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Comicbook artist and writer Frank Miller, the man behind classics “300,” “Sin City” and “Daredevil,” is working on his new projects through Frank Miller Presents, the publishing banner he launched last year.

Miller, speaking at Lucca Comics & Games this week, told Variety what drove him to embark on this new creative venture. “I’d say I was driven by restlessness. I wanted to take advantage of my experience and my reputation, and to recognize that now it’s time to be an adult.”

Being aware that “the industry has been running down a certain path for a very long time,” Miller felt ready to explore new avenues and to work with undiscovered talents.

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Frank Miller Presents is currently focusing its efforts on two main projects. The first is “Ronin,” whose new volumes are in the works. A sequel to the 1983-1984 limited series, the cyberpunk tale is based on Miller’s layouts and artworks courtesy of Philip Tan and Daniel Henriques.

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“Tan and Henriques are producing some very disturbing and wonderful artworks, and we’re following a storyline that is quite experimental,” Miller added. The first book of “Ronin” was set in a dystopic New York City in which the titular Japanese samurai is reincarnated, whilst the second takes the protagonist Casey and her new born son across the ravaged landscape of America.

The second project is “Pandora,” a fantasy adventure series produced with The Kubert School, “which looks like a children’s book, but it’s also a dark fairytale.” The young adult-orientated story centers on Anabeth Dean, a girl who uses a mystic relic’s power in an attempt to recreate the world around her and fill her empty life with friendship and love.

Delving into the relationship between movies and comics, Miller says they are complementary forms of art, which “feed each other” and are “like brothers.” Even though he is fascinated by video games in terms of experiencing and producing them, he admitted that for him they are still an unexplored territory.

Speaking about his approach to writing movies and comics he underscored that “there are a million differences, except the most important things,” such as “characters,” “conflicts” and “motives.” Comics, however, are still for him “an intimate form that entices the readers’ imagination,” bringing them to a level that is “more real than reality.”

While he has been inspired for years by the stories and the illustrations of European and Argentinian artists like Milo Manara, Hugo Pratt, Alberto Breccia, José Muñoz and Moebius, Miller revealed he is also an admirer of U.S. colleagues like Matt Kindt and his feline-centric horror comic “Hairball.”

At Lucca, Miller celebrated the 25th anniversary of “300,” two years after his other masterpiece “Sin City” turned 30.

“I think crime stories are still really cool. And I think with ‘Sin City,’ what worked best is that it dives into the darker aspects of the noir fantasy [genre] and celebrates black-and-white art. In the case of ‘300,’ it’s just the best story I’ve ever got in my hands.”

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Reinaldo Massengill

Update: 2024-08-04

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