Frank Miller

Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American comic book artist, comic book writer, and screenwriter known for his comic book stories and graphic novels such as his run on Daredevil, for which he created the character Elektra, and subsequent Daredevil: Born Again, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, Sin City, and 300.

Miller is noted for combining film noir and manga influences in his comic art creations.

He said: "I realized when I started Sin City that I found American and English comics be too wordy, too constipated, and Japanese comics to be too empty. So I was attempting to do a hybrid."

Miller was born in Olney, Maryland, on January 27, 1957, and raised in Montpelier, Vermont, the fifth of seven children of a nurse mother and a carpenter/electrician father.

His family was Irish Catholic.

Miller grew up a comics fan; a letter he wrote to Marvel Comics was published in The Cat #3 (April 1973).

His first published work was at Western Publishing's Gold Key Comics imprint, received at the recommendation of comics artist Neal Adams, to whom a fledgling Miller, after moving to New York City, had shown samples and received much critique and occasional informal lessons.

Though no published credits appear, he is tentatively credited with the three-page story "Royal Feast" in the licensed TV series comic book The Twilight Zone #84 (June 1978), by an unknown writer, and is credited with the five-page "Endless Cloud", also by an unknown writer, in the following issue (July 1978).

By the time of the latter, Miller had his first confirmed credit in writer Wyatt Gwyon's six-page "Deliver Me From D-Day", inked by Danny Bulanadi, in Weird War Tales #64 (June 1978).

Former Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter recalled Miller going to DC Comics after having broken in with "a small job from Western Publishing, I think. Thus emboldened, he went to DC, and after getting savaged by Joe Orlando, got in to see art director Vinnie Colletta, who recognized talent and arranged for him to get a one-page war-comic job."

The Grand Comics Database does not list this job; there may have been a one-page DC story, or Shooter may have misremembered the page count or have been referring to the two-page story, by writer Roger McKenzie, as "Slowly, painfully, you dig your way from the cold, choking debris" in Weird War Tales #68 (October 1978).

Other fledgling work at DC included the six-page "The Greatest Story Never Told", by writer Paul Kupperberg, in that same issue, and the five-page "The Edge of History", written by Elliot S. Maggin, in Unknown Soldier #219 (September 1978).

His first work for Marvel Comics was penciling the 17-page story "The Master Assassin of Mars, Part 3" in John Carter, Warlord of Mars #18 (November 1978).

At Marvel, Miller settled in as a regular fill-in and cover artist, working on a variety of titles.

One of these jobs was drawing Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #27–28 (February–March 1979), which guest-starred Daredevil.

Daredevil #158 (May 1979), Miller's debut on that title, was the finale of an ongoing story written by Roger McKenzie and inked by Klaus Janson.

After this issue, Miller became one of Marvel's rising stars.

However, sales on Daredevil did not improve, Marvel's management continued to discuss cancellation, and Miller himself almost quit the series, as he disliked McKenzie's scripts.

Miller's fortunes changed with the arrival of Denny O'Neil as editor.

Realizing Miller's unhappiness with the series, and impressed by a backup story Miller had written, O'Neil moved McKenzie to another project so that Miller could try writing the series himself.

Miller and O'Neil maintained a friendly working relationship throughout his run on the series.

Additionally, Miller drew a short Batman Christmas story, "Wanted: Santa Claus – Dead or Alive", written by Dennis O'Neil for DC Special Series #21 (Spring 1980).

This was his first professional experience with a character with which, like Daredevil, he became closely associated.

With issue #168 (Jan. 1981), Miller took over full duties as writer and penciller.

Sales rose so swiftly that Marvel once again began publishing Daredevil monthly rather than bimonthly just three issues after Miller became its writer.

Miller later wrote and drew a solo Elektra story in Bizarre Adventures #28 (Oct. 1981).

He added a martial arts aspect to Daredevil's fighting skills, and introduced previously unseen characters who had played a major part in the character's youth: Stick, leader of the ninja clan the Chaste, who had been Murdock's sensei after he was blinded and a rival clan called the Hand.

Unable to handle both writing and penciling Daredevil on the new monthly schedule, Miller began increasingly relying on Janson for the artwork, sending him looser and looser pencils beginning with #173.

By issue #185, Miller had virtually relinquished his role as Daredevil's artist, and he was providing only rough layouts for Janson to both pencil and ink, allowing Miller to focus on the writing.

Miller's work on Daredevil was characterized by darker themes and stories.

This peaked when in #181 (April 1982) he had the assassin Bullseye kill Elektra, and Daredevil subsequently attempt to kill him.

Miller finished his Daredevil run with issue #191 (February 1983), which he cited in a winter 1983 interview as the issue he is most proud of; by this time, he had transformed a second-tier character into one of Marvel's most popular.

Miller's feature film work includes writing the scripts for the 1990s science fiction films RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, sharing directing duties with Robert Rodriguez on Sin City and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, producing the film 300, and directing the big screen adaptation of The Spirit.

Sin City earned a Palme d'Or nomination.

At the time, sales of the Daredevil title were poor but Miller saw potential in "a blind protagonist in a purely visual medium", as he recalled in 2000.

Miller went to writer and staffer Jo Duffy (a mentor-figure whom he called his "guardian angel" at Marvel) and she passed on his interest to editor-in-chief Jim Shooter to get Miller work on Daredevil's regular title.

Shooter agreed and made Miller the new penciller on the title.

Issue #168 saw the first full appearance of the ninja mercenary Elektra—who became a popular character and star in a 2005 motion picture—although her first cover appearance was four months earlier on Miller's cover of The Comics Journal #58.

As Miller recalled in 2008:

Miller has received every major comic book industry award, and in 2015 he was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame.