His economical and powerful lines are the very definition of
art as communication. He has a better internal sense of form
and figure than 90% of today's artists, and he tells a terrific
story in words as well.

Some of the break-out pages in the original book series are
just awesome, humbling showcases of talent and creativity.
Anything I've ever learned about drawing, inking, framing a
pose, shortening my lines, bolding others, comes from his work
in this series. I appreciate it on so many levels, but strictly
as a reader, this is his finest achievement.


Thoughtful, complex action   December 8, 2004
 20 out of 25 found this review helpful

This story comes across much better than the parts would suggest. It has elements of fantasy, history, and science fiction woven together. It's an eco-catastrophic world with clean, livable enclaves for the few. It has demons, heroes, and some who tried and failed. A lesser writer would have made those parts sound like a formula: "Attach Hero (a) to Villain (b), then connect the Mysterious Source of Vast Power (c)."

The artwork is strong, but mostly not the kind I'll remember in a week. Well, there is that four-page foldout spread at the end. The rest is expressive, varied, and communicative, but greatness requires more.

Other comics have a more thoughtful pace, but this at-a-run style works too. It switches often between scenes, times, and levels of awareness. This still leaves time for multiple reversals in the marriage of security chief to science chief, but the human relationships aren't very subtle or central to the story.

Frank Miller is brilliant, and this proves it again. The style is very different from the choppy chiaroscuro of "Sin City", but works for this piece. I'll keep buying Miller's work.

//wiredweird


4 out of 5 recomend...   November 19, 2005
 15 out of 32 found this review helpful

I guess I'm that 5th doctor.

I have recently begun getting back into comics (after a twenty year hiatus) via graphic novels. Batman: the Dark Night, The Watchmen, Powers, Bone, etc... I have loved them all. Based on any number of recommendations I thought I'd give Ronin a try.

Ughhhh.... I hesitate to slam a book so many others have praised. For me it didn't live up to even half of what I would have expected. Art, story, nothing memorable. Please don't take this personally. It's not you, it's me. Maybe you will like it. Maybe you will love it. I didn't.


Miller's diversity is astounding   September 4, 2003
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

Frank Miller is nothing if not diverse. I wrote a few weeks ago about his works, the various superhero works like Daredevil and Batman that made him famous and the groundbreaking works he's done outside of the genre since then, especially in regards to 300, a work of historical fiction. Aside from 300, he has also gone into a futuristic sci-fi setting in his Martha Washington stories, and with his Sin City tales he explored gritty crime drama.

And then there's Ronin, a book that defies easy categorization.

Imagine it is the beginning of summer in 1983 and you are first discovering this book. (Unfortunately I too must imagine here, since I didn't find the book myself until a few years ago.) Unlike every other book you come across, Ronin #1 is a whopping 48 pages, completely free of ads. The colors are richer, deeper than the average book, and somehow more muted as well, giving the book a darker look than most of the garishly bright superhero tales it sits beside.

The style is different too than what you are used to; like he did with Daredevil, Miller is experimenting here with how to construct a comic book page. Many pages feature long panels that stretch across the page, sometimes top to bottom, sometimes from one side to the next. Of course, Miller often uses the staple he has become known for today, a device he used throughout 300, the full two-page spread, to splendidly establish the world Ronin is set in.

The drawings themselves featured in these pages can also easily be separated from the rest of the fare you find in the racks. The motions are fluid, the fight scenes dynamic, avoiding all the normal cliches. In fact in the sixth and final issue of the miniseries (which reached stores in late summer of 1984-Ronin was published bimonthly but suffered delays between issues four and five), at the end of the story the action explodes off the page with such force that it literally cannot be contained. So Frank Miller does the only thing he can do, something unseen in comics up to that time; he lets the scene unfold on a beautiful four-page fold-out spread.

Ronin featured widescreen action years before the term became popular in comics, employed to serve a story unlike any other being published at the time. On the one hand, it is the story of post-apocalyptic New York City; on the other, it is a tale of samurais in feudal Japan. Miller balances these two influences in his tale deftly, mixes them together in one tale that is about demons and magic swords and biotechnology and artificial intelligence. It is a story in which reality and fantasy blend until the only thing the characters can trust is their sense of honor, duty, and loyalty, especially to those they love most.

Luckily it is not 1983, and you don't have to wait for over a year for the entire story to be complete. Ronin is available now in trade paperback so that you can explore its world for yourself today, as I did, without any of the wait yet still with all of the assets I listed above.


Miller's Overlooked Classic!   January 17, 1997
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Probably the most unappreciated of Miller's work, "Ronin" is nevertheless one of his greatest achievements. It was originally shunned by many because of its wild combination of art styles and overall departure from Miller's typical work, but it is this uniqueness that makes it so memorable. Miller creates a convincing, if unrelentingly brutal, vision of the future, and fills it with strong characters you'll never forget. The story unravels in a fascinating way, as the reader realizes that nothing in the story is what it appears to be. I won't spoil it for you--just read the thing. You don't even have to be a Miller buff to enjoy it--any fan of good science fiction will find this one hard to put down