300 by Frank Miller, Lynn Varley (1999, Hardcover)

OK, I'm not up on my 'ages'--but chances are this was the bronze age (not the 1970s of comic books),hence 'it bronzes!'

This was a delightful turn of theme for Frank Miller who hit the ground hard and fast with his early Daredevil comics, followed up rapidly by his outstanding work on Batman The Dark Knight Returns and his Ronin series. All great stuff!

After those high points, what could the young turk follow it up with?

We got Sin City, his crime noir dramas in the pages of Dark Horse comics. Now, Miller's work on the crime books of Sin City are fun...delightful to look at, but frankly, every one basically seems to be a rehash of the same story of tough guys, tough babes, and...I was asleep already by the third outing.

But here--!! with 300! Not only did he break some ground in genre (for this sort of material hasn't been covered except for the wonderful work in the indy title AGE OF BRONZE, an ongoing series elsewhere to be noted), but the visuals in 300 are stunning, and the joy of this book is that as you open this book up and lay it flat out, every opened page laid flat is a complete page to look at. Not something that you look at one page and then scan up to the second page, but every page turned is a new centerspread! Unique in graphic storytelling!!

Great stuff here-- worth the read, worth owning!!