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Frank Miller is an Irish American comic book writer, artist and film director. He was born in Olney, Maryland on January 27, 1957. Miller was the fifth child out of seven to his mother a nurse and his father an electrician. He grew up in Montpelier, Vermont where he first discovered the comic book culture. He immensely enjoyed movies, thriller books and Eastern art and literature, all major influences in his future work. He moved to New York when he was nineteen and within a week got a job as a comic book artist. The beginning of his career involved sporadic work. His first work was as an artist for The Twilight Zone for Gold Key Comics, which presented Miller with other job opportunities. He was offered several jobs with DC Comics and Marvel Comics. With Marvel, he became a regular fill-in and cover artist. At the time, character Daredevil was a poorly selling title. Miller asks to work on Daredevil and becomes the penciller for the character. He worked alongside writer Roger McKenzie on Daredevil throughout the 1980’s. Through Miller, Daredevil became so successful it was upgraded from a bi-monthly comic to a monthly. Eventually he took over full duty as writer and artist. During this time he created the character Elektra. He kills off Elektra, intending her to stay dead but eventually reviving her in his comic Elektra Lives Again. After Daredevil became one of Marvel’s best selling characters, Miller moves on to work on the miniseries Wolverine with Chris Claremont. Then he created the series Ronin, a great showcase of his evolving style in storytelling and art. One of Miller’s most influential works was his Batman miniseries The Dark Knight Returns. Overtime DKR would become one of the biggest selling trade paperbacks. It also showcases Millers great talent in revision of character, making Batman a dark more foreboding character than his previous 60’s version. Miller goes back to work on more drawings for Daredevil. In 1987 he writes Batman: Year One. He then leaves DC Comics to work for Dark Horse Comics. On the side he writes and draws Elektra’s rebirth for Epic Comics in “Elektra Lives Again.” This is the first time he uses his iconic style later seen in his Sin City stories. Frank Miller equally skilled as a writer and drawer, also became involved in script writing for movies. His first scripts were for RoboCop2 and RoboCop3. In 1991 he began work on Sin City for Dark Horse Comics. Sin City became of the most read titles. In 1998 Miller released his miniseries, 300. Since the 90’s he has been involved in movie adaptations of comics. In 2005, the comics of Sin City became adapted into a film. As an actor, author, director, producer and screenwriter of Sin City, Miller was extremely successful in portraying the grim, film noire-like world. As executive producer and book author, he also does a film version of his comic 300 in 2007. In 2008 he directed the comic movie adaptation of Will Eisner’s The Spirit. In 2014 he produced the sequel to 300, 300: Rise of an Empire. Right now he is working on the sequel to Sin City which will come out later in 2014- Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

Frank Miller has received numerous Harvey and Eisner awards, which is the highest honour in the comic field. home biography comics movies contributions Design language quotes My work References comics

Frank Miller is skilled in both drawing and writing comics. Much of his work was in the 80’s and 90’s. He wrote and drew several ex- tended stories and comic series including Sin City (The Big Fat Kill, The Babe Word Red, That Yellow Bastard, Silent Night, Just Another Saturday Night, Hell and Back, Family Values, A Dame to Kill For, Booze Broads and Bullets), 300, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil, DK2: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Elektra Lives Again and Ronin. daredevil Sin city elektra 300 ronin batman He is known for his grim and gritty comics. His work has influenced the comic field. He is known for his revision of heroes such as Batman and Daredevil. He also created iconic characters like Ronin and Elektra. His distinctive style is most evident in his 1990’s comic, Sin City. More recently Miller has been involved in the adaptations of his comics into motion pictures. home biography comics movies contributions Design language quotes My work References movies

Miller’s first script writing for film began with RoboCop 2 in 1990 and RoboCop 3 in 1991. Although the movies were received poorly, he sold his original movie script to be made into a graphic novel, Frank Miller’s RoboCop. Perhaps one of Miller’s greatest film work was his 2005 movie adaptation of Sin City. Miller was not only the co-director of this movie, he was the producer, screenwriter, book author and also made an appearance as an actor. Miller’s next big cinematic impression came with the movie 300 in 2007. It was based on his comic 300 and he was the executive producer. Recently Miller has been continuing his robocop 2, 3 Sin city 300 successful run of comic movie adaptations. This year he released 300: Rise of an Empire. It was the sequel to the first 300. Later this year the sequel to Sin City will come out in theatres- Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

300: Rise of an empire Sin city: a dame to kill for home biography comics movies contributions Design language quotes My work References contributions

As a talented writer and artist, Frank Miller collaborated on many works. He worked on stories with artists as a writer and also with writers as an artist. As a writer, he is best known for his work with artist David Mazzucchelli, whom he worked on Batman: Year One. Batman: Year One was released in 1987 during a time when DC was trying to streamline and modernize several of its super heroes. The comic featured Bruce Wayne embracing his will to save Gotham but just discovering the way. The comic also pays a good amount atten- tion to Lt. James Gorden who also experiences his first troubled year in Gotham. He also wrote Martha Washington alongside Dave Gibbon’s art. The series was released in 1990 and was about a 21st century freedom fighter who shares the name of a First Lady. This writing style was humorous and satirical, not what people usually associate with Miller’s style of work. Other comics he only wrote include Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, Elektra Assassin: The Last Years, Frank Miller Robocop and All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. He also did solely the drawing for some comics. Notably he did the artwork in the 1982 release of Wolverine with writer Chris Claremont. Wolverine was originally a part of X-Men. Miller worked on the first book where Wolverine is solo. This mini series takes place in Japan. In it Wolverine is a failed samurai and deals with his rivalry with Shingen. Other comics he only drew include Daredevil, Marvel Two in One, Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider Man, The Avengers, and Amazing Spiderman. He contributed pages and did the covers for many comics. Some of his page contributions include The Spirit, Superman, Star Wars, Heroes, Mad Mag- azine, Spawn, The American and Fantastic Four. He did the covers for comics: Amazing Spiderman, The Avengers, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Lone Wolf and Cub, GI Joe, Wonder Woman, X-Men and Star Trek. He worked on a large range of comics, clearly revered for his signature style as an artist. home biography comics movies contributions Design language quotes My work References Design language

Frank Miller is best identified for specific trademarks through his artistic style and characters. The major influences in his drawing and writing include film noire, eastern art and storytelling and conservative politics. Growing up Miller read a lot of thriller novels and watched a lot of movies. His influence by film noire can be seen greatly in his comics. The grim elements and focuses on light and shadows are key to Miller’s style. This is seen Film noire the lone wolf ayn rand especially in Sin City, Batman and Daredevil. See how Frank’s Millers influences (Film Noire, The Lone Wolf and Film noire also shows up in Miller’s version of storytelling. He is influenced by noire writers Ayn Rand) affect his trademarks in characterisation and artisitic style. such as Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. His greatest film noire influence is the work of Will Eisner. Ayn Rand’s novel “The Romantic Man- ifesto”also effects Miller. Many of the ideas in Rand’s work are evident in Miller’s themes. He is also known to be somewhat conservative politi- cally, like Rand. Goseki Kojima & Kazuo Koike’s comic “The Lone Wolf and Cub” also influence Miller’s work. He uses a similar pacing in his storytelling. The eastern culture, including samurai’s and ninjas show up in his work. His comic Ronin is most similar to The Lone Wolf. characters Artistic style home biography comics movies contributions Design language quotes My work References qu ot es

“You can’t have virtue without sin. What I’m after is having my characters’ virtues defined by how they operate in a very sinful environment. That’s how you test people”

“I realized that I was about to turn 30, and Batman was permanently 29. And I was going to be damned if I was older than Batman”

“I like to draw hot chicks, fast cars, and cool guys in trench coats. So that’s what I write about”

[on Batman Begins (2005)] “I totally thought they did a damned good job. It was the first “Bat- man’ movie I’ve genuinely liked. I sat there, I watched it, and I came out of there going, ‘Well done, man.’ Sure, they used my stuff - they used everybody’s stuff, but they used my stuff a lot - but they did it well, and that’s all I care about. It was Batman. What I mean by that is, I thought the character was true. You understand, when I work on a character, I have a very, very hard time seeing anybody else’s interpretation. I get very possessive. But when I went out to see this thing, I said, ‘This is a pretty cool Batman.’ I wasn’t sitting there going, ‘This is a merchandising tool.’ I felt like it really had heart and substance, and Christian Bale with no doubt performed the best Batman I have ever seen”. home biography comics movies contributions Design language quotes My work References My work

To capture Frank Miller’s design style, I’ve decided to draw ink drawing, making Lord of the Ring characters much like Miller’s characters in Sin City. I focused on facial ticks, high contrast, use of negative space, black and white. His style is somewhat minimalistic getting its dramatic effect from the strong contrast. I tried to limit my use of greys and use the shapes of shadows to design my characters.

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http://pixhst.com/avaxhome/2007-02-12/2.35_344.jpg Information Sources: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_V9sor1SAqSE/SKzXWC2tRyI/ https://www.msu.edu/~kildaual/batman/up- AAAAAAAAAZ8/r6TulN9PR6k/s1600/ronin-frank-miller.jpg loads/5/3/9/9/5399522/7566010.jpg?339 http://www.4thletter.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/ronin.jpg http://www.fullybookedonline.com/wpblog/wp-content/ http://www.comicvine.com/frank-miller/4040-7082/ http://www.fasthack.com/images/weblog/2005/12/300-1.jpg uploads/2012/07/BatmanTDKR1_039_The_Dark_Knight_Re- http://moebiusgraphics.com/ http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fe/Robo2pos- turns-Frank-Miller1.jpg http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0588340/bio ter.png/220px-Robo2poster.png http://www.comicbookgalaxy.com/images/dd191_5.gif http://www.allmovie.com/artist/frank-miller-p223744 http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/origi- http://m0vie.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/daredevil3.jpg nal/1/18863/1009891-sin_city_front_cover.jpg http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/scans3/ https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-TPPq0eC8Duk/TY1LBzY0l3I/ DD161_WashImages.JPG Image Sources: AAAAAAAAAMg/HiR5NStd6AA/s1600/300.jpg http://blog.adlo.es/images/2007/06/990315-1.jpg http://comicattack.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/the-300-rise- http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qfQyq52APQM/T4U3YivtVbI/ http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/051/3/c/frank_miller__com- of-an-empire-1024x544.jpg AAAAAAAAKzc/ysnK3ISGjBQ/s320/fuegonegro_04.jpg ics_heroes__by_tomeilustration-d778v3w.jpg http://www.cityoffilms.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/sin- http://www.lambiek.net/artists/image/m/miller/miller_ronin2.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/da/Sin_City_Hard_ city-2.jpg http://dallaspenn.com/pics/albums/album02/miller_ronin4.jpg Goodbye.jpg http://a3.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Publication4/ http://cd1.leviathyn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Ronin3.jpg http://noirwhale.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/sin_city_-_the_ v4/19/93/7e/19937e82-5b0c-86cd-b4e0-29d27809de1e/SinCi- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6d/Wolverine_ babe_wore_red_-mk-goldenmoon.jpg tyV2_EPUB-12.480x480-75.jpg (vol._1)_1.jpg https://encryptedtbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTS5N- http://screensense.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/noirbars.jpg http://jazintellect.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/marthawashington- wHSNlSdnwblMwwYN7o87mBnWPPqpyWE0ACd3Qpjwt7QKUA http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GFb-vWCL5Mg/UBIy61zyjOI/ softcover.jpg https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8370/8498412958_f7bce952b2.jpg AAAAAAAABgg/cANR02t1sRE/s1600/ayn+rand.JPG http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c367/Akuma-pics/3001bb9. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IclGoagS57A/UPGg_3KyDuI/ jpg AAAAAAAAZ8Q/nXg0N_Fgg7A/s1600/PETE-TRAVIS_LONE- http://www.4thletter.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/300-03.jpg WOLF-AND-CUB_.jpg http://www.followingthenerd.com/site/wp-content/uploads/Bat- http://images.wikia.com/sincity/images/8/8c/Dwight_vito.png man-The-Dark-Knight-Returns1.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2DzFfEc0Yug/UPPWEFHIuqI/ http://berkeleyplacecomics.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/ AAAAAAAAAfs/IHDKqbXaKUo/s1600/Sin+City+-+Nancy+Calla- img_0576.jpg han+2.jpg http:/ http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--TV6xQspBzg/T5vofQ1u-2I/ http://picturepoetry.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/1.png AAAAAAAAAYI/NxfJUGFr9HY/s1600/Daredevil_180p.jpg/www. http://currentconfig.com/images/marv_cuts.jpg beyondhollywood.com/uploads/2012/08/Daredevil-by-Frank-Mill- http://www.4thletter.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/300-top.jpg er.jpg http://www.circulo8.com/wp-content/uploads/Frank-Miller-Wall- http://www.4thletter.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Elektra_ paper-300-comics.jpg Lives_Again_00-1book_cover.jpg http://www.shelfbound.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/elektra-lives-again-matt-dreams.jpg home biography comics movies contributions Design language quotes My work References Sin city

Sin City, which began with the 1991 release Sin City: The Hard Goodbye (Dark Horse Presents), showcases Mill- er’s distinctive style. He uses little color and focuses on light and shadow in a film noire style of story telling. Sin City takes place in Basin City, a dark shad- owy cesspool of crime and corruption. In it protagonist, Marv seeks to avenge the murder of Goldie, a prostitute who represents kindness and humanity.

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He is also well known for his comic 300 which was released in 1998. The story, created as a double page spread, is a fictional version of historical Greece. It features the Battle of Ther- mopylae in which King Leonidas and his army of Spartans fight against the Persians. He did this in a double page spread.

home biography comics movies contributions Design language quotes My work References b at m a n One of Miller’s most prominent comics was his 1986 reinvention of Batman in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. The grim and gritty style is quite different than the previous versions of Batman. In Miller’s version Batman becomes dark and brooding. Bruce Wayne in the story is an aging recluse living in a place where most heroes have gone. He goes back into action to save Gotham once again.

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Frank Miller’s 1986 version of Daredevil, Daredevil: Born Again is framed as a final Daredevil story. He works again with artist David Mazzucchelli to show how the character rose from the gutter and rises from darkness.

home biography comics movies contributions Design language quotes My work References elektra Miller is quite known for his work on Daredevil. He began by working on the artwork of the comic but eventually took over as both writer and artist. In Daredevil he creates the iconic character Elektra. Daredevil goes through a romance with Elektra. She is killed off in Daredevil but Miller later writes and draws Elektra Lives Again where she comes back to life.

home biography comics movies contributions Design language quotes My work References Ronin Miller’s own creation, Ronin (1983-84), shows his clear influence by The Lone Wolf & Cub. As his first major work for DC, Ronin also had his first collaboration with his colorist and future wife, Lynn Varley. The story takes place in feudal Japan. Main character, Ronin kills himself and his nemesis, the demonic Agat. Born characters are reborn in a dystopian 21st century New York City.

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Throughout Frank Miller’s comics there are several themes and tendencies involving his characters. The types of characters Miller uses in his stories all share his trademark. Many of his characters, heroes and villans have a physical or mental afflic- tion. In Sin Citym Mho and Kevin are mute. Also some of his characters are blind such as in Sin City, Marv’s mom and Daredevil. Hartigan has heart problems, as well as Bruce Wayne in the Dark Knight Returns. His stories include characters who are killed, disfigured, mortally wounded or even die. In his stories these characters are often rebuilt stronger and deadlier. This shows up with characters RoboCop, Dwight, Batman and Elektra. Miller’s heroes are extremely moral individuals surviving in a contrasting cruel environment. Miller once said refering to Sin City. “you can’t have sin without Fedora hat virtue. Physical/ mental problem (i.e. blindness) He also uses the fedora hat often

wounded Cruel environment Become stronger once rebuilt home biography comics movies contributions Design language quotes My work References Artistic style

Frank Miller’s artistic style is very distinct. It focuses on shadows and high contrast. It sometimes uses selective coloring like in 300 (he uses basic color palettes) but also can be in black and white such as in Sin City. He is known for his technique of facial ticks on his character’s faces. He also uses white lines to break up his backgrounds. He is very skilled at using negative space. His style is clearly influenced by the dramatic lighting of film noire. One of his biggest artistic influences is Will Eisner. Sin City is probably one of his most iconic works. It shows his distinctive style. One cannot read Sin City without realizing it is Miller’s work.

home biography comics movies contributions Design language quotes My work References Inspired by: Sin city

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