• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Frank Miller's: HOLY TERROR

Started by The Brain,

48 posts in this topic

comix4fun

comix4fun

Posted
Posted

I got it, and I read it.

 

I have loved Frank Miller's work for about 30 years. My review comes from that background.

 

I need to withhold my thoughts until other folks have had a chance to read it and see how they feel about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Claudio

Claudio

Posted
Posted
I got it, and I read it.

 

I have loved Frank Miller's work for about 30 years. My review comes from that background.

 

I need to withhold my thoughts until other folks have had a chance to read it and see how they feel about it.

 

Wow. That bad, huh?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
comix4fun

comix4fun

Posted
Posted
I got it, and I read it.

 

I have loved Frank Miller's work for about 30 years. My review comes from that background.

 

I need to withhold my thoughts until other folks have had a chance to read it and see how they feel about it.

 

Wow. That bad, huh?

 

 

Actually, worse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PeasOfCrap

PeasOfCrap

Posted
Posted
I got it, and I read it.

 

I have loved Frank Miller's work for about 30 years. My review comes from that background.

 

I need to withhold my thoughts until other folks have had a chance to read it and see how they feel about it.

 

Wow. That bad, huh?

 

 

Actually, worse.

 

dam!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
comix4fun

comix4fun

Posted
Posted

Ok, I can't wait. I have to get this off my chest.

 

This was one of the worst, most unintelligible, and laziest attempts at story (of any kind in any medium and any genre) I have ever had the misfortune to experience.

 

There were long stretches of the story where even the most seasoned symbologist would be vexed at what he was looking at and would fail to translate the images into anything that remotely resembled a story.

 

The panels were laid out 4 to a page for the most part and it was difficult to tell if it was to be read top to bottom or left to right...in most cases you could do either with equal success.

 

Later on in the story the unnecessary line work disappears and we are left images of these characters that defy description. They are simple, misshapen and endlessly repetitive. The word that kept coming to mind was "Lazy". The two character talk about what action is being taken, sitting side by side in a car, and the panels are exactly the same, or nearly identical with only the word balloons changing.

 

The action itself isn't shown, just discussed. However, even those simple head shots of the characters look rushed, and sloppy.

 

Then when I can't shake the word "Lazy" from my head it gets worse....the two characters are now, again, discussing the action that will take place in blacked out silhouettes...yep...black outlines of the characters heads replace the bad line work that preceded it.

 

It's a disjointed story, difficult to follow, impossible to divine from any sort of sequential art storytelling perspective. It spends dozens of pages on nothing in particular and then screeches to a halt. It is hard to look at.

 

The other thought that crossed my mind was as to why this was released as a single hardcover instead of a monthly series. Then it came to me. If someone who's been a fan of Frank's for 30 years, and followed him from DD, to Dark Knight, to Year One, to Sin City to 300, and everything in between, through all the changes in art and style, (without skipping a beat) and could be left so utterly nauseous by Holy Terror they would not get people buying past issue #1.

 

So sad, and disappointed. It actually depressed me and not because of the subject matter.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
paperheart

paperheart

Posted
Posted
Ok, I can't wait. I have to get this off my chest.

 

This was one of the worst, most unintelligible, and laziest attempts at story (of any kind in any medium and any genre) I have ever had the misfortune to experience.

 

There were long stretches of the story where even the most seasoned symbologist would be vexed at what he was looking at and would fail to translate the images into anything that remotely resembled a story.

 

The panels were laid out 4 to a page for the most part and it was difficult to tell if it was to be read top to bottom or left to right...in most cases you could do either with equal success.

 

Later on in the story the unnecessary line work disappears and we are left images of these characters that defy description. They are simple, misshapen and endlessly repetitive. The word that kept coming to mind was "Lazy". The two character talk about what action is being taken, sitting side by side in a car, and the panels are exactly the same, or nearly identical with only the word balloons changing.

 

The action itself isn't shown, just discussed. However, even those simple head shots of the characters look rushed, and sloppy.

 

Then when I can't shake the word "Lazy" from my head it gets worse....the two characters are now, again, discussing the action that will take place in blacked out silhouettes...yep...black outlines of the characters heads replace the bad line work that preceded it.

 

It's a disjointed story, difficult to follow, impossible to divine from any sort of sequential art storytelling perspective. It spends dozens of pages on nothing in particular and then screeches to a halt. It is hard to look at.

 

The other thought that crossed my mind was as to why this was released as a single hardcover instead of a monthly series. Then it came to me. If someone who's been a fan of Frank's for 30 years, and followed him from DD, to Dark Knight, to Year One, to Sin City to 300, and everything in between, through all the changes in art and style, (without skipping a beat) and could be left so utterly nauseous by Holy Terror they would not get people buying past issue #1.

 

So sad, and disappointed. It actually depressed me and not because of the subject matter.

 

didn't even see it on the shelves and, from the sound of it, i should be like glad i didn't. thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites
The Brain

The Brain

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Where it fails, it fails miserably. Where it succeeds, it is all too familiar to what

 

has been done by Miller ( Frankly ) before, only the before was better

 

artistically and graphically. It saddens me to say it but Frank has lost it,

 

both as a witter and as a graphic storyteller. I wanted to like this as it was

 

a chance for some type of redemption or a fresh reshaping of the art. Sadly

 

it was not. I will still be interested in what is to come from Mr. Miller, but

 

after this mess he has moved IMHO one steep closer to being nothing

 

more than a self enriching hack, living off past glories, as his star slowly

 

fades away.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
crnbrd

crnbrd

Posted
Posted

Wow, Comix4fun hit it right on the head. I'll admit I'm more of a more recent Frank Miller fan and don't have as well of a grasp on his style of artwork and writing so I just want to comment on this.... his the random (over)use of curse words (like All-star B&R) and the whole Batman/Catwoman/Commissioner Gordan thing.

I read that this was originally intended to be a story about Batman but come on Frank, its like he erased the ears of the cowl and added guns to the images. Catwoman or whatever her name is still looks just like Catwoman.

 

Overall I get what he is trying to do or at least wanted to do. But I don't really understand why it took 10 years to release this. It seems like something a 4th grade art class could do in a week.

 

The Spirit is still the worst thing he has done, this is second.

 

Fingers crossed that Xerxes is better

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

Posted
Posted
I'll just go reread hard boiled :)

Or there's the superior Elseworlds one-shot from the early 90s, Batman: Holy Terror, by Alan Brennert and Norm Breyfogle. :)

 

I saw the promo artwork for Miller's new book and thought it was just horrible. :sick:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rjpb

rjpb

Posted
Posted

I used to be a big FM fan, but at some point I found his Sin City books repetative and boring, and never got around to buying To Hell and Back. I gave him one last shot with DK2 - big mistake. After that I ceased to care what Frank Miller produced, and I'm not surprised that Holy Terror is getting slammed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bill Robinson

Bill Robinson

Posted
Posted

I thought the art was muddy and the story unintelligible. Big beautiful panels of the same things over and over again. Then mud. Then a "GD" or epithet thrown in.

 

Lazy, boring and trite. Wish I could get my money back. I'll probably sell it at a loss on these very boards.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing