300

Frank Miller is a superb writer of comics, or graphic novels, call them what you will. Without him, Batman may have languished into a small little character. He wrote the absolutely amazing The Dark Knight Returns and rewrote Batman history to what is considered the only viable origin tale in Batman: Year One. Those two books alone are the two best comics ever written and depending on which fan you talk to you get a different response.

Frank Miller also wrote a ton of other stuff. His groundbreaking run on Daredevil was the source material for the movie starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. He is the creator of Sin City. He created a manga-samurai-future-world with Ronin.

Going into the creative well of Frank Miller is a pleasure. Yeah, he can write superhero comics but he can also write real tales. He is a visual writer, in every sense of the word. He does not draw panels that do not advance the story. In effect, Frank Miller is a director of comics. He just can also draw and write really well.

300 is a little known graphic novel. I actually only knew of it from a trip to the library in Bremerton, Washington, and they had it in their comic section. It is a retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae between 300 Spartans and Xerxes' Persian army. It is an excellent tale. The drawing is fantastic. The frames move the comic along. I could actually envision Frank Miller thinking that this was being written for the screen.

I am going to go read Dark Knight Returns again. Go check out the Warner Brothers website on the upcoming movie based on 300.