300

As the film adaption of Frank Miller's comic "300" will start in cinemas across Europe at the beginning of april I want to offer an impression on how the movie will be - and the first glimpse is really, really promising I think. As I want to be prepared properly I also read the comic last weekend and I have to admit that it's simply great. Exciting story and awesome drawings (colored by Frank Miller's wife Lynn Varley). From Spartan King Leonidas' early adventures to the presentation of the battles and the brave soldiers, a lot of dramatic and impressive pictures were drawn. High quality as accustomed by Frank Miller!!



The Battle of Thermopylae ranks as one of the ancient world's most important events, where Spartan King Leonidas and his 300-man bodyguard met the massive army of Emperor Xerxes of Persia, who intended to add Greece to his empire. To no one's surprise, the Spartans were destroyed. While the battle bought the Greeks enough time to defeat the mighty Persians, it was more important for the metaphor it created: occasionally one has to lose to win. This is clearly the inspiration behind Miller's attempt to place this epic tale in the context of a graphic novel. A renowned comics artist and writer known for hard-boiled stories of almost operatic intensity and stylishly overwrought violence, Miller (Sin City) injects his own brand of graphic sensationalism into this ancient tale of national survival. Miller clearly isn't as interested in being a historian as he is in telling a story, but his portrayal of the ancient world is compelling. His drawings of the bearded Leonidas are pensive and starkly imperial. The Persian King Xerxes is represented as majestically African, his body covered in a gaudy and bejeweled network of meticulously rendered chains and bracelets. Form and content are ideally wedded: Miller's writing is stark, his drawings moody and dramatic, and intensified by Varley's grimly appropriate palette of earth and blood. The reader can see and feel the harshness of both the Grecian landscape and Sparta's battle-worshipping culture, as Miller presents the complex historical moment facing the 300 (Copyright by Reed Business Information)



publisher of the comic: dark horse (english), cross cult (german)