Tag Archives: Frank Miller

Throwback Thursday: the debut of Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns,” 1986

That’s right — the legendary tome saw its 40th anniversary last month.  (I’ve always had the habit of referring to its graphic novel format, but of course it was initially published as a four-issue limited series.)

Forty years — I can’t wrap my mind around that.

For a little perspective, imagine being a young person in 1986 and discovering The Dark Knight Returns for the first time.  (I myself was introduced to it a few years down the line, but still.)  Now picture an older comics fan in 1986 trying to interest you in a title that was published 40 years prior.

THAT COMIC WOULD HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN 1946 — a year after the conclusion of World War II.  It would have to be a title like Tintin or the Mark Trail comic strip.

Damn, we’re old.



Throwback Thursday: the fabled rotating comic stand!

Yep.  When I was in kid on Long Island, it would be either war comics (especially Sgt. Rock), Conan the Barbarian (or his himbo spiritual cousin, Ka-Zar the Savage) any of the various Archie titles, or a horror comic.  (I thought superhero comics were stupid when I was a kid.  In order for a comic to entertain me, it had to include war, swords, Archie or monsters).

When I was in the fifth or sixth grade, my dad would occasionally  pick me up titles that only seemed available in Manhattan, where he worked as a bus driver — books like the 1980’s iteration of the Blackhawk Allied commandoes or (joy and rapture) The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones.  (Maybe Indy’s title adhered more loosely to the rule of thumb I cited above, but that was forgivable, because it was the greatest comic book ever created.)

The last time I saw a rotating rack like this was … 1993?  1994?   For a while, it was neat little fixture of the 7-11 along Route 1 just outside Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  You could make a run for coffee or nachos at any hour and snag a comic while you were at it.  By then, I was thoroughly entrenched in the DC and Marvel superhero pantheons.  (A really cool goth kid in my freshman dorm had shown me Frank Miller’s work, and I was hooked.)



(Don’t get him started on Barney …)

“Someday when I have money to spare, I’m going to buy EVERY Batman comic by Arthur Miller.”

— a pal of mine, presumably expressing admiration for legendary comics creator Frank Miller



French cover to “The Dark Knight III: The Master Race” #4, Frank Miller, 2017

DC Comics.  I noticed here that the words “The Master Race” were eliminated from the title for the French edition.

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Marketing art for “Masterpiece: Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns” (2013)

DC Comics.  Adapted from Miller’s interior art for his 1986 limited series, “The Dark Knight Returns.”

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(What would the costume even look like?)

There is a mourning dove on the telephone wire out front just staring through my window at me.

This might mean I need to become a mourning dove-themed superhero a la Frank Miller’s “Batman: Year One.”

Figures I’d get the depressing #@&* instead of a falcon or an owl something.



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Hardcover to “Batman: Year One, The Deluxe Edition,” David Mazzucchelli, 2017

DC Comics.

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Cover to “Batman”#407, Frank Miller, 1987

“Batman: Year One – Chapter Four: Friend in Need.”  DC Comics.

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Cover to “The Dark Knight Returns” #1, Frank Miller, 1986

DC Comics.

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“Batman: the Dark Knight Returns” #3, Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, 1986

DC Comics.

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