hurrengoa
frank miller and the celluloid txo!?   In recent times we have been offered three films closely tied to the famous comic artist and scriptwriter Frank Millar: Elektra, Batman Begins and Sin City. That being the case, we’ve decided to take a closer look at the original comics that mothered the three films and at Frank Miller’s life and work. Though Millar has authored a lot more comics, these three are generally held to be his biggest successes. elektra
Elektra is a character who never seems to fulfil the myth of Elektra. Miller the father didn’t kill the mother to get away with her. Instead, it was the father who got dumped. Even though Miller came up with the character, the rights to Elektra have always belonged to Marvel Comics. Miller created Elektra as Daredevil’s lover when he was drawing and writing the adventures of our blind superhero., but at that time Marvel held all the creative rights to their artists’ work (the same thing occurs today in the States). Miller took Elektra a lot further than your average superhero, and he really got deep into the character in two comics he produced later on: “Elektra Assassin” and “Elektra Lives Again.” He felt the character had reached her pinnacle and he decided to kill her off once and for all. Marvel, however, aware of the riches to be squeezed from the character, and seeing as they had the rights, brought Elektra back to life and commissioned different authors and artists to produce several new series. Needless to say, the insights and complicatedness of the character went out the window. Miller gave up on the whole thing and declared he wanted nothing to with it.
Having appeared as a secondary character in the film “Daredevil”, Elektra has been awarded her very own one. And it’s a rather shoddy effort at that. A film based around a character created by Miller, where the original author has completely disowned it. Nuff said.

batman begins
Having upturned the world of Daredevil, it was Batman’s turn. Miller has proved himself an expert at renovating and turning the world of superheroes on it’s head. He wrote “Batman: The Dark Knight returns” and totally renovated the universe of the Batman character and gained incredible success with it in the States. We see an old Batman of the future in a corrupt Gotham city (a corrupt United States) where Superman has signed a legally binding contract with the armed forces and Batman is rethinking the whole situation. After that he wrote the “Batman Year One” story, drawn by David Mazzuchelli, where he takes back to the origins of the character. He comes up with an amazing story that masterfully retells the story of the year when Batman and Commissioner Gordon arrive to the city of Gotham. Bruce Wayne, having spent time travelling and training, first appears as Batman and Gordon is posted to Gotham City where we see him carving out a niche for himself in the city’s corrupt police force.
The recent film release “Batman Begins” is based on the stories in those two comics. “Batman Year One” provides the backbone to the story and “The Dark Night Returns” gives us the atmospheric setting and certain touches. Though Miller has not created a character for the film, the whole thing is based on his work.

sin city
Miller could take no more of the big superhero publishers, and he got involved in the campaign for the right of comic artists and writers to own their own rights. He soon became one of its leading members. Sin City was created after the break from the giant publishers and the gaining of independence. It brought back an updated version of stories from the dark side to comic books. He betted heavily aesthetically and published in a cheaper grey-less black and white. The drawings he came up with in Sin City are special and expressionist. Sin City was incredibly successful and he wrote many stories to fill those streets of perdition. Each story comes from a different general background but they are all interconnected. The Mafia are always connected, the call girls in the city know what each other is up to and the detectives, drunks, ex-marines and the rest of the characters that star in the stories always hang out in the same joints.
Now, Sin City with all its stories and character is about to hit the big screens, and it’s been directed by Robert Rodriguez and Miller himself. The really played close attention to the aesthetics, the crudeness of the imagery and the black and white of the magazine, and in doing so, they have come up with something a little out of the ordinary. In order to so, they have maintained the characters faces exactly as they appear in the comic book by caricaturing the actors with make-up. Remember Dick Tracy years ago? Here’s a film where Miller has created the characters and he has been totally involved in the creation and direction of the film. It seems that Miller has finally gained control over his creations.