Wednesday 16 November 2011

Burning Itch: Miller Time-Out

I'd prefer to remember Frank Miller as the sometimes brilliant, long-haired nerd glaring from his back-cover photo on The Dark Knight Returns trade rather than the fedora-wearing, incoherent lightweight hack he's become.


50 comments:

Sandy Carruthers said...

I just read his blog yesterday and thought: what a fucking dweeb. I'm glad I wasn't alone in this.

Scott said...

Wonderful. Great work, and satire on Miller.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic.

Also, I'm saying this out of pure love: the line in the bottom-left-most panel should be. "You've eaten Gotham's wealth. Its spirit." "Its" instead of "it's," unless you're referencing a grammatical error.

Unknown said...

Fair catch -- I had Year One open in front of me to type the quote when I made the error. Makes me feel even more embarrassed!

hulkdaddyg said...

That was a brilliant piece, Richard.

Anonymous said...

Best comic I've read in a while, Richard! Nice work.

Anonymous said...

Fan-freaking-tastic! Pure awesome sauce.

Emir said...

I want to da satire this good. :)

James Figueiredo said...

Oooh, thank you SO MUCH.
This is brilliant!
Best,
J.

Tony DiGerolamo said...

Nice!

Tony DiGerolamo said...

Nice! It's sad to me that it seems that Frank has turned so bitter. I feel sorry for him.

abnormalbrain said...

Awesome job.

Unknown said...

You are my new hero, Richard. It made me jealous I didn't think of it. :D

Space Station Orbiter: Cloud 99 said...

Perfect...

Cherry said...

Good job! I wonder if MIllar has any idea how unpopular he is right now . The crazy fascist!

Unknown said...

Wow! spot on satire. Amazing stuff.

Mark B said...

very nice

Tym Stevens said...

Excellent job, Richard! Your point is dead-on, and the work is even more pitch perfect.

If you get any flak, roll it off your back.

Anonymous said...

Frank Miller kicks your ass!

Richard J. Marcej said...

Great work! While the last panel is a bit heavy handed, IMO ("has been") I love your Miller like narrative. The coloring, inking and panel layouts are all dead-on.

Steve C. said...

Brav-fucking-o!!

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you do parody. Simply brilliant, in the non-overused, non-British sense. It was pretty good on just the visual level, but the fact that it captures his voice and is wickedly funny must puts it way over the top.

Those of us who praise it salute your effort to do it.

lefty891 said...

Fantastic satire! I had been thinking of exactly that part of 'Year One', mostly because I had coincidentally read it just last week.

John O'Connor said...

I've said this elsewhere, but I'll say it again: Holy Terror is pure hate in print. It is dangerous. It's hard to believe this is from the same mind that brought us The Dark Knight Returns.

toz said...

Harsh but fair.Having read Holy terror right off the back of reading FM's egregious comments yesterday,I do have a suspicion that between his divorce ,9/11 and the hollywood bullshit that Frank has had ,or is approaching a genuine breakdown ,and perhaps should be treated with compassion rather than hatred .That observation being aimed at some of the vitriolic outpourings on the guardian website in response to their article,rather than this piece of work ,which is a bang on piece of satire in my mind.Good work .Poor frank -a far cry from the long haired ,stoned looking fella on the back of my DKR graphic novel from 87

toz said...

Or perhaps he's just pissed off he's gone bald ."Goddam hippies with their goddam long hair .They sopuld get a buzzcut like mine,join the goddam military......"

Anonymous said...

The best smack down of that washed up, bitter hack. Thank you. Miller's recent work is so juvenile and poorly drawn, I'd swear he draws with a pencil jammed up his ass. But then I remind myself that there's no room for a pencil with his head already up there.

Alex's Blog said...

I guess somebody has to capitalize on this. You make ambulance chasers look like Mother Theresa. It was funny until you showed Millers death. Thats out of line. An artists expresses a view you don't agree with and you depict his death on the internet, what a slimeball you are, what utter disregard for safety and respectability. All you traitor fan boys so quick to lynch your once beloved artist for a difference in oppinion make make sick. Dirtbag.

Unknown said...

Hi Alex's Blog! Thanks for posting this as I appreciate the opportunity you've given me to to respond.

First, I share Christopher Hitchen's less than favourable opinion of Mother Theresa, so that doesn't work.

Second, you may disagree with this, but I consider myself an artist as well and the Burning Itch you're responding to is my expressed opinion, which you disagree with.

Third, it's comics; he's not really dead unless you see the body.

And even then . . .

Anonymous said...

So what you're saying is that free speech is great as long as everyone agrees with you and the Occubaggers. Got it. Thanks for proving that you can be both talented and a useful idiot. This so called "movement" has lost any credibility it had at the onset in a sea of incoherence and lawlessness.

Here's a challenge: prove an important aspect of Miller's thesis wrong by doing as biting a satire on the "Religion of Peace." Make sure you first get some tips from Salman Rushdie on writing and the finer points of living in seclusion.

Unknown said...

This might have sailed over your head "Anonymous", but one of the reasons people were bothered by Miller's rant was his insistence the protester's be denied their rights because he disagreed with them.

A significant aspect of free speech is understanding everyone gets it, not just the people you agree with.

Tony Figueroa said...

So Frank Miller is wrong for saying that our enemy is the muslim terrorist and his poisoned ideology? Frank Miller is a fascist for disagreeing with OWS? I know people are angry and I understand and to an extent sympathize with OWS. If Frank Miller is guilty of anything it's pointing what's become "an iconvenient truth"; we're at war with an enemy that wants us dead or transformed into it's mirror image. As a result of this we are losing our freedoms and marching towards a police state. We're already living in Under Surveillance America. If you want to be angry and full of snark aim it at that. You should all take a moment to re-read your comments and then ask yourselves why so much hate and vitriol on your part?

Unknown said...

Hi Tony,

No, I'd say Frank is wrong for saying nothing else matters but Muslim terrorists and people should be denied their rights to, well, demand their rights.

Wanting the whole populace to shut up and fight the enemy as a unified force is a hallmark of Fascism, though I hadn't called Miller a Fascist (though one comment did).

Further, the Surveillance America you live is is something you've allowed to happen to yourselves out of fear. The same sort of fear Miller is expressing when railing against the Occupy movement.

If terrorism is about forcing people to do things because they're scared, who do you think is really winning when someone loses their marbles over what terrorists might do?

Mike Hansen said...

Hi Richard,

I linked to this post and strip on my website - hope that's cool: http://alldaycomics.com/2011/11/23/fast-facts-for-frank-miller-and-friends/

Miller's rant (and my finally reading Holy Terror) really got to me - not because he's a crazy old man, but because as a public figure he's making COMICS look bad. Thanks for a wonderful editorial piece; well done.

Tony Figueroa said...

Richard, I forgot to mention that although I disagree with the politics behind your satire I must say that it was nicely done. Fighting islamic terrorism isn't the only thing that matters. But it is imperative that we fight terrorism in whatever form it takes.The country was unified in WW2 and it wasn't fascist. You're quite right Richard: we're all living in a surveillance society because legitimate fears about crime and now terrorism have been exploited by the power hungry and the military/government complex. I don't think Frank is expressing fear of OWS, disgust perhaps but not fear. I'm not a spokesperson for Frank Miller. He expressed an opinion and has produced work that is ideological in some form or another for years. What I find interesting is that the comments are far more hateful and vitriolic than anything Miller has said.

Unknown said...

Thanks for linking and telling me Mike!

~R

Unknown said...

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the compliment on the execution of the strip.

Your country was far from unified about entering WW2, nor was support even near unanimous while it was actively engaged in WW2 -- that people think that is a result of aggressive modern myth-making.

I don't think for a minute Frank is scared of the Occupy movement, but he's so terrified of the tiny group of terrorists half-way around the world he's calling for the protesters rights to removed. It's clear that's his reasoning, here.

That is, to my mind, letting the terrorists win.

The only way to beat terror is to not be afraid of it.

Adrienne said...

In your response to "Anonymous" posted on 21 November, you said, "one of the reasons people were bothered by Miller's rant was his insistence the protester's be denied their rights because he disagreed with them." Exactly where did Miller call for this "denial" of their rights? He told them to "go home," not exactly the same as calling for their incarceration or forced removal from the public square.

Please don't let the strawman get too close to the burning monster...

Unknown said...

HI Adrienne,

When Miller wrote the protests are "anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment.", is when it became clear to me he wants to deny the protesters their First Amendment rights. He did that right at the start of his screed, but I could see people missing that if they're wearing the Right sort of blinders.

leesa said...

I used to love Frank's stuff... It's always been very Black & White... But now it seems that "Black & White" has morphed into some weird kind of Tourette's.

Anonymous said...

Miller has a new book out. Miller has gotten his name on the front of most media outlets. For free.

I thinks his comments are disgusting, but y' gotta admit, his method of manipulating the media is...wait, no, his method is disguting too. You fucking suck, Miller!

Anonymous said...

I love it: a never-will-be calling FM a has-been.

Know and understand this, you sad little attention-seeking twit, riding Miller's coat-tails to grab a tasty 15 minutes of exposure for yourself:

Your work will never, ever, in any reality have even a fraction of less than 1% the influence and importance to the comics medium that Miller's has had. Sling all the mud you want, you work-for-hire hack - Your art and vision will never be as important, as ground-breaking, and as medium-defining as Miller's has been, and you, along with everyone else here laughing at your embarassing tear-down of a legend should respect that.

You're a nobody. You're not creative. You're not a visionary. You're not a real artist. You're a monkey with a pencil.

Miller defined the entire medium, and along with Moore at the time, brought it to new levels of respectability. This raising of the bar, that can be traced DIRECTLY to Frank Miller and Alan Moore is why we have such amazing, sophisticated comics today. He blazed his own trail, re-wrote the rules, and elevated the entire industry in the process.

What the fuck have you done, Dick? Oh, you take work-for-hire jobs? Wow, that's impressive, bud.

No, seriously - Congrats on your cheap shot, and enjoy your 15 seconds in the limelight for smearing someone who has gotten further than you ever will, simply because you hate him for his opinions on OWS.

Fact: Any one page -or hell, any one panel- from his Daredevil run alone carries more influence and sheer creativity than your entire body of work combined...and you know it.

Now do us all a favor and climb back into obscurity, okay?

Unknown said...

I may be disappointed in how small his vision has become, and even saddened by how much his skills have degraded, but I'll never hate him.

All your charges about my character may turn out to correct in time, but I know I'll always have the courage to sign my name to my opinions.

Anonymous said...

Richard's work is already more important than Frank Miller's work, though I'll concede Miller has made more money.

And this is the only one of Richard's cartoons I've seen. I'll have to start reading more of them. This is really an elegant piece of work.

As for Miller? Honestly, even _The Dark Knight Returns_, which was sort of vaguely interesting (if unoriginal) when it came out, is starting to fade into obscurity. Miller's writing took a major downturn at some point after that and never recovered. The casual bigotry and use of sexist tropes means *nothing* he wrote will date well. Siegel and Shuster wrote more sophisticated comics.

And nobody is going to model their work after Miller's so-called "artwork" -- he's just not a very good penciller, and he has gotten worse over time.

It's kind of sad; I think Miller had potential. Early commercial success seems to have killed that, and then *something* happened to drive him completely insane. Perhaps Toz is right.

Of course, this is all discussing a minor artist. Nobody in comics these days has as much influence as Randall Munroe. :-) The world is changing....

Anonymous said...

It's funny/sad that Frank Miller has forgotten that religious extremists come from more than one religion. If you are dark skinned, gay, or a scientist, there are "Christians" that want to harm you, and they are probably a greater threat than any Islamist. I'd also like to point out that if we live in a society under surveillance, it is primarily by corporate interests looking to anticipate and create our every whim and need.

I love Frank Miller's work, but I disagree with his characterization of OWS. I might not ever buy any more of his work, but that doesn't change his right to express himself (unless no one buys his work, and publishers stop hiring him. But hey, that's Capitalism...).

Liz said...

Er - Anon from 1 Jan - good point abt "religious extremists come from more than one religion" - but haven't you FORGOTTEN one VERY important group (it's so large that it's hardly even a minority) that extremist Christians wish to harm? They don't want to kill them, in large numbers, of course, because that would be unpractical for their purposes. But they certainly want to enslave them and deny them basic rights. Any idea of which group I'm talking about yet?! I'm not surprised you seem to have forgotten/ignored it: the entire industry you fanboydolize does exactly the same. The group in question? WOMEN of course, no prizes for guessing. I'm from UK but according to what I've read on Alternet, that is the "minority" who have so far been hit the hardest by a Republican (Xian Reconstructionist) Congress and who (apart from gays) have been attacked the swiftest and stand to lose the most! These Xian Rethugs are attempting to make every foetus a person, plan to undermine the basic right to contraception..

Liz said...

.. women in America are now about as well off as they were in 1950s Catholic Ireland! Can any of you say The Handmaid's Tale? Novel has proved very prescient; of course it was written by a woman; why doesn't the pretentious yet immature industry we are all talking about and that some people on this thread obviously idolize, hire some more of THEM? Something that has made me hate it for decades. (&why don't some of the comic book artists/fanboys on here clamour to for &to collaborate on, graphic novelizations of novels like that?!)

Riddle me all that lot, fanboys.

Liz said...

Homophobic, racist, misogynist and anti-liberal: that about sums up DKR. Of course, being politically switched-on and a leftist, I could see this first go. Now I *know* that not everybody can be a feminist pagan socialist like me, but still I was surprised - and annoyed off my ass for years - that the average LIBERAL didn't seem able or willing to see it! I suppose you're all too polite to say "fascism" these days - unless it's of an out-and-out KKK nut! Let me tell ya: THAT's not where fascism/Far Right is AT these days! It recreates itself for every generation. And people are *far* more likely to be influenced by theocratic ideas than pseudoscientific racial theories these days, because the scientists/media no longer support race biology. Failing theocracy though, just some lines to the effect that "gays are gross and liberals are Benedict Arnolds" will get the swastika rolling.

George Orwell would EASILY have seen through Frank Miller. But obviously one doesn't have to be him, else I wouldn't have managed

Liz said...

..that philosophical feat in 1987!

WAKE UP! You lot! Americans! The liberals among you are too polite/disbelieving of another's genuinely bad intentions (especially if he's "a success") and too cowed by your Fox-style media to a) see the Emperor without clothes and b) to SAY SO! Only the likes of Michael Moore sometimes dare to do that!

And THAT's why your right wing walk all over your "sophisticated", credulous liberals.

Also why Frank Miller got mistaken for a liberal. Some people mistake Ron Paul for a liberal too: he's not.

Well anyway: I noticed this story in November: this is the first time I've poured out my heartfelt opinions about it! The Guardian messageboard sucks: and I'm only glad to be able to say to an audience of US fanboys: You may not have been able to hear me: BUT I'VE BEEN TELLING YOU SO FOR YEARS!

I won't bore you with what I said to the head of the UK Comics Creators Guild in 1993: only that I said it and came out against Miller; also denounced Alan Moore's vile Killing Joke..

Liz said...

(Has *anyone* here also noticed the amount of salacious/coldly cruel *rapes*/sexual assaults (the way they are presented is the exact opposite of "a crime of passion") that Alan Moore guy manages to shoehorn into his magnae opi? *Another* basket case I deem: a walking empathy-free zone of vain, low-EQ showoffitude!)

That's my beef against him! You know, I'd never have said this as a teen: but MODERN comics (note: THESE guys: NOT comics circa 1930-1980) almost make me agree with *Dr Frederick Wertham* (&certainly with my English teachers who wouldve said they were rubbish!)

And I took the Miller stuff up with people on hollywoodjesus.com in 2004/5: they have extensive reviews and I thought, that as an arts-friendly Christian site, they might be interested in the moral issues: but not really..

It made me wonder: WHEN will you lot ever learn - to be outraged?!

The answer seems to be: When the kids get out there and speak out and change the national mood/discourse;when they do what you complacent boomers..

Liz said...

..and cynical Gen Xers and Yers couldn't tear yourselves away from your lattes & misleading graphic novels to do!

SO: VIVA OWS! And OLSX! And Occupiers everywhere! But honestly - just a little carp - protesters could have done this AT LEAST 10 years ago: and shouldve: as a protest over Shrub and the stolen election.

As for Frank Miller: he is nothing and nowhere. Please forget him for all time.

Whatever the "bards" of the popular culture have said and however they have let their culture down - the kids are all right! :) It must be because they've stopped listening.

GOOD.

Evil hippies indeed. And it's the comics machoists who are the vicarious rapists! NOT OWS.

(Please forgive, btw, the breaks/multiple posts: it's because I sadly have to use a mobile device and that's how it does things and the only way I can say what I have to say.

It takes ages, actually: so please Mr Burning Monster, publish as many as you can! :)

Bye for now!