RoR: Forum

"The Gulch. Galt's Gulch. There's only one reason cops go to Galt's Gulch."
Vickie Vale in All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder #1, September, 2005
Written by Frank Miller; Art by Jim Lee and Scott Williams

Are there any comic book fans here who haven't read this yet? I'm not patient enough to wait for the inevitable trade paperback collection. Miller writes this in hardboiled fashion, a style I greatly enjoy, and includes a tip of the fedora to Ayn Rand with the above quote. Lee and Williams' art is gorgeous. And I'm in love with the new, tough, drop dead gorgeous Vickie Vale.

Post 1

Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - 6:51pm

Sounds kind of similar to the names of the family of villains in sin city, the Roark family.

Haven't read it yet but I'll try to keep you posted once I do.

---Landon

Post 2

Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - 9:20pm

I was unaware that Miller had explicitly paid homage to Rand; but the influence in his now-classic The Dark Knight Returns seemed to me transparent.

Post 3

Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - 9:43pm

Yeah he sites the Romantic Manifesto as a major influence. In Batman year one the Bruce/Gordon relationship was patterned off the Fransisco/Reardon relationship in Atlas Shrugged. I already mentioned the Roark thing but he also did a loose adaptation of Atlas Shrugged called "Martha Washington goes to War." And if you ever get a chance to hear the man talk I highly reccomend you do so the guy just explodes with passion. He recently did a book with Will Eisner, the man who developed pretty much anything worth developing in the medium of comics. These two men were basically continuing a conversation over several decades and this book concretizes it once and for all (Will Eisner died shortly before publication). You'll be hard pressed to find a better discussion between two masters of their craft. It even includes a passage where they discuss Ditko and Miller's attempt to do a revival of Mr. A in conjunction with him.

For the record he's identified himself as Catholic, but I rarely see an issue where he isn't at least Objectivist sympathetic.

---Landon

Post 4

Thursday, July 21, 2005 - 2:39am

The Spirit is dead? When did this happen?

Post 5

Thursday, July 21, 2005 - 3:07am

Robert: link.

Thursday, July 21, 2005 - 9:51am