Frank Miller's 300

Frank Miller is a comic book writer and artist, perhaps best know for Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, an adult-oriented story that was at the forefront of a new era of graphic novels in the 1980s. Instead of me describing that book, you can read about it on Wikipedia.

Director Robert Rodriguez adapted Miller's early 1990s work Sin City into a film that was released last year. I don't have Sin City, in spite of regularly visiting an excellent comic shop throughout the 90s. However, I do have Miller's 1998 series 300.

(While in college I worked weekends at Unicorn Comics in Oshawa, ON. I was the "game guy". When I started working full time I wrote the computer program that the store used to maintain customer request lists and inventory. I was paid with a 40% discount that lasted until I moved to Louisiana. The store is now Worlds Collide. Its web site is http://www.worlds-collide.com/wclocation.htm.)

300 is the fictional retelling of the three hundred Spartans that held off the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae, from the perspective of King Leonidas of Sparta. I enjoyed both the story and the art work. It is due to be released next year as a motion picture directed by Zack Snyder. Snyder directed the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, and is currently working on another comic adaptation, The Watchmen.

Here is a link to a trailer for 300. The visuals capture the comic book perfectly. I have high hopes for it. The trailer is found at http://download.ifilm.com/qt/portal/2773266_300.mov.

I found the trailer through the web comic Ctrl-Alt-Del. Apparently links to the trailer are popping up all over the internet, and are being yanked just as quickly. I have no idea how long that link will last.