Uni Exercise: Analysing and Reflecting

Before starting my uni course I had to do a research task to get used to the topic and to get used to blogging. For this exercise, I had to pick a comic character, pick a story of theirs, then pick it apart and then write 50 words about the imagery and then another 50 words on my thoughts on the piece of imagery.

I chose Batman as a comic character and the story 'The Dark Knight' by Frank Miller. A little background on this comic series by Frank Miller, 'The Dark Knight' is a 4 limited comic series about an ageing batman. Batman returns to the dangerous life after years of hiatus being fed up with the constant crime.

The Dark Knight by Frank Miller 1

Frank Miller created the series with Klaus Janson, Lynn Varley and John Constanza; the series was known as the best of comics and the worst, the series was darker than the other comics which comic fans loved, it felt raw and with the gorgeous imagery made it one of the most popular batman comic series.

It's described that Miller put a lot of effort and thought into the comic, you'd find yourself rereading and finding something new that you didn't notice before. Something revolutionary with his 16-panel page showing a character's emotional turmoil, or in particular using subtle panel changes for different scenes. 2

Batman The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller 3

My 50 words on the describing this page:

A splash with lots of space and little mark-making compared to the 8 panel, high amount of line making and lack of space creates a nice contrast, put together with the lack of colour creates a series of scenes that make for a nerve-wracking and intense mood.

My 50 words on my thoughts on this page:

I love the inkwork and colour of this page as well as the composition, I find it intriguing how they play with space and pacing to create the story. The cinematic feel to the work is something I really look for in comics.

Evaluation

I found this little exercise interesting to do, it was nice to briefly explore a classic comic character. It has also given me lots of ideas and influenced my future projects and I found a style of comic that I would like to explore further, I think I would explore Frank Miller much more in the future.

References 1 (IGN, IGN, 8th March 2022, 30th May 2022) https://www.ign.com/articles/best-batman-graphic-novels-comics

2 (SYFY, Youtube, 22nd October 2020, 30th May 2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdRmRwf79pg

3 (Archive.org, Batman :The Dark KNight Returns, 1986, 30th May 2022) https://archive.org/details/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns03of041986/Batman%20The%20Dark%20Knight%20Returns/Batman%20-%20The%20Dark%20Knight%20Returns%2001%20%28of%2004%29%20%281986%29/page/n17/mode/1up?view=theater