Frank Miller’s art has always been a huge selling point for
me. It’s bad ass- let’s just put that
right out there in the front. Call it “gritty,” or “edgy,” or “hard,” Miller’s
way of illustrating society’s underworld and the denizens that populate it can’t
be matched. In reading this series, I think I may have pinpointed where this
style came from. Frank Miller’s aesthetic in The Dark Knight Returns is deeply influenced by a Hunter S. Thompson-Ralph
Steadman-hybrid hellscape.
Looking at some of Miller’s depictions of our favorite
superheroes and supervillains, this becomes readily apparent. Be they goodies or
baddies, Miller draws them with nightmarish qualities- bringing to their
physical surface the violence and depravity of the atmosphere in which they
reside. Thompson used Steadman’s crazed, fear-injected illustrations as a lens
through which he could look in on the broken and violent American Dream; Miller
does the same with his work so we can understand Gotham. Thompson thought
people were monsters, Miller shows that in order to defeat the worst of them,
Batman sort of has to become one himself.
I agree with you in that Miller seems to push the boundaries of darker images, especially with the heroes. That Superman depiction right after the atomic bomb hits is disturbing to say the least and really perpetuates the "fear-injected illustration" that you talked about. This sort of style gives a gothic kind of feel that I think Frank Miller has become known for (although don't quote me on that) and helps to establish his stories as darker than previous depictions of Batman and Superman.
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