Comic Art

Frank Miller is one of the most influential comic creators ever, but who could expect that he would also change the way we conceive film making! After Robocop 2, 3 and 4, Elektra and the magnificent Sin City the latest adaptation of his work for the big screen is 300, a story based on the real facts of the battle of Thermopylae (Hot Gates) in the unique way only comics and cinema could present it. The book was published in 1998 as a limited 5-issue series (the issues were titled Honor, Duty, Glory, Combat and Victory) and later as a hardcover book and received many awards, including three Eisner. This may not be an exact replica of the original story like Sin City (there is a secondary story in Sparta that did not exist in the book) but if you are a fan of 300 as Frank Miller visualized it you won’t be disappointed.

This is the story of King Leonidas of Sparta and his 300 best soldiers, in 480 BC they stood between the Persian king Xerxes and the rest of Greece in a narrow passage and made their last stand for more than 3 days against an army so vast the world had never before witnessed. It is the story of the Spartans, a civilization specialized in every aspect of the art of war, their harsh ways and difficult lives, their ethics and code of honor, and ultimately it is a story of love and duty and how every man decides to express those.

The film was made entirely in blue and green screen sets for the settings to appear as comic-like as possible, the actors (in most cases) were tremendous in their roles and although there were parts were the Spartans were not laconic at all and the features of an action film threat to spoil the atmosphere, the overall outcome was an epic movie capable of offering 2 hours of fun and even more of pure awe. If Sin City 2 is that good, heck maybe they should make an academy award for comic creators!

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