20th Dec 2023, 3:20 PM
It’s been so long since I last posted a page, I have to admit I’ve almost forgotten how to do this!
This page is a parody of, and an homage to, the writing and art style of Frank Miller. Miller is a titan of the comic book industry, having created The Dark Knight Returns, and Batman: Year One, two of the most popular and influential Batman stories of the last fifty years. They were published by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987, respectively, and I’d argue that Miller’s unique take on the character changed the tone of Batman comics in ways that have persisted to the modern era.
Thought balloons quickly fell out of fashion, in favor of first-person narration in caption boxes, evoking the feel of film noir voice-over dialogue. Personally, I’m a fan of the thought balloon, perhaps largely because of the now-anachronistic feel it brings to a comic. I want a vintage feel to my comic, so I use them without hesitation in Steamroller Man. My idea for this page’s gag was to do some Frank Miller-style narration captions that visually transformed into thought balloons in front of the reader. I thought this moment in the story would be the perfect place for it, because Night Knight’s woozy delirium could explain why his thoughts seemed “different”.
I studied Miller’s work, and also the work of the letterers on both projects - Todd Klein and John Costanza - to see how the caption boxes looked and functioned. In Dark Knight Returns, Miller has Batman refer to himself as “old man” a lot, and makes lots of references and allusions to Batman’s possible death. He does it so much that it becomes a stylistic device. In Batman: Year One, the narration takes the form of journal entries that Bruce Wayne writes about his nightly experiences fighting crime, and this is reflected in the lettering, with a cursive, lowercase font within caption boxes with ragged edges that look like torn paper. So I took an approach that was influenced by all of those elements.
Panel one is a direct “swipe” of one of Miller’s most iconic images from The Dark Knight Returns. I tried to copy the pose, and replicate Miller’s distinctive style of drawing, as closely as possible here, to really hammer home the reference.
Panel two was a crazy idea I had, which hopefully comes across clearly. I pictured Night Knight shaking his head to regain his senses, accompanied by the sound of bongo drums that you would hear in vintage Hanna-Barbera cartoons. I didn’t want to even try to spell out an onomatopoeic sound effect for this idea, so I hoped that writing “CARTOON BONGO SOUNDS” and drawing some ethereal, floating bongos around his head, would communicate the idea. I think it’s over-the-top enough to be funny, hopefully the reader does, too.
I drew the artwork for panel one with physical media, which is rare for me. It’s one of very few pieces of original Steamroller Man artwork! I’m raffling off the inked 9”x12” piece to my mailing list subscribers. If you would like to enter the raffle, please sign up for my mailing list before Dec 31st, 2023! I’ll be announcing the winner in early January!
Thanks for reading. Hopefully I’ll have the next page up in less than the six months it took me to finish this one!
Keep rolling,
Matt