Frank Miller: Comics Were 'Really in Danger of Losing Their Souls'

Frank Miller, the writer behind 300, Sin City and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, says he is relieved that fewer comic book adaptations are reaching screens — because comics had started losing their identity.

Miller made the remarks in an interview with Variety at Lucca Comics and Games, the Italian festival he returned to this week. His appearance coincided with the 40th anniversary of The Dark Knight Returns, first published in 1986, and the screening of "Frank Miller – American Genius", Silenn Thomas' documentary about his impact on popular culture.

Why is Miller glad the pipeline has thinned?

Asked whether the comic-to-movie pipeline has dipped, Miller answered: "I would hope so. Yeah, really. It had really gotten so out of control that comics had started losing much of their own identity. I have been arguing vehemently for comics to start asserting their own purpose again and asserting their own identity as a literary form."

He placed blame squarely on creators chasing Hollywood. "Oh, without question," he said when asked if too many writers and artists were aiming for screen deals. The lure was not just money but "the fame, respect and glory of working in the most powerful medium in history" — a wine he called "a little too heady", adding that "comics were really in danger of losing their souls in the process."

The flood was almost entirely superhero-driven, Miller said, and technology enabled it: comics once had a monopoly on impossible spectacle, but after 1970s Superman marketing promised "You'll believe a man can fly," film can now render virtually anything imaginable.

What does he draw instead?

His own career, Miller argued, has been about pushing past the conventional hero. "My entire oeuvre has been dedicated to defining and redefining the hero, and sometimes making him as ugly as possible, as in Marv and 'Sin City,'" he said, citing the tortured Hartigan of Sin City: That Yellow Bastard. "Once you let go of the idea of the hero being society's voice, it becomes more an examination of the human spirit."

Reality, he suggested, now outstrips satire. His parody of Ronald Reagan "is now in the White House." Of MAGA slogans he asked: "When I see the MAGA signs I ask whether by saying 'again,' you are saying that it's not great."

Miller framed the moment in sweeping terms. "America has become much like Rome: spread so far and so rich and powerful that it has lost its center," he said, calling the country "no longer Thomas Jefferson's country" and "quite a bloated thing." He pointed to a crumbling old order globally — a "thrashing old Soviet Union" brought to its knees by "a tiny brave country" — and invoked the curse: "May you live in interesting times."

The documentary also revealed his working habits: he draws in silence or with NPR on, letting the verbal side of his mind be occupied while "the freer, more relaxed, visually-oriented side" takes over. "If I'm drawing someone who's angry, for instance, I'm striking the face with brush strokes that are angry ones," he said. "It gets into a more jazz rhythm."

What comes next?

Two projects. Miller is writing a Sin City story for Italian artist Milo Manara — the first time he has entrusted the world to another hand. "He's the only artist I could ever imagine doing one with," Miller said, joking that Manara "would have to learn how to draw women." At Lucca, Miller also announced a new collaboration with Japanese artist Peach Momoko, his partner on Marvel's Tears of the Spider Queen.

Whether the adaptation slowdown proves permanent is another matter — Miller hopes so, but studio schedules, not cartoonists, will decide.