The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller

A friend gave me this when I admitted that I’ve read fewer than 5 graphic novels in my life. I enjoyed this one, and think it’s clearly a legitimate form — with the images and expressions, the exposition is distinctly different than traditional novels, and I think the impact on the reader is quite different. I’ve read three in the last few months, between Diary of a Wimpy Kid , Persepolis, and this. Won’t replace more traditional books for me, but I think we’ll see more and more mixed format work over time.

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Published:: 03.16.08 / 9am

Category:: Books

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Al Billings 03.21.08 / 11am

You may or may not realize how influential this graphic novel has been. The whole reason that we had the Batman movies (good or bad) starting in 1989 was the wild popularity of “The Dark Knight Returns” when it came out. When I was in high school, it was literally everywhere and the look and feel of Frank Miller’s work, along with its popularity, influenced the films into the “dark” direction that they had, at least for the first few. It was the deathblow to the campy 1960’s Batman of television and a return to earlier forms.

This leaves aside how it affected the ongoing Batman comic series that still exist.

As a side note, Frank Miller’s reinterpretation of the Battle of Thermopylae was “300″, which led to the (bad) movie of the same name, which derived itself from his artwork and ideas much moreso than actual history.

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This blog is the semi-regular stream-of-consciousness of John Lilly, who’s a techie by background, reads a lot, advises several startups, is currently CEO of Mozilla, and most importantly is a father & husband. Here’s my LinkedIn profile. (photo credit Joi Ito)

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