How Frank Miller Was Inspired to Build This Amazing Dark Knight Returns Page
Outside of the Bible, it’s hard to think of an origin story retold more often than that of Batman. Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane for 1939’s Detective Comics No. 27, the character didn’t get a formal backstory until the 33rd issue of that series the following year, written by Finger and Gardner Fox and drawn by Kane. In a few cramped panels, it told the tragic tale of Bruce Wayne, a rich kid who witnessed his parents’ murder, swore to fight crime as vengeance, trained to physical perfection, saw a bat fly through his window, and decided to adopt a cape and cowl as a “weird figure of the dark.” Since then, we’ve seen near-countless versions of this story on the page and on the screen.
But of all those retellings, none has had more creative oomph and long-lasting influence than the one crafted by writer/artist Frank Miller in 1986’s The Dark Knight Returns. The flashback sequence is mostly silent and specifically focuses on the moment when the Waynes were brutally gunned down. Over the course of three pages, Miller chooses to take the exact opposite tack of the original Detective Comics speed-through — each panel takes place only nanoseconds after the previous one. He draws the eye to three core images that Bruce is implied to have fixated on for decades since: the gun, the bullet, his mother’s pearls.
http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/frank-miller-talks-bernard-krigstein-dark-knight-inspiration.html
Outside of the Bible, it’s hard to think of an origin story retold more often than that of Batman. Created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane for 1939’s Detective Comics No. 27, the character didn’t get a formal backstory until the 33rd issue of that series the following year, written by Finger and Gardner Fox and drawn by Kane. In a few cramped panels, it told the tragic tale of Bruce Wayne, a rich kid who witnessed his parents’ murder, swore to fight crime as vengeance, trained to physical perfection, saw a bat fly through his window, and decided to adopt a cape and cowl as a “weird figure of the dark.” Since then, we’ve seen near-countless versions of this story on the page and on the screen.
But of all those retellings, none has had more creative oomph and long-lasting influence than the one crafted by writer/artist Frank Miller in 1986’s The Dark Knight Returns. The flashback sequence is mostly silent and specifically focuses on the moment when the Waynes were brutally gunned down. Over the course of three pages, Miller chooses to take the exact opposite tack of the original Detective Comics speed-through — each panel takes place only nanoseconds after the previous one. He draws the eye to three core images that Bruce is implied to have fixated on for decades since: the gun, the bullet, his mother’s pearls.
http://www.vulture.com/2018/04/frank-miller-talks-bernard-krigstein-dark-knight-inspiration.html
