Frank Miller is somewhat of a living comics legend. If you've been reading comics anytime during the last 20 years, you're sure to have come across his work on numerous occasions. One of his many benchmarks came in 1991, when he made the unprecedented move from the rapidly evolving world of full-color comics to black-and-white with his creation of Sin City, a seedy town populated with equally seedy characters. The first story in the saga, aptly titled Sin City, first appeared in serial form in Dark Horse Presents. This critical success was followed over the next five years by more stories of suffering, loss, and triumph in A Dame to Kill For, The Babe Wore Red, That Yellow Bastard, Silent Night, and, most recently, Lost, Lonely, and Lethal. This March Miller is releasing another chapter in the ongoing saga of Sin City, Sin City: Sex & Violence. Tom Fassbender caught up with Miller to discuss this new series and his future plans.
Q: What's happening in Sex & Violence? It's a one-shot, correct?
A: Right. It contains two stories, both featuring an assassin named Delia, who was the lead character in the story "Blue Eyes" from Sin City: Lost, Lonely, and Lethal.
Q: Will this have any spot color like some of your previous Sin City stories?
A: Yeah, I'm using blue on Delia again.
Q: What's she doing this time around?
A: She's on her first official job, so you've got to be patient with her; she means well, but she's bound to make some mistakes. The simplest way I can put it is that Delia is a sex-crazed killing machine -- a fun story for the whole family.
Q: You've been telling Sin City's seedy stories since 1991.
A: Yeah . . . pretty frightening, huh?
Q: Pretty dedicated, actually. Is this the longest thing you've ever done?
A: Yeah, no question.
Q: Do you have any end point in sight for the series?
A: No. There are other things I want to do so there are bound to be breaks from time to time; it's always good to keep yourself fresh. But the ideas for Sin City just won't stop coming.
Q: So you have no feeling of burn-out or anything like that?
A: Oh, no. The day I wake up and don't want to work on it, I won't work on it.
Q: Where do you get your story ideas?
A: All over the place. That's the toughest question to answer. Actually, the toughest question has to be "Who are your influences?" but up there is "Where do your story ideas come from?" Once you get in the habit of making stories every single thing you see, read, and experience is a kind of fuel. Some stories come to me because I'll see a movie I don't like. I'll think, "Why didn't they do this?" and I realize it's a perfectly good idea that they didn't bother to do.
Q: Because of the nature of your stories, I'm sure you get things from the news. There's some crazy stuff that goes on in the world . . .
A: Oh, yeah -- we live in really fun times. I'm a news junkie; I read two newspapers a day so I tend to keep up on things.
Q: Many of the women in Sin City -- at lest the ones who are central to the story -- are quite duplicitous. Similarly, many of the men are emotionally weak -- essentially controlled by their glands. Is this some sort of "Frank Miller" commentary on life?
A: If Sin City were my commentary on life, I don't think I'd need to do Sin City. Life's a lot more pleasant than that. Actually, most of the women in Sin City are not liars. If you look at them, they mean what they say. And each of the Sin City protagonists -- the men -- have been low-lifes and drifters, but the stories capture them when they make heroic decisions. We're so used to all these clean-shaven, nice guys in tights, that anybody who shows up without a shave looks like a villain to comic-book people.
Q: Based on the content of your letters pages, you obviously get a lot of mail. Do you get requests from fans asking for you to tell a story with a specific character?
A: Sure. There are even people who will complain when there's a new lead character.
Q: Really?
A: Yeah, especially after the first Sin City when Marv wasn't the lead a lot of people were asking "What happened? How can there be a Sin City without this guy?" But that was really my point -- Sin City is the title, not the individuals in it. But yeah, there are requests for a couple of characters. Marv's way up there on the request list.
Q: Would you say he's the favorite?
A: Certainly up until Hartigan -- he got quite a reaction out of people.
Q: He was the cop
in That Yellow Bastard?
A: Right. Other people high on the request list are Miho and Nancy Callahan, the cowgirl.
Q: Do you try to honor these requests or do you do your own thing?
A: It's such a hard line to draw, because I don't believe in chasing my readers around -- in fact, I believe is startling them and pissing them off outright -- and the stories do present themselves. But I know I'm doing something right when people respond particularly well to a certain character. And so far, the requests that come in for a particular character are often my favorite characters. Miho, for instance, is an artist's dream of a character. She's incredibly fun to draw, and she just fills the pages with energy.
Q: It's been said that if the artist enjoys what they draw, the readers will pick up on this and like it that much more.
Q: Just judging from the reactions I get, when I'm having a really good time is when the readers enjoy the stories the most. That may not always be true, but I think it's a pretty good rule of thumb. I wish it was one that's applied more widely to the field. We could stop thinking about "marketing this" and "focus-grouping that," and have the best time they can, I think that comics would be more fun to read.
Q: This is your fourth Sin City one-shot, and I'm sure a lot of people love them, but when are you going to do your next miniseries?
A: The next Sin City novel is going to be The Hard Goodbye. It's a sequel to That Yellow Bastard; it takes place two years later, and -- speaking of popular characters -- it stars Nancy Callahan and Marv.They make an interesting team.
Q: When will that be released?
A: It really depends. I'm doing a long one-shot right now -- about 50 pages -- and after that I might be doing another project that would delay The Hard Goodbye by about six months. It may be out later this year, but it might be early the following year.
Q: What's the name of the long one-shot you're working on right now?
A: Family Values.
Q: Oh, that's nice.
A: Hey, I love coming up with titles.
Q: What's this other project you mentioned?
A: It's a dream project, but I don't want to talk about it yet because I want to get my hands in it before I tell anyone about it.
Q: Something you've wanted to do for a while?
A: Something I've wanted to do since I was six years old.