DISCLAIMER Please Read

DISCLAIMER: The Billion Hero Studio blog is intended for mature audiences.

ALL CONTENTS are copyright by Rick Arthur. All rights are reserved. Content may not be reproduced in any form without express written permission. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) who makes no additional claims of accuracy.

2022-06-01

STOP POSING BOY!_009




Frank Miller's Ronin, breaking ground and expanding horizons in the comic world. Image copyright by right's holder. Miller smashes expectations with a stunning and visionary exploration in comic storytelling. Color by Lynn Varley.

"I am here! And you can't stop me!"

Ronin is an odd story for Miller. It was a risk. Working on Daredevil as artist and writer for as long as he did built expectations in his audience for gritty, noir-style, crime soaked, superhero comics with a touch of romance/tragedy. Ronin looked and felt radically different. Who was expecting a sci-fi/samurai/romance closer to European and Japanese graphic albums than American pop?

Ronin was experimental. Miller pushed his own boundaries and flexed his creative muscles. The writing and pacing were uneven. In some spots, the story flowed easily and in others Miller struggled to get his ideas across. The plot meandered. Can anyone describe what it was really about? In some sections, the art slid from stylized toward being sloppy. His characters had trouble holding their appearance. Some dialogue exchanges were too wordy. Ronin is not a slick, polished presentation and yet, it is a thunder bolt.

You have to remember that in American comics during this period, superheroes ruled the roost with series writing that never came to any conclusion or allowed characters to change and grow. The artwork felt homogenized and interchangeable. Plots and characters were thin. Marvel and DC were interested in blockbuster event comics and cross overs. Continuity was a quagmire. Readership sputtered. Distribution was migrating to the direct market. Miller jumped on Daredevil, reinvented that character, and pumped new blood into a c-list hero by building his supporting cast and fleshing out Hell's Kitchen. Most color in comics was also still done on newsprint using a limited palette and hand separations.

Frank Miller's Ronin came along at a time when few in the American comic reading crowd had ever been exposed to Japanese manga or European graphic albums. Master cartoonists like Moebius were ignored by the American masses because they didn't produce superheroes. Miller challenged his Daredevil fans from Marvel to follow him to another company and invest in brand new characters that no one had ever seen before in a style that Miller had never worked in before and in a design and printing style that had not been successfully tried here in the States. It can also not be stressed enough how radical the color by Lynn Varley in the Ronin comic was in comparison to what monthly superhero comics looked like. Ronin was a departure in every aspect of comic making from what Miller had been tinkering with on the monthly Daredevil.  

What we saw in Ronin was Miller expressing his energy, thoughtfulness, and daring in the writing and drawing. Miller took chances and built a unique vision of the future that mashed different genres and exposed us to his raw thinking. Ronin was like looking at the wild ambition that Miller has for his own cartooning and where he wanted to go as a writer/artist/creator.

Ronin was not his best work or his most well-known, but it was probably the most crucial in his artistic journey. Many experiments and masterpieces would come in the future: Elektra; Born Again; Dark Knight; 300; Give Me Liberty; Hard Boiled; Year One; and his own passion project, Sin City. This is a phenomenal body of work. Without Daredevil, there would be no Ronin or Dark Kight or Sin City. Without Ronin, Miller would have had to wait around for other opportunities to open up to tell this type of unique story - if that chance ever came. The pressure for Miller to sit back and repeat what he had been doing with Daredevil must have been great. It takes courage to do something that no one else was doing. Daredevil was Miller as a storyteller learning to draw, write, and gain confidence. Ronin was Miller arriving, busting the doors down, and declaring "I am here! And you can't stop me!" Once Ronin was complete, he would trust himself more in each project. 

NOTE: I had this post in a que to make its way out into the world after a little editing. Recently, Frank Miller announced that he would be forming his own independent comic and media imprint called Frank Miller Presents. A sequel to Ronin was discussed as a new project to come out from him as he gears up to publish 3-4 titles per year. Amazing. No other details were given about the Ronin: Book II project. Wasn't I JUST talking about Ronin yesterday? Love that story, flaws and all. It will be interesting to see how Miller applies what he has learned about storytelling to these characters and situations. An exciting time for comics.

Update... Miller will be writing a sequel, Ronin: Book Two, with some of the main Ronin characters to be penciled by Philip Tan from Miller's layouts and inked by Daniel Henriques. It will be 48-page bimonthly book with a $7.99 cover price debuting in November of 2022 under the new Frank Miller Presents banner. See sample below. Enjoy.


Frank Miller Presents, Ronin: Book Two with Miller writing and layouts, Tan on pencils and Henriques inks. Image copyright respective owner.





RICK
Billion Hero Studios
The Power of Storytelling






If you love storytelling, be involved, engaged, and informed.




Subscribe to this blog to receive notifications (so you never miss a post!).
Share your favorite posts with like-minded creatives.
Comment and ask questions or make requests.
Sign-Up for the unofficial Billion Hero Studios Newsletter by sending an email with the word "Newsletter" in the subject line to: billionherostudios@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting, participating, and collaborating in the storytelling experience.



Thank you for visiting, participating, and collaborating in the storytelling experience.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Agree. Disagree. Comments. Questions. Or other insights. Keep it clean and respectful. All are moderated. Thx.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

FEATURED Posts

SOAP BOX MEGAPHONE_0016

     There is no way to "solve" the riddle of who "created" the Marvel characters without understanding the power of the...

TRENDING Posts