Frank Miller wrote a memoir, and it’s not bad

Frank Miller - Push the Wall coverI honestly wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up a copy of Push the Wall, the new autobiography by comics artist Frank Miller—he of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City fame. Would the book be full of pointless, juvenile observations, like his book-length co-interview with Will Eisner? Would it be replete with self-aggrandizing rants, perhaps sprinkled with some of the fascist rhetoric that has increasingly crept into his work? Or would it be a, uh … sober look back at his life and achievements?

In short, how much bullshit would I have to put up with? » More... » →

Frank Miller, you’re no Will Eisner (and other thoughts on the comics biz)

I’ve had a little-worn copy of Eisner/Miller on my shelf for years. Published in 2005 by Dark Horse Comics, and to my knowledge never reprinted, it offers a dialogue between two respected cartoonists in the mold of François Truffaut’s celebrated conversations with Alfred Hitchcock. In this case, the pairing is of Will Eisner (best known for The Spirit) and Frank Miller (of Dark Knight Returns and Sin City fame).

I’d only read the book once since I bought it, 15 years ago. Considering later developments in both men’s lives, and in the American comic book business in general, I thought it deserved a second look. » More... » →