Frank Miller, Blog Commenter

Over at the comic book blog Robot 6, Sean Collins reports that Frank Miller, the celebrated creator of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City, and 300, has become a regular commenter at the blog of conservative writer and military historian Victor Davis Hanson:

Miller's comments at Hanson's online hangout were first widely noticed this week, when the cartoonist and director responded to a Hanson post complaining that pervasive liberal influence and cultural decadence had driven him away from the bulk of American popular entertainment. Miller's comment-thread response encouraged Hanson to take heart, noting the talents of several Sin City, 300, and The Spirit stars, as well as action-franchise leads like Matt Damon, Daniel Craig, and Harrison Ford. Miller went on to invite Hanson to a get-together with the Friends of Abe, a group founded by actor Gary Sinise as a sort of support system for conservatively inclined Hollywood talent.

Doing a little detective work, Comics Commentary's Rodrigo Baeza dug up several more comments from Miller at Hanson's blog. The topics range from the casting of Gabriel Macht in The Spirit's lead role to how "horrible for my country [the then-pending election of Barack Obama] will be" to later asking that people at least give Obama a chance before freaking out to railing against anonymous commenters.

Read the rest here.

Miller has certainly never bothered to hide his right-of-center politics. As occasional Reason contributor Chris Matthew Sciabarra discusses in his excellent 2004 article "The Illustrated Rand," Miller has repeatedly cited Ayn Rand as an influence, including this tribute from Miller's introduction to Martha Washington Goes to War:

We all borrow from the classics from time to time, and my story for this chapter in the life of Martha Washington is no exception. Faced with the questions of how to present Martha's rite of passage and how to describe the fundamental changes in Martha's world, I was drawn again and again to the ideas presented by Ayn Rand in her 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged. Eschewing the easy and much-used totalitarian menace made popular by George Orwell, Rand focused instead on issues of competence and incompetence, courage and cowardice, and took the fate of humanity out of the hands of a convenient "Big Brother" and placed it in the hands of individuals with individual strengths and individual choices made for good or evil. I gratefully and humbly acknowledge the creative debt.

Comments

[UCrawford]

Miller's views on a lot of topics are considerably further "right-of-center" than a lot. I used to love his work, but for the last few years he's let his work take a backseat to his political opinions...some of them quite noxious (especially his views about the "global fight against fascism" he felt Bush's "War on Terror" envisioned). Basically, I find a lot of his views far too similar to the same kind of crap we hear from white supremacists when they go on their idiotic "race war" diatribes.

[libertybill]

I would have to agree, Miller still seems to be on the Neocon/authotarian right train.

[Speaking of Gangsters...]

The Chicago Way The Chamber of Commerce is only the latest target of the Chicago Gang in the White House.

"They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way."

?Jim Malone,

"The Untouchables"

When Barack Obama promised to deliver "a new kind of politics" to Washington, most folk didn't picture Rahm Emanuel with a baseball bat. These days, the capital would make David Mamet, who wrote Malone's memorable movie dialogue, proud.

A White House set on kneecapping its opponents isn't, of course, entirely new. (See: Nixon) What is a little novel is the public and bare-knuckle way in which the Obama team is waging these campaigns against the other side.

In recent weeks the Windy City gang added a new name to their list of societal offenders: the Chamber of Commerce. For the cheek of disagreeing with Democrats on climate and financial regulation, it was reported the Oval Office will neuter the business lobby. Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett slammed the outfit as "old school," and warned CEOs they'd be wise to seek better protection.

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....77126.html

[UCrawford]

When did I say anything about gangsters or Obama? The article's about Frank Miller and so were my comments.

[Some Guy]

A lot of his views far too similar to the kind of crap we hear from white supremacists? OK, I fucking challenge you to cite any writings from Miller or anything he said and show how they are even remotely similar to groups advocating for the destruction of an entire race.

[Cracker]

Caption Contest:

Who's ready for a sandwich?

[sage]

Ooh man, I know I am.

[JW]

Caption:

It's good to be a gansta.

[UCrawford]

Oh, and...

I was drawn again and again to the ideas presented by Ayn Rand in her 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged.

I've known a lot of "far right" authoritarian types who found common ground with "Atlas Shrugged", especially Rand's master race of the able leanings. They're all about freedom as long as it's freedom for their ideology...they're noticeably silent or opposed when it comes to freedom for groups (and individuals) who don't conform to their personal versions of morality or behavior (even when they're not forcing those behaviors on others).

[Pro Libertate]

J sub D,

Your next comment will be rejected by the for not being written in an English script.

Please comment in English.

[J sub D]

I know what you're about to do, PL.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm doing it for you, J sub D, not to you. You must be willing to sacrifice yourself for the good of the cause. Go ahead, preempt my statements! I want you to do it! And when I go down, you must pick up the flag for me and advance on our enemies!

[JB]

The freedom to have all government, all the time, in every orifice?

You can have it as long as I can opt out, fuckbag.

[Jaybird]

Batman really is kind of a creepy character, when you think about it. He hangs out in the crappy part of town and beats the shit out of people.

Still a fan, mind.

But Rorsharch was closer to what Batman in practice would really be than, you know, a Nietzschean Superman.

[J sub D]

Do I care?

Your comment does not appear to be written in an English script. Please comment in English.

OK. I'll spell it out for the retarded algorithm. Not only no, fuck no!

Is that better than NON,FN?

[Ravac]

Been awhile since SF linked a stupid Jezebel thread, no?

[Xeones]

Hang on, i'm sending him one. I'd post it myself, but i don't want to take away from him the one thing that brings joy to his life, you know?

[SugarFree]

Jezebel hack gets mentioned in the Washington Post in an article about funny blog commenters.

Because when you really want to find the funny, embittered feminists are the first place anyone would look.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

That reporter sounds like the dude who reported from 4chan wearing a combat helmet.

[SugarFree]

Being the funniest commenter on a feminism sites is an honor on par with being noted as the tallest midget or smartest imbecile.

Shallow fucking pool.

[Groovus Maximus]

Indeed. It is exactly like saying Moe was the smart Stooge.

[Br'er Rabbit]

At least they are honest about some things over at Jezebel:

punching a hole in a condom is the sort of thing we like to do between maxing out guys' credit cards on shoes and sleeping with their best friends.

[JB]

Cunts

[Pro Libertate]

Crap. This hack works better when I use English grammar. Dangit.

[Lester Hunt]

My college student son, a huge fan of both 300 and Rand, will be thrilled to learn there is a connection between them.

[JW]

Does anyone think that Brittany Murphy looks hot in that picture?

[Slut Bunwalla]

Goddamn, Brittany Murphy looks hot in that picture.

[Rimfax]

This brings the character of Ken Wind into a clearer perspective.

[Dagny T.]

From the WaPo article in Sug's link:

Failed attempts at [humor] are met with vicious mockery and so entire pockets of the Internet turn into humor boot camps. Make us laugh, or leave.

Yup, nothing says feminism like vicious mockery.

[Pro Libertate]

Episiarch,

You should release your hate of the Spartans. . .now:

[mitch]

Nothing says feminism like "Failed attempts at [humor]." With or without the brackets.

[Episiarch]

Who would have thought that a guy who glorifies the Spartans might be authoritarian right? Who, I ask?

[SugarFree]

He could have just been a pig's blood boiled in vinegar fan. Or an intercrural sex fiend.

[Pro Libertate]

They're going to send me to wherever they sent Virginia Postrel for doing this, aren't they?

[Xeones]

I sense an incipient SugarFree'd link.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

a pig's blood boiled in vinegar fan

You mean a Filipino? What does that have to do with anything?

[Pro Libertate]

That's damned impressive, Xeones. Can you see directly into the mind of the Squirrel?

[Xeones]

It's ok. He's about to make it right.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

Hier is your goddamn link. I tell you, this is just a sign that the squirrels are angered by the jackassery of some among us. We must propitiate them, or all is lost.

[Pro Libertate]

Xeones,

Remember, only use your powers for good.

[Ass Of Catalonia]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_soup

"To relish this dish, one must first bathe in the Eurotas."

[C-Dog]

I love how the Spartans got their asses handed to them for 30 fucking years by a bunch of Athenian boy lovers, who then had to fuck it up with an expedition in Sicily.

[joshua corning]

pretty sure the Spartans were boy lovers as well.

[JW]

We're going to put you in the attic for this ProL.

[Pro Libertate]

I think using the term "boy lovers" as a pejorative for the Athenians in comparison with the Spartans may be an error, 'cause at least the Athenians didn't have the boy loving built into their damned educational system.

Athens came within a hair of winning the whole business at Pylos.

[Seward]

Yes, given that screwing other guys was the primary way of getting it on for male Spartan citizens talking about Athenian homosexuality seems to be missing the point.

Of course there was also murder of young boys who did not measure up to consider as well.

You really have to ignore the whole of Spartan society to admire them at all, and that seems to ignore too much for me.

Not that the Athenians were any saints. Every time I see a commentator say something about the Acropolis or some such being the triumph of democracy I think, does democracy include forcibly extracting monies from "allies" to build such a thing? Or the slave mines that Athens owned and operated?

The tendency to gloss over that stuff is just really common of course.

[Pro Libertate]

Agreed. Lots of nice bits from Athens--democracy (and an example of what's wrong with an unchecked democratic system), philosophy, literature, history, etc.--but plenty of bad, too. Just like the Romans.

[JW]

No, ProL. You won't suck me into your sick and twisted game.

[Old Bull Lee]

I've always thought it was an intentional error. The book and movie are both basically the Spartan propaganda legend version of the story, and not really meant to be historically accurate (note the lack of armor).

This article sort of explains it:

http://corner.nationalreview.c.....NjYzBjMzU=

[C-Dog]

The Spartans were more "boy rapists", than "boy lovers." Spartan propaganda painted the Athenians as feminine, while the Athenians thought the Spartans had some twisted, sick version of masculinity (That one is straight out of Pericles mouth).

The aspect that damns the Spartans in my eyes is that they weren't even great military generals. If your whole society is built around creating savage warriors, how do you create shitty generals?

[Pro Libertate]

JW,

Oh, come on. Try it, you'll like it!

[JW]

I said NO! If you posted over at Femafisting, you'd know that that word means.

[Pro Libertate]

Nice try, but I've seen your work in this thread. Asynchronic hypocrite!

[JW]

Nonlinear divergent!

[Pro Libertate]

By any means necessary.

Adnotatiunculae bilicis delenda est.

[Mad Max]

William Hogarth comments on the 18th Century blog under the handle 'SocialCritic'

Thomas Nast comments on the NY Politics blog under the name 'Republicanz Rule & Tammany Papists Suck'

[Mad Max]

Pericles' profile in dating sites reads '1 in a million: straight Athenian seeks intellectual-minded foreign procuress. I'm just kinky that way.'

[Mad Max]

Albrecht Durer posts at comics sites, complaining that R. Crumb's art isn't disturbing enough.

[Seward]

300 was so ahistorical that it was essentially a farce.

From a modern sensibility there is about as much to admire in the Spartans as there is there is of the Soviet Union or the Hapsburg Empire. All three were anti-individual regimes based primarily on the slavery of the mass of the population for the benefit of a minority which was corrupt and vicious. The Spartans stand for the glory of the state and those who run the state, just like the Soviet Union did.

[Pro Libertate]

I'll give the Spartans this: They had a great reputation in antiquity for being honest. After that, I think the Athenians and some of the other city-states were much better. So, yeah, thanks for the help in fending off the Persians; otherwise, screw off, Sparta.

[Seward]

Their best punishment for being so barbaric was to end up as a tourist attraction for the Romans. That had to be just galling.

"Oh, look at the quaint natives and their strange practices. Someone draw them on some papyrus!"

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

The Hapsburg Empire was based on slavery? O rly?

Also, what the hell was so wrong with the Persians that we have to laud the Spartans' defense as the best thing ever?

[Pro Libertate]

Well, we did get some good "Western" stuff from Athens. I think Persia was okay, too, and probably deserves credit for some things we consider "Greek."

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

I'm just going to say that the Habsburg Empire is a bad example up there. Sure, they were a bunch of inbred authoritarian fucks, but not really worse than other contemporaneous societies. But Sparta and the USSR were much more authoritarian and unfair for the vast majority of their population than other systems that existed at the same time as they did.

[Seward]

Bergholt,

Well, more exactly serfdom. Which is a type of "unfreedom."

[Pro Libertate]

What do you have against serfing?

[JW]

The serfs hate it when you try to ride them!

[Pro Libertate]

Skeet serfin'!

[Seward]

"We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week."

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

1 And all uv de Urf was lolcatspeekinkz usin' lolcats werdz. 2 Whial teh menz be movin' eest, they finded vallee in teh land uv Shinar an sitted ther. 3 Dey sed "hai, letz maek teh brix an make 'em harrd wif fiir." So dey uzed brix for ston an bitumen (wtf izzat?) for mortar. 4 Den dey sed "hai, letz maek reel tall towerz for us so we be togethr forevr!"
5 So, Ceiling Cat comeded down an saw teh men an ther towerz. 6 Den Ceiling Cat sez "Oh noes, if they all togethr after mah hi spot, they gonna get mah hi spot! 7 I gots'ta confuzzle 'em and stop 'em!" 8 Dat's wai Ceiling Cat pwned 'em an dragd 'em away from ther towerz. Dey stop buldin' after dat. 9 So teh towerz wuz calld Babel cuz Ceiling Cat made teh men babbul ther befor movin' dem.

[Pro Libertate]

Episiarch,

You should come in late and claim credit for my rebellious acts.

[Episiarch]

I feel bad because I'm the one who suggested to ProL that he do this. Wait, no I don't, I find it hilarious.

[JW]

Just watch Epi. ProL's going to take all the credit for this ingeniously simple hack. He'll slip you a little something in the beginning, as if that makes up for it.

[Pro Libertate]

Nice.

What's bugging me is that highnumber was talking about some sort of hack he'd planned. He didn't say what it was, so I hope this isn't it.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

I hate to break it to you, ProL, but this little trick of yours (while certainly mildly entertaining) does not in any way rise to the level of a "hack". Keep trying though, you're bound to come up with something eventually.

[Pro Libertate]

It's not a systems hack but a process hack. It hurts my brain to do it--just imagine the effect on less experienced blog commenters!

[Pro Libertate]

You were my inspiration, though, of course, you told me merely to comment randomly. I've added a nonrandom component.

[JW]

See? And now he'll have some snide crap about sharing a Nobel or something. Like they're worth anything any longer.

Demand the cash up front!

[Pro Libertate]

Strangely enough, this is how time travel gets started. Episiarch and I get to split the Nobel Prize in Physics based on our published work in several Hit & Run threads.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

How do you stop rival scientists from going back in time and publishing your work in journals before even this?

[Pro Libertate]

Simple. I just keep posting ahead of them.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

But obviously the person who posts in the first ever scientific journal wins. Unless you scratch your work into a cave wall in France with animal blood.

[Pro Libertate]

As you can see, people tend to screw it up when they try to preempt a comment. The evil scientists who will try to take our prize money will leave evidence of their wrongdoing. The time line is locked.

[Pro Libertate]

JW has learned about where one needs to comment for this to work. Excellent.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

You know, I think we're causing eddies in the space/time continuum that travel back and forth in time creating chaos and causing severe damage to the very fabric of Creation. Say, maybe thats's what caused the Obama Nobel!

[Xeones]

Someone point out how overrated Frank Miller is. I don't have time to right now.

[Frank Miller]

I almost suck as much as Rob Liefeld.

[Joseph Valencia]

Frank Miller is incredibly overrated. Beyond "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Sin City", his work sucks.

[Joseph Valencia]

Oh, I forgot "Year One". Still doesn't make up for those awful RoboCop sequels, though. >_>

[Emperor Norton]

I much prefer crazy lefty Alan Moore to crazy righty Frank Miller.

[JW]

I'm guessing that fuckwit Ray Butlers will show up here soon, with one of his vapid and IQ challenged taunts.

I really shouldn't make fun of the metally retarded, but he's a mean one. They're usually nicer.

[Ray Butlers]

Unsolicited, unprovoked attack! How un-mentally retarded of you! lol

[joshua corning]

300 was good

[Ray Butlers]

Yet another reason for government monitoring of comments on the internet. And health care. And rich people's salaries. Keep your damn liberal hands off of my government subsidies!

[Pro Libertate]

I think we'd blow the government's monitoring equipment up with the shenanigans going on here today.

[Bergholt Stuttley Johnson]

How do we know we haven't already?

[Pro Libertate]

One can only hope.

[automanipulator]

No love for Give Me Liberty or Martha Washington Goes to War?

[Jim Walsh]

Hanson post complaining that pervasive liberal influence and cultural decadence had driven him away from the bulk of American popular entertainment.

Hanson probably thinks the Weather Channel has a liberal bias...

[Jim Walsh]

Hanson post complaining that pervasive liberal influence and cultural decadence had driven him away from the bulk of American popular entertainment.

Hanson probably thinks the Weather Channel has a liberal bias...

[James Anderson Merritt]

Are you being ironic? Their embrace of climate alarmism puts them squarely in the left's camp, at least. On the other hand, they are owned by GE now, so perhaps that aspect of their editorial policy will fade.

[Above commenter is stupid]

Yeah, Hanson is such an over-the-top idiot. Your intellectual gifts easily surpass his.

[JB]

Miller is a great guy. I met him years ago when Sin City first came out.

They should have just translated that and threw it in detainees cells. They would talk.

[joshua corning]

Why is the whole thread have comments from Pro lib bragging about doing something....but that thing never happens?

[G Mc]

All politics aside, Mr. Miller looks a lot like Yertle the Turtle.

[lumpy]

Reminder: VDH is a neocon, not an actual conservative

[epobirs]

Millers offers Matt Damon, Howard Zinn's biggest promoter, as a reason not to give up on Hollywood?

[ws]

Miller commenting on a conservative blog? That probably won't play well among comics fandom and media, which is stuck in a 1980's, collegiate p.c. culture warp. But, he didn't write anything particularly controversial: there are a lot of cool, talented actors out there who aren't being used right? People who post comments anonymously should use their real names? It sucks that Obama got elected? And, later, but hey, let's give the guy a chance before we start freaking out? Cool.

[Ray Butlers]

Actually, I don't see why anyone, comic fans or media would care.

[ws]

If nobody cares then what's the purpose of the article and blog post?

[ws]

And, just to clarify, I meant the COMICS media (the critics, etc.) is particularly enamored with a kind of out-dated, hysterical style of political correctness (the kind of thing that led people to freak out over De Palma films back in the 80's). I'm not saying P.C. doesn't exist anymore, just that it seems to have evolved everywhere except, apparently, for comic book journalism.

[Brian Moore]

The print version of the "300" graphic novel has a Victor Davis Hanson quote on the inside cover, and I bought the thing quite a long time ago.

[Michael Hutchinson]

I think Paul W.S. Anderson of the Sci-fi Movie Soldier, would make a Good Director for Frank Miller, suggestion? Leave Blogging Security up to the Yahoo! Exec.

[Michael Hutchinson]

Football the Movie! Frank Miller ought to Eat Nature's Greens Bagged Coollards. Some People talk about Potentail or Essential Blogging?