"We may be looking at Frank Miller's next run-in with cancellation" made me spit-take my coffee this morning.

I love when Jim gets fired up over how bad something is. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Stumbled upon this completely by happenstance, and damn I love the vibe! There’s not many podcasts that I can listen to while drawing (and I draw a lot) that actively keep my attention while also not completely distracting me, and y’all hit the sweet spot! Subscribed and turned notifications on. Happy I found y’all 🤟🏾🤟🏾

the artwork is probably what is saving this book, that part looks amazing

Philip Tan doing a helluva Tim Sale impression.

He lost it as early as Holy Terror.

I agree Ed and Jim should have been the editors to Frank. An honest voice will help to make a better product.

Some of it reminded me of Whilce Portacio on Uncanny X-Men in the early 90s, like I really like Philip Tann like I would totally watch if you covered more of his stuff because I don't really know much about his back catalogue but his artwork makes me inspired to do more artwork myself 💯👌

I love that paper and wish more publishers would use it!

Cut to New York City 20 years ago...lol!

In the double splash page with the Wolverine like character with the swords reminds me of Miller layouts with early Jim Lee finishing over it.....

What’s most telling about the Ronin preview is that you couldn’t tell it was Casey McKenna. Tan may be a good artist, but he took a unique character and made her look like a cookie-cutter “superhero woman”. VERY disappointing. The rest of his art here is pretty great, but as a fan of the first Ronin from the time it first came out, I can’t accept this lame version of Casey.

Eh, he dropped off in the late 90s but i think he gets unnecessary flack for what the comics industry became. Its not his fault the industry took TDKR as a template for characters the next 20 years.

Wow just discovered this channel and am loving it

I can see Miller layouts, but everything else is the Kuberts, Jim Lee, John Romita Jr. It feels like an early 90s jam session.

I would KILL to work over Uncle Frank’s layouts. I’m still hoping for the best and if this stuff does fall flat I’m hoping they eventually find their footing and it’s just some growing pains. I loved his Superman: Year One. Appreciate you guys being brutally honest here, I could see it being tempting to suck up. 🙏

The newsprint paper and halftone patterns seems to be an intentional choice, you see that in the cheap weelky manga publications (similar to 2000AD) like ‘ShonenJump’ etc. Don’t know if that’s what they’re aiming for but almost all manga is black and white. The collected ‘Ghost in the Shell’ that everyone has is exceptional because it has some watercolour pages and does this strange opposite ‘Wizard of Oz’ thing where the colour disappears and goes back to that tone-sheet newsprint look.

I love your guys insight, and ideas for a better comic buying experience. You are right, Ashcans should comeback…

Oh, man - having a chat with Tan about how this worked would be dope.

He lost it decades ago. Remember all star? Remember dk2?

I’ll read anything Frank Miller writes.

"it makes me feel bad" haha nice insight. I liked the comment about where the story should have begun.

Please do Berserk… PLEASE

Did you guy see this image on Facebook: i.imgur.com/e2ikZTm.jpg It shows how the Ronin Book II artwork was based on Frank's original layouts.

I just can't imagine what you would do with a Ronin 2. The story's done and over. I mean, are they both going to reincarnate again? What's the point? Why even do this? Seems like it might be a cash grab or an attention getter for the rest of the line.

The most important take-away from this review, "Read ghost in the shell."

I read this and it just seemed like random panels from a larger story put together…. I think it would have worked better as an “images only” preview because you you want to read it as a comic with the text included.

So we're talking Robocop 2 level writing. Ah well... dang it, I'll still buy it.

When you create as much as him, sometimes it feels good to to something different, if only because it feels good to not do the same thing for the millionth time. Exercising a different part of your brain for a change. Whenever a popular creator does this, it’s natural for their fans to be disappointed. But it’s a logical choice to make. He gets to make something different, and he gets to possibly reach a different audience than his normal fandom. Who cares if it doesn’t sell as well as Sin City? He’s gat dang Frank Miller and he’s doing exactly what he loves. I like his work, and imo at first glance, I think this title looks dope. I immediately want to know about this character. So you may not like it, but he has the talent and demand to be able to do what he wants, not what other people want.

Awesome review, bros! Frank Miller's creations - at any level - are always interesting! Can't wait to get a few copies...AGL

Frank miller watched basilisk

"Kubert Nepotism train" Damn

How’s about checking out a Richard Sala book? Unrelated. Just really want to see it

I grabbed issue #1 this wk. loved it Philip tans art is super sick

I think the more appropriate question is "When did Frank Miller lose it?" Dude's not put out anything good in more than a decade.

A video dedicated to Philip Tan would be amazing, he's my all time favorite artist.

Can't wait for it to come out here! It will be real TNT!!

Would love to see Choe back on the show, keep up the awesome work guys!

The Manara one is a oneshot and the Western is a mini I believe

Reminds me of Atlas Comics all over again.

No disrespect to the artists involved in this, but the only person I want to see drawing Ronin or Sin City stuff is Frank Miller

Jim saying of this sampler "it makes me feel bad". Sums up my feelings on Miller in general these days.

I think the takeaway here is Manara is doing a Sin City book. All is right in the world.

I thought we established this with holy terror.

I've been hoping for another Sin City movie, even though the last one didn't earn as much as one might have hoped.

nice vid ed

11:48 honor means winning fighting like a man not a coward

Answer: yes, a long time ago

Jim nailed it.

To talk about Frank Miller's decline, you also have to talk about his medical decline as well. As an outsider looking in, it's easy to take shots at the work on its merit as it stands.. but I kind of see his decline as an athlete with a career ending knee injury win a leg race.

I probably should have paid more attention to the solicits that said it was miller WRITING and not doing art for ronin 2 before adding it to my pull. At least he got a great artist, who clearly will have to carry this thing.

He did a sequel?

I don't know if there's enough of that Didio story to be that critical about the beginning. But I will say that I've never read anything by him that wasn't a series of plot elements without any emotional content. He's from the "Isn't It Cool" school of writing, where someone puts together a plot where there's an sequence of possibly interesting things that don't elicit much of a response from the reader.

FM definitely like his characters pierced the F up…

I'm usually against dumping on a great like Miller, but you guys are doing it so professionally that it's not just the normal "new generation calling old artist out of touch" type of video. Your intentions are to do good. You've earned my respect. But I'm a comics amateur. Always will be. If I read this comic and I knew it was from Frank Miller, I'm not sophisticated enough to know that this is not a great comic.

He lost it back in Robocop III.

Gonna answer the question asked in the video's title, before watching the video: YES.

I read the first Ronin at the age of 14 when it first came out. I liked it then. Bought the trade when that came out, read it again, and still liked it alright. Last year I read it for the third time and I can't say that I cared for it. I was never clear if Ronin was actually reincarnated as Billy or if Billy was delusional. As far as the sequel series it looks like a gender swapped Lone Wolf and Cub. The artwork looks good, but I'm not buying it.

This book is amazing

he is like 80 years now what do u expect

I just read Superman year one and I thought it was hot trash. Loved the artwork throughout it especially the use of color and stuff in the first two chapters but good Lord that was hard to get through. Most unrealistic dialogue I've ever read.

The Sin City titles sound pretty cool (especially the Manara book), but aside from that, all around pretty meh catalog ngl. I kinda hope they get James Harvey to color Miller's interior art. His unnoficial recolors of some of DK3's covers & Strikes Again's interiors work really well at matching & elevating Miller's lineart. For some reason they've been sadly memory-holed & forgotten.

That's certainly a mixed bag of samples. In the first one, if you look closely at the page that was read aloud, there's nothing in it has any emotional content. That seems to be the case with the other text in the book. A lot of the captions are saying what happened while floating over one image. They seem to be missing the idea that this is sequential art. In general, it just makes it boring to read.

But why? Why would two advanced civilisations just not say "okay, instead of making a suicide button (which we totally won't fuck around with) lets just stop fighting?"

Oh no.

I honestly don't see some of these books ever coming out, or at least not coming out under Frank Miller Presents. Ronin 2 and Ancient Enemies will probably get a few issues but I don't think Pandora, or the Sin City books are far enough along. I'm sure Dark Horse won't mind publishing more Sin City.

I first read Miller back during on his time on Daredevil and I've been a fan ever since. Or at least I've tried to be. But, like you guys, I'm afraid Frank has indeed lost it. The art by Philip Tan and Daniel Henriques is the main thing that will make this return to Ronin worth picking up. I don't know if you guys checked out XERXES, the 300 prequel that came out in 2019, but it revealed a Frank Miller that had forgotten how to draw and his writing was a dull self-parody. That said, I am gonna be there for the Manara (yep, it's a book) SIN CITY and the SIN CITY western series. I just hope the more FM reapplies himself to comics, the more he'll get his groove back.

I think the poor guy lost it after 9/11

Unduly.

That Ronin 2 has some sick cloud rap lyrics.

I felt this way since DK2.

I want MORE Ronin and I think it looked and sounded good,and Manara working with Frank ? great !!

You don't invite your sidekick, do you. Awkward! Think about it

The first rule of writing is show don’t tell. The B&W art is stunning, the writing is a teenage web comic.

Frank Millar isn't as dope as he used to be. And a lot of his work isn't aging aging so well story wise. But he does have his classics. And he has changed the game a few times. But Frank shines when he does nior. That's his thing. Be it in a futuristic setting or fuedel Japan setting.) When he tries other stuff he flops generally. (see: Spawn/ Batman, Spawn #11, All Star Batman & Robin) maybe the last one not so much, but the other stuff is hot garbage. I also like how he does ninjas and samurais. But it's still nior if you really look at it. I think if we found a lot of Frank Millar's stuff now it wouldn't be as dope as it was when we first got it.

There is no question Philip Tan will carry this book. But if you think Miller has lost it, I'd hate for you guys to see what they did to the X-men. But Miller has been on a steady decline since All Star Batman and Robin.

After 50 we all Lose it. Word.

This looks bad. Except for the Manara piece.

I bet hearing about the creation process of this book would be way more interesting than reading the book.

As millers art has gotten wilder his writing has descended into self parody, Dan Didio wrote some comics while publisher at DC that I would describe as 'fun' but yeah that space opera thing looks super generic and visually bland. Seems like a bummer imprint all around.

No - he’s discovered mike kaluta

Frank is old and some writers just lose their skill over time. they need better editors

I will always stand by Frank Miller as one of the most profound conceptual writers of the 20th century. "Born Again" and "The Dark Knight Returns" are unmatched by anything but "The Watchmen". "Year One", "300", "The Man Without Fear", "Sin City" and "Ronin" are still peerless but compared to the magnigicence of his other two works a B+. "Allstar Batman and Robin" captures the spirit of what a man approaching middle age taking a ward to fight deadly criminals would behave like. It might be jarring and actually make you dislike Bruce Wayne in parts but that is what makes it so good. "Holy Terror" and the DKR sequels are experimental and not my cup of tea but they have their merits. The man has changed my life and brought me back from a dark period in my personal like and I am forever indebted. His political quadrant perspective lies far and away from 99.9% of modernitys writers and that makes him even more special. I will defend the man till the day I die

Frankly (no pun intended), I think Miller peaked with Daredevil.

To answer the title; absolutely. He's riding off his past success and just comes off as your demented grandpa who is still living in his 'Nam flashbacks. I haven't enjoyed a single thing he's written in close to 20 years.

Stunning art but I can’t see the story being very compelling all these years later

Respectfully, I disagree.

This preview basically killed my interest in the whole endeavor. I'm going to at least give Ronin II a chance, and will look at their other offerings, but I'm expecting absolutely nothing now. It's even worse than Artists Elite. The DiDio story was a complete eye-rolling waste of time.

Yeah, I'm a huge Frank Miller fan, but the writing you highlighted seemed really generic. I also think like you do: "Would I enjoy this writing maybe if I was younger and wasn't already exposed to a hundred similar stories?". Of course, a work doesn't count on one page, but it does show something about what the writer think is good enough to showcase. Hoping for the best!

Read it a few weeks ago and have no idea what I was reading. Jim is on point - it wasn't worth a buck.

He lost it during Sin City

In the mid 70's til the end of the 80's I was a regular SDCC attendee. Had hotel rooms and everything through those years. I met many artists and creators during that time. Frank Miller was a nice guy in the beginning, very approachable. Then Daredevil took off and he turned into a Total Dickhead Asshole.

ever since drugs and alcoholism took over he lost edge he lost his drawing ability he used to be very cool guy and changed comic book industry man sad he looks in a bad shape

When I picked up the DK3 series and saw those shorts Miller was drawing I felt sad and embarrassed. I've always respected Millers work more than I was personally a fan of it. Loved his daredevil but other than that he didn't really speak to me. But Miller has become lousy to read and outright horrible to look at.

I'm a massive Frank Miller fan since Daredevil, yet I sped through this. Sorry. Didn't feel like a Miller product at all. I felt he lost it since his Superman limited for Black Label.

The art is top-notch, but the writing is just so... played out. Too rote to even be pretentious. Miller is a legend, but he's just rehashing the hits by numbers and titling them differently. A bummer.

You can't lose what you never had

Hot take: the original RONIN is a mess, too

Lost it fully in Dark Knight Strikes Again

He lost it a hot minute ago with “Holy Terror”. “Red Room” is awesome though. The Patreon is like two bucks - get you some.