Theory:Â Frank Miller's recent work is good, but DC have no idea what to do with it
Above: I recoloured that recent Wonder Woman cover Frank Miller did for DC last week. Mine on the left, DCâs on the right. I did this to demonstrate a theory I have that despite the general critical consensus, thereâs actually nothing wrong with Frank Millerâs recent art- itâs just that DC donât know how to treat it.
In January of this year I tried out to be a colourist for Frank Miller at DC. Not because being a colourist for the comics has always been my dream, or because Iâm the worldâs biggest Frank Miller fan, but because I kept seeing some pretty awesome drawings of his being critically savaged. Heâs a good artist, but people were talking as if these recent drawings were the scrawlings of a lunatic. I felt like I needed to step in.
Below is one of the Miller covers I recoloured for DC. My colours on the top, and DCâs original on the bottom. Here you can see the discrepancy between the potential I saw in these drawings, and what was actually being published.
I spoke to a couple of editors at DC and the consensus seemed to be that they loved what he was turning in. So why did every blog I read think it was the worst work heâd ever done? I believed I had the answer: that the colour treatment DC was giving to his art was in no way flattering to the type of work he was doing.
My friend Julian Dassai said it best: âHis work is dynamic and, in some cases, verging on abstract. Trying to color his stuff with representational lighting and rendering is pointless, whereas a flat, graphic approach (or just leaving it in b&w) allows the energy to jump off the page.â
My colour job, followed by what DC actually published:
Frank is an artist who is constantly evolving, and his new work seems to be somewhere between Jim Mahfood, Sergio Aragonez and Ralph Steadman. It doesnât make sense to colour him as if heâs an Image comics artist from the 90âs, all gradients, shadows and shiny metallic finish. Â
Hereâs another one. Again: my work on the top, DCâs on the bottom.
All these images Iâve posted so far have two things in common- they were all widely dunked on and derided when they first went online, and they all prompted responses of âWHOA, COOL!â and âI LOVE THIS!â after I recoloured them and circulated them amongst my friends. So what happened here is olâ Frank became the butt of everyoneâs joke when actually, there was nothing wrong with his drawings.
Well, check out Frankâs work in the Sin City comics. When Frank works in black and white, heâs a one-man band. But when he works in colour, he hangs back and gives the colourist a lot of space. He knows that colours and inks are two halves of a whole.
Above is a page from 1986âs The Dark Knight Returns. You can see just how much trust Frank placed in his colourist, Lynn Varley, to finish his work. As you can see, some of those panels arenât even THERE in the original inks. Panel 6 is just an empty box.Â
This approach has been proven to work very well, but the problem is it places the burden of the imageâs success or failure squarely on the colouristâs shoulders. And if the colourist and Frank arenât on the same page, we end up with terrible covers that are the laughing stock of the whole internet.
Itâs funny- even Lynn Varley could screw up colouring for Frank. Two years after their critically acclaimed work 300, they made their most widely panned book of all.
Lynnâs computer colouring on Dark Knight Strikes Again has all the invention and nuance of her colouring on Frankâs earlier work. However, her experimental digital art just isnât a good fit for Frankâs traditional, brusque inkwork. The artwork in the book suffered a generally poor reception from fans and critics alike.
I took a pass at colouring DK2, too. I include this not to throw shade on Lynnâs work, or to say that Iâm a better colourist (Iâm not), but just to support my claim that thereâs nothing wrong with Frankâs pencils and inks in even the book that was generally regarded to be his worst. His lines have character and energy and do everything they need to do to tell the story, and with the right treatment would have looked pretty great.
We can apply the same lessons to Frankâs most recent work. Iâd read a whole comic that looked like either of the recoloured images below.
DC liked my stuff, but theyâre happy with the guy they already have colouring Frankâs work, and so my experiment has to run its course. Still, I want to believe that thereâs something in here that we can all learn from.
Itâs important to pick the right team, and to utilise a stylistic approach thatâs harmonious with what the rest of the group are doing. If you donât, you might just end up with something terrible even though you worked your butt off. As weâve seen, it can even happen to an exceptional talent like Frank. Thatâs a scary thought.
