So Is Frank Miller, But Not In A Good Way

Frank Miller talks to the L.A. Times about how he's going to piss on everything you love and then shoot a Muslim. The piece itself is pure puff, with the comment describing Miller as "the most important comic book artist of the last 25 years" edging in as my favourite. But this is more depressing than mock-worthy, because Miller's talking about THE SPIRIT. You know, the movie he's going to make. I'm going to cry.

"[THE SPIRIT producer Michael] Uslan was an executive producer on more than half a dozen superhero movies, including the Tim Burton "Batman" films, and he said Miller's relative newcomer role to Hollywood is not a problem.

"Honestly, to me, there's nobody else that could do this film. I saw him at Will Eisner's memorial service last year and I told him that I'd been turning comic books into movies for years, but that with 'Sin City' he's doing something better: He was making movies into comic books. I told him he had to make 'The Spirit.' He said there was no way he could do it. Then after three minutes he said, 'There's no way I can let anybody else do it.' ""

And that's what's going to be so horribly, horribly wrong with this film. Anybody who could look at SIN CITY - whatever you think of it - and go "Him! That's the guy I want to make The Spirit!" is deeply misguided. Miller writes overwrought pulp about sociopathic caricatures of masculinity in trenchcoats who torture. And there's a place for that, but it's not in the pages of THE SPIRIT. I can see it now. The Spirit's going to drink hard and beat up criminals for information. Ellen Dolan's going to be the madonna and Sand Saref is going to be the whore. Ebony White, apparently, isn't in it at all.

I'm not saying THE SPIRIT couldn't ever be dark, I'm saying... oh, hell, I'm saying Frank Miller's a hack who's going to fill it with blood and whores. And just as I was loving Darwyn Cooke's remake of the title. Bastards.

Grant Morrison Is Still Insane

I got around to picking up the final volume of SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY today, to finish off what had been a really fun read and also to double-check that Morrison was still mad. Turns out, yes. It all goes meta, somebody jumps out of a page, I think I counted three different parallel universes? It's like in THE INVISIBLES, where the climactic battle happened less than halfway through the series due to time travel complications. Brilliant, but utterly bonkers.