How To Draw Like Frank Miller

Crashing Frank Miller's Private DC Artist Master Class

Here's what we saw inside DC's private class only for under-contract artists.

It would be hard to find a pair of comic book creators alive today that have had a bigger impact on the industry than Frank Miller and Klaus Janson, so it's little wonder they were the ones invited by DC Comics to teach this year's DC Artist Master Class. A program started last year in order to provide in-person, in-depth training to DC's exclusive artists, the class took place the day before New York Comic-Con inside a small makeshift classroom in the heart of the city.I was invited to be a fly on the wall, not to participate but to watch some of the world's finest comic talent sit in a room and talk shop. As this was a private training session intended only for DC's under-contract artists, I promised to keep the particulars of the lesson to myself. Well, most of them.

Miller, dressed in dark jeans, leather jacket, a Wonder Woman t-shirt, and his signature black fedora, stood at the front of the room as comic book pages were projected onto the wall behind him (from The Dark Knight Returns, natch). Alongside him was Janson, his longtime collaborator, more the look of a college professor in his black slacks, glasses, and patterned button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Indeed, Janson teaches courses and hold seminars on comics, so he was very much in his element.

"DC is investing time and money and energy into creating and educating the next generation of artists and writers. That's not something that a lot of people of other companies are doing," Janson told me during a break. "I can tell you from personal experience that DC is doing it in a very serious way, which I can appreciate as somebody who loves this medium. I think it's a very good thing."

Art by Frank Miller. (DC Comics)

Janson led the conversation, asking Miller about the creative choices he made during the process of writing and drawing the Batman comic that would go on to change the industry and influence countless comic makers. Miller has done numerous panels, interviews and the like discussing his magnum opus, so a lot of what he said was familiar to me, but here he wasn't tailoring his speech for public consumption, just speaking casually among a group of friends and peers. This also meant he was free to use all manner of comic artist jargon and refer to works and names both popular and obscure throughout his lecturing without any of the artists in attendance missing a beat.

And boy were there some artists in attendance. Being a lover of comics, it's hard to describe the particular sensation I got walking into a room filled with the likes of Andy Kubert, Francis Manapul, Cully Hamner, Eddy Barrows, and Rafael Albuquerque. It was a mix of joy, awe, and terror -- I'll let you know if I ever figure it out the word for it. They had all formed into small groups, killing time waiting for the first session to start. Some exchanged pieces of art while others talked about their current monthly title. The people in this small room were responsible for some of the best comic books of the past several decades. Any one of them could be teaching their own Master Class, yet here they were, ready to sit down as students and learn something new.

One artist, Lee Bermejo, told me he flew 14 hours from his home in Italy to take part in the class. He wasn't even intending on coming to New York Comic Con this year, but the opportunity was too good to pass up.

"Everybody in this room will tell you the same thing. If you are working in comics now, chances are you got into comics because of this guy," Bermejo said of Miller. "I really just wanted to hear these guys talk about some of the nuts and bolts of the process of working that usually when you listen to big interviews they don't get into detail about certain things. And I'm not talking about, like, how do you draw eyes? I'm talking about stuff that as a professional I struggle with."

Much of Miller's talk did have to do with the nuts and bolts, and he did in fact explain why he gave Carrie Kelley such big cartoony eyes, yet there was also a lot of discussion on the struggles of the craft. Dealing with troublesome editors and listening to good editors was a subject he kept returning to. Miller spoke about how he originally planned for TDKR to with Batman dying, but between advice from editorial and his own gut instincts, he was convinced to change his mind. "A good editor guides you away from bad impulses," he reflected.

To my surprise, Miller was his own biggest critic. As his pages from TDKR were shown on the wall, he pointed out how he was the first to take every panel featuring Two-Face and split it in half, but he only wished he had done it better. He reflected how he was too self-indulgent with Sin City and he would have been more judicious with the sex and violence now. The Dark Knight Returns. (DC Comics)

Art by Frank Miller. The Dark Knight Returns. (DC Comics)

The personal reflection continued when Janson brought up his own favorite sequence from TDKR where a women gets mugged in the subway. She manages to get her purse back, but then sees there's a live grenade inside. The two analyzed the scene and talked about the intention behind it, the sympathy and rage the reader was supposed to feel that this mother wasn't going home to her family. This prompted Miller to talk about his own mother, a nurse who raised seven kids during the day and worked her shift at night. That's just one example of the natural, easy-going flow of the class, revealing bits of insight into the work and the personal life of the man who created it.

Miller might be 59 years-old and have a shortly-trimmed gray beard on his face, but he talks about comics with genuine enthusiasm.

"The DC mythology is just too damn good to waste," Miller said of starting his work on TDKR. "It's open to so much interpretation, as it has been over the years. You don't go into a kindergarten like that and not play with the toys. I found that Batman was not complete without Superman. ... There was no end to the fun to be had with DC's universe. And [DC Comics] gave me enough room to take all those characters in the directions I felt they could go in. It was an amazing liberation."

Miller is currently working on Dark Knight III: The Master Race, the third entry in his Dark Knight saga and his return to working regularly on comics. While art duties for the main book belong to Kubert and Janson, Miller has taken up the pencil again for a series of Dark Knight Universe Presents mini-comics spotlighting different characters. He's co-writing these comics with friend Brian Azzarello, who was also in attendance. Dark Knight III: The Master Race #6 variant cover by Frank Miller. (DC Comics)

Dark Knight III: The Master Race #6 variant cover by Frank Miller. (DC Comics)

Miller's recent drawings have drawn critical remarks from comic readers, and there's no doubt his newer work is far removed from what we saw in TDKR. That was 30 years ago, so yes, Miller's work has changed, but after witnessing him teaching comics for two hours, it's clear that the medium is still his prime passion. Working on comics again has lit a fire under him and put him back on the horse, and teaching this class has shown a rare side in him. For a man who injected such grit and moodiness into Batman and Daredevil and who created a world of smoking anti-heroes and intense violence in Sin City, it's a surprise to hear such buoyancy in his voice.

When the class broke for lunch, Miller told me he was overjoyed with the seminar so far, and he was blown away by the insightful questions asked by the artists. (His words, not mine.) Engaging in conversation with the other artists gave him a boost of energy -- he even began to pace the room as he spoke with them -- and it was clear that even after all these years, there's nothing he would rather talk about.

Joshua is IGN's Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you'll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.

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