Miller dominated my budding imagination. I was having memories of how just the sketches of his then forthcoming “Batman: Dark Knight Returns” caused me to create a dozen rip-offs at the time. miller.jpgHis artwork struck me as so powerful and iconic and perfect. In fact I just now went and ordered online an old issue of Amazing Heroes that featured these sketches along with work from “Elektra: Lives Again.” Realizing just how influential he was to me I felt unfair about writing a post trashing him for a perceived drop in quaility. It has made me want to go back and pick up series I had blown off to see if I was missing anything. Yeah, just like I did with “Man Without Fear.” No matter how disappointing that was I am still seeking out other overlooked works. I read “DK2.” Not sure if I had ever gotten all the way through before. I know initially I never bothered to even buy the last issue. Amazon is filled with hateful reviews but I feel like I am more sympathetic than most even if the impact of the series on me was negligible. I also just read “300” seeing how there is a movie coming out and all. My first Miller post has initiated a massive bout of reflection on the man, his work, and its influence on me. I have been so disinterested in his work for 15 years now that I had to remember just how central the man was to my creative consciousness throughout the ’80s. No one’s creative work so impacted me again and again for such a stretch of years. Until Grant Morrison . . .

IK