Comments on: A Year of Cool Comic Book Moments – Day 68

By: wwk5d

wwk5d — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 09:43:39 +0000

Miller and Janson certainly know how to choreograph a fight scene. And Miller must have loved Bullseye, art-wise, as he can do alot with him in the Sin City art style.

By: Felicity

Felicity — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:52:31 +0000

The coolest moment for me was when Bullseye used the sai to hook on to the passing train.

I’d just like to say I love the way this blog automatically converts nondirected quotes to directed quotes.

By: DanCJ

DanCJ — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:34:15 +0000

So why was Klaus Janson actually a decent penciller in those days? His inks are good, but anything I’ve seen that he’s drawn himself in the last 20 years has looked pretty terrible.

By: JoeMac

JoeMac — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:29:31 +0000

Anonymous, I said Chomp because I meant Chomp. My dad was literally chewing on a horse’s bit. Chomp is another word for chew. Don’tcha know? And it dates back to 1581. Not exactly a new usage.

It was weird to see a grown man in horse tack running around the house, foaming at the mouth, eyes rolling as he reads Daredevil, but such was the life I led.

By: Klaus Janson

Klaus Janson — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:30:15 +0000

To answer Ben Herman’s question: Frank was doing thumbnails on 8 1/2″ X 11″ typewriter paper at the point when we did this particular issue. I forget when we specifically transitioned to that way of working but we gradually went from Frank doing tight pencils on the first couple of issues of our run to breakdowns and then to Frank doing thumbnails for the last year or so of the run. I’d have to look at the issues to be sure. I always thought the big “breakthrough” came when I started doing the coloring in issue 179 (“Spiked”-one of my favorite issues). Sometimes, the more people that work on the art, the more conflicts there are among the individual approaches which can lead to chaos on the page. The ability to control so much of the look of the book, I think, allowed for a very cohesive vision to emerge. It’s nice to see these pages especially since they are culled from the original floppies. You can see the little dots that the poor quality newsprint and repro process produced. I think we’ve gained a lot in terms of reproduction and slickness in the last 15 years but lost something in the process. The art had to succeed by the ingenuity and creativity of the artist. When I see these pages, I’m always reminded of just how much fun they were to do.

By: Duff McWhalen

Duff McWhalen — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 06:27:23 +0000

The pages look better here than they do in the “Visionaries” reprint.

By: Lt. Clutch

Lt. Clutch — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:40:08 +0000

I’ve never been a huge fan of Janson on his own, less so Miller’s grittier, post-Sin City artwork. But the two of them in this early phase of their collaborations is excellent. Their anatomical style seems very fluid and dynamic here, particularly in extended fight scenes like these. The fourth panel on the first page shown above with DD’s kick to Bullseye’s head is brilliantly choreographed. Again, a classic issue in terms of solid storytelling.

By: snakeman99

snakeman99 — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:46:55 +0000

Pretty hard to find any artwork today that has that same incredible kinetic feel. Few artists can present major battles in a way that’s exciting, and just believable. I have to believe Miller/Janson were researching Jackie Chan movies at this point to get these action sequences right. There is more excitement in these few pages than in any of Leinil Yu’s overly-busy splash pages.

By: Citizen Scribbler

Citizen Scribbler — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:37:10 +0000

@Tuomas-

If you’re looking for the start of modern “grim and gritty”, I think most people would mark it from the time, in 67′ or 68′, when The Question refused to save two drowning crooks who were pleading for his aid.

Of course, the golden age Spectre ran around killing people all the time, not to mention other heroes of the time who frequently filled crooks with hot lead. Grim and gritty was around long before Frank Miller- he just childishly wallows in it more than other creators.

-Citizen Scribbler

By: Ben Herman

Ben Herman — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:35:53 +0000

Good stuff, back when Frank Miller was at the top of his game as a writer.

One question… at this point, was Miller just doing rough layouts, with Klaus Janson then doing both the finished pencils and the inks? I know that’s how the later part of the Miller/Janson DD run was done. I think Janson does not get enough credit for how much work he put into the production of the amazing artwork on those issues.

By: jazzbo

jazzbo — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:32:56 +0000

@Anonymous

Merriam Webster says they’re essentially interchangeable, and that “chomping” is used more frequently even in print now than “champing.” So I wouldn’t say “chomping” is incorrect.

http://www.word.com/collegiate/archives/2006/09/from_the_mail_s_11.html

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:10:38 +0000

@JoeMac
It’s, “champing at the bit,” not chomping. I see this misused almost daily.

By: Tom Fitzpatrick

Tom Fitzpatrick — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:56:32 +0000

Boy, was that prediction EVER wrong.

By: chad

chad — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:44:14 +0000

how chilling that moment was and showed how daredevil had reached the breaking point by doing that even though bulls eye would have done the same thing to him. not to mention him saying bulls eye would never kill again

By: JoeMac

JoeMac — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:19:28 +0000

I remember growing up how excited my father was about these Miller Daredevil issues. He was chomping at the bit each month in anticipation. I wasn’t interested in Daredevil at all! I was more interested in Spider-Man at the time. I was about six or seven, my father was in his early thirties. About ten years later I went back and reread ever comic that we had long runs on, and I remember being completely blown away once I got to the death of Elektra and all the other Miller issues. He had really caught lightning in a bottle back then, and was about five or six years ahead of his time. This is definitely a very cool comic book moment.

By: Al Ewing

Al Ewing — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:14:14 +0000

Personally, I think my favourite DD/Bullseye moment is the earlier train track scene where DD is wounded, and Bullseye is out cold in the path of an oncoming train. Daredevil goes through all the reasons not to save Bullseye in a string of thought balloons, rationalising why he can’t possibly do it — and then inexorably comes to the real reason, which is simply that DD hates him. And after acknowledging that, DD has no choice but to try. It’s arguably more grim and gritty, as while DD isn’t being particularly ‘badass’, it’s very indicative of the more interesting character that he quickly became — a man who is doomed and damned, and knows it, but is locked into his fate by his own cast-iron morality.

By: Tuomas

Tuomas — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:58:54 +0000

Hmm, it’s been ages since I last read DKR, I forgot Batman doesn’t kill anyone in it. Still, compared to Miller’s first run on Daredevil DKR is one big step further into “grim and gritty”, and I’ve always felt the last issue of his DD (before he returned to the title with Born Again) is all about him pondering how far he can go with superheroes.

By: Patient Boy

Patient Boy — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:48:51 +0000

Tuomas:

I’m not sure that step was taken with DKR. It’s filled with ultra-violence, sure but he makes a big point of showing Batman not killing (although he skirts pretty close to that line). It’s in his later work on DD (Born Again and Man Without Fear) where he shows Matt killing.

Miller does excellent fight scenes though. I can’t speak for his later work but this issue and the latter “Batman versus a SWAT team” sequence in Year One are some of my favourites from any creator.

By: Tuomas

Tuomas — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:38:25 +0000

And the later issue where DD plays Russian roulette with Bullseye feels like Miller is metaphorically pondering whether he should take the full step into dark superheroes (i.e. super”heroes” not averse to hurting and killing people). That issue ends with a stalemate, but of course Miller took the full step a couple of years later with Dark Knight Returns.

By: Tuomas

Tuomas — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:32:39 +0000

Daredevil letting Bullseye fall is arguably the beginning of “grim and gritty” superheroes. Even if the moment is qualified by Bullseye trying to stab DD, it’s pretty obvious DD wants him to die.