Frank Miller Biography

If you've looked at a comic book or been to an action movie in the last twenty years, chances are you're familiar with the work of Frank Miller. His film noir style and dark often brooding characters have graced comics as diverse as Batman: Year One and Holy Terror, Batman! while feature films made from his books (300 and Sin City) were well received by fans and critics alike. His name has generated a lot of buzz, and a little controversy, since his explosion into popular culture in the early 1990s.

Miller was born in Maryland and raised in Vermont in the 60s and 70s. He had rather humble roots -- his parents were blue collar workers, mom a nurse and dad a carpenter and electrician. According to an interview at FilmJournal.com, he always wanted to be an artist, and set his sights on comic books. His first work was done in the summer of 1978 for Gold Key Comics Twilight Zone, a television tie in series of books. By the following winter, Miller was working for Marvel, and within a year he was granted his own book -- 1979s Daredevil #158. By 1981, Miller was head of the Daredevil series, having inserted into the series a more authentic style, characterized by realistic New York cityscapes and a darker mood. The comic became so popular its publication was bumped up to 12 issues a year. With Daredevil, Frank Miller had turned a relatively unknown and not very well liked character into one of Marvel's most popular.

Frank Miller

Frank Miller - The Dark Knight Returns

This rather meteoric rise to the top of one of the great comic book publishers in the country would closely mirror Miller's later catapult to the top of the film scene. In the 1980s, Miller became closely associated with Batman through his work on a groundbreaking comic classic The Dark Knight Returns. This was the first comic to be packaged like a novel -- printed on cardstock as opposed to newsprint, and bound rather than stapled. The pictures were glossy, the art was dark and intense, and the fans ate it up. Tim Burton, whose 1989 film Batman is considered a classic in the comic book film genre, claims he was heavily influenced by Miller's vision of Gotham City. This book is still in print, more than twenty years after it was published.

Miller's popularity after The Dark Knight was such that he was eventually invited to draft screenplays for two Robocop sequels -- Robocop 2 and Robocop 3. When the critical response to these films was overwhelmingly negative, Miller famously promised he would never allow film versions of his comics to be made, citing studio interference with his screenwriting and a general distaste for Hollywood. Obviously, Miller would later recant this opinion, as he now has millions of fans worldwide through his work's appearance on the silver screen. In fact, it was just after the failure of the two Robocop films that Miller began work on what would become his most famous work -- the comic book Sin City. So called "crime comics" had fallen out of favor with comic audiences in the 1950s -- the most famous was called Crime Does Not Pay -- but Miller's "film noir" style was perfect for the genre, and he worked hard on Sin City for much of the 1990s, writing his first solo book under the title and introducing a black and white style that would become a sort of trademark. His popularity among comic audiences continued to grow.

Frank Miller Swears Off Hollywood

Though Miller had sworn off Hollywood, film director Robert Rodriguez brought him a short film he'd made of a Sin City story, and Miller loved it. Enough, in fact, to approve a full length Sin City film, which he and Rodriguez would "co direct". There was some controversy about this co direction, because the Director's Guild of America would allow only one "director" or "directing team" to be listed as director on a film project, and in order to honor his commitment to Miller, Rodriguez resigned from the Director's Guild. This is a sign either of Rodriguez' commitment to his friend Frank Miller or to Rodriguez belief that the project would be a success. Either way, the film had its American release in April of 2005. With a worldwide box office revenue of over $150,000,000 it is safe to say that Sin City was a success. A film based on his comic 300 was released in 2007 with an even bigger box office gross -- just over $450,000,000.

Miller's work is not heralded by all critics. An article in the New York Times ('The Unreal Road from Toontown to Sin City') wondered aloud if Miller's Sin City was nothing but a paean to the criminal underworld, and criticized Miller for the abundance of prostitutes and drug addicts in his work. Miller is on the record as being for the war in Iraq, comparing America's mission there to the mission to bring down Adolf Hitler -- and Miller has even written an entire storyline involving Batman battling Al-Qaeda which has been called "propoganda" and "a decadent indulgence" by critics. While Frank Miller's comic books and adapted films may be popular to fans and film critics, his work often invites negative critical appraisal, especially when his personal politics enter the picture.

Frank Miller - The Spirit

Miller's latest directorial attempt, on Will Eisner's The Spirit, has received mixed reviews. The box office gross as of this writing is a disappointing $24,000,000 and the critical response has been overwhelmingly negative. Roger Ebert went so far as to say this: "To call the characters cardboard is to insult to a useful packing material". Critics complain about poor acting, cliche dialogue, and Miller's overuse of his film noir style. Fans of Eisner's Spirit comic point out that originally, the main character was a regular guy with no superpowers. In Miller's film, Spirit has the ability to heal. By running directly against the, well, spirit of The Spirit, Miller has shown a lack of appreciation for his comic forebears. Perhaps Miller's Hollywood star is beginning to fade.

What's Next for Frank Miller?

What's next for Frank Miller? Hollywood Reporter would have you believe that Miller is set to sign on to direct a remake of Buck Rogers -- with a dark twist of course. The article in the Reporter suggests that Miller's Rogers would approach themes of "corruption and redemption" (surprise surprise) and would include many of Miller's signature themes. Warner Bros. owns the option for Miller's Ronin, though talks stalled and not much has been said about it in the press recently. It seems fans of Miller will just have to wait for his dark and twisted Buck Rogers to get another taste of grime.