Books: Hard Boiled

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Hard Boiled
Written by Frank Miller
Art by Geof Darrow
1993




Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
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Oof.

Back when Frank Miller was still riding high from the tidal-waves of critical acclaim (and more importantly - huge sales) of The Dark Knight Returns he could pretty much do whatever he wanted. Turns out that what he wanted to do was pilfer all the best bits of Philip K Dick [1] (namely: robots, reality and retromania) and blend with excessive ammounts of ultra-violence, atomic-shaped explosions and scenes of a sexual nature (crikey). The eye-popping results is a lethal cocktail with an after-taste of Blade Runner, Akira and Mad Max - with it's heeving and bustlings futurstic cityscape littered with human bodies, barbed wire and toxic debris. (phew! I'm going to need a cold shower after this...)

If I was going to sum up the book in a single word then I would pump for "excessive." With artwork by Geof Darrow (who also went on to collabate with Miller on The Big Guy and Rusty The Boy Robot - and also (perhaps more famously) Matrix films - where he worked as the conceptual designer) every single panel of this book is rammed full and crowded with thousands of tiny details (chocolate wrappers, fetuses, pointy weaponary etc) - bringing to mind "Where's Wally" for sociopaths (and yeah - that would be my tagline for the book). With slow motion explosions extended to crazy lengths (this must be where Neo got it from). In direct contrast to the pictorial gluttony is the dialogue, plot and characterisation which is all stripped right on down to the bone. This is book that cares not about psychophysical rigor or mental insights (if you want that kind of stuff - go and watch a play): rather it's all about stimulus overload - with an onslaught of ever-more outrageous images with dialogue that nestles above it with an almost absurd counterbalances (a full page explosion and all he can say is "Oof"? That's pretty funny).

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[1] Some sources (ie things on the internet) say that this was based on a particular Philip K Dick short story - but I'm stuck as to which one they mean - my best guess: The Electric Ant? which - incidently - you really should read if you haven't already.

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Links: Comics You Should Own Review, Comic Book Bin Review, They Stole Frazier's Brain Review.

Further reading: The Big Guy and Rusty The Boy Robot, Elektra: Assassin, Sin City, The Filth, Domu, The Bulletproof Coffin, Special Forces, Prophet, Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Saga, The Life and Times of Martha Washington in The Twenty-First Century, Orc Stain, Philip K Dick's Electric Ant.

Profiles: Frank Miller.

All comments welcome.