Frank Miller

For the past year, I've spoken to Scott Snyder for a series of in-depth interviews about Batman: Zero Year, the new origin story that he, Greg Capullo, Danny Miki and FCO Plascencia have produced for DC Comics. In the final act, "Savage City," Batman was confronted with a Gotham City that had been destroyed by a super-storm, was overrun by plants that had grown out of control, and was being held in the iron grip of the Riddler, all while confronting the trauma that inspired him to become a hero. With the full story completed, I spoke to Snyder for the first part of a two-part interview about how he felt he'd achieved his goals with the bestselling story, the inspiration for the dynamic visuals, and his meeting with Frank Miller, possibly the most definitive Batman author, who had one very specific note about the story.

For anyone who still had a little doubt in his or her mind about whether Frank Miller -- the man who wrote and drew Sin City, which is basically all about tough guys fightin' over dames (and also lady ninjas hanging out with prostitutes) -- is nostalgic for a perceived golden age of dudeliness, look no further than his new 20Q interview in Playboy. One of the interview's wrap-up questions is about whether Miller prefers an old-fashioned ideal of masculinity, and Miller answers that he'd like to see "the 1940s-style gentleman" make a comeback.

Remember 2005? Back when we didn't have a lot of good comic book movies to celebrate? Back before the first 300 movie, when the whole idea of that posturing "no homo" otherness-phobic carnival of green screened pomposity seemed like it might be exciting? Back before Frank Miller's swastika-festooned The Spirit left a bad taste in everyone's mouths? Back when people were still insisting The Dark Knight Strikes Again was actually good satire, before Holy Terror confirmed that, no, Frank Miller is actually frighteningly sincere? Back when we clung to deniability? Good news, everyone! It's 2005 again, and we get another chance to pretend Mickey Rourke poking his head through a loaf of bread is a thing that works. Here's another Sin City: A Dame To Kill For trailer, and it's everything you'd expect it to be; stylish and insubstantial, with the promise of ample degradation. It's also 'Red Band,' which means you have to be a mature person to watch it, ironically.

If you're not familiar with Italian cartoonist Hugo Pratt's sailor and adventurer Corto Maltese, it's likely because you're reading this in English. Though Pratt is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of comics as literature, releasing the first Corto Maltese story, "The Ballad of the Salty Sea," in 1967, stories featuring the character have been translated into English sporadically. (They were originally published in either Italian or French.) Some have never been translated. IDW's new imprint EuroComics is planning to change that by collecting every single Corto Maltese comic, translated into English, in 12 volumes starting this December.

Each weekday, ComicsAlliance brings you a carefully selected variety of links from around the web about comics and comics-related media, including movies, video games, toys, and whatever else might be worth noting. Quite frankly, these are items you may just need to know about to have a productive day. Take a look at today's hand-picked links after the jump.

If you're the type of person who really likes collectible statues,then you may already be familiar with the work of Eric So, who designed a vinyl figure of Mike Mignola's Hellboy a while back. Now, he's back with another Dark Horse icon: Marv, the two-fisted, impossibly violent star of the first arc of Frank Miller's Sin City, complete with a billowing trenchcoat and a set of bandages. The figure stands 13 inches tall with a limited run of 950 pieces, and as you might expect, it's set to be released this September in conjunction with the second Sin City movie with a price of $150. And, just to make things even more fun, Marv's signature bandages are packed separately so that you can apply them yourself as you see fit. Check out the full figure below!

We make a regular practice at ComicsAlliance of spotlighting particular artists or specific bodies of work, as well as the special qualities of comic book storytelling, but because cartoonists, illustrators and their fans share countless numbers of great pinups, fan art and other illustrations on sites like Flickr, Tumblr, DeviantArt and seemingly infinite art blogs that we’ve created Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the pieces of especially compelling artwork that we come across in our regular travels across the Web. Some of it’s new, some of it’s old, some of it’s created by working professionals, some of it’s created by future stars, some of it’s created by talented fans, awnd some of it’s endearingly silly. All of it is awesome.

Jessica Alba, Powers Boothe, Josh Brolin, Rosario Dawson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green, Dennis Haysbert, Stacy Keach, Jaime King, Ray Liotta, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven, Mickey Rourke, Juno Temple, Bruce Willis and Lady F*cking Gaga star in Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, the new Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller film coming out nine years after the pair first collaborated on a filmed adaptation of Miller's award winning Dark Horse graphic novels. The phrase you often here in connection with the production is is "what took so long?" Based on the latest theatrical trailer, the more common remark is going to be "better late than never."

The Motion Picture Association of America is less than pleased about a new poster for directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's new Sin City film adaptation, A Dame to Kill For. The poster depicts the title character, Ava Lord, played by actress Eva Green, wearing a sheer gown that doesn't really cover all that much. Specifially, the MPAA complained about the "curve of under breast and dark nipple/areola circle visible through sheer gown.” To see all that in the full poster, click through.

This TV season is already overflowing with new TV shows based on comics, with Gotham, iZombie, Powers, The Flash, and more on the way, but SyFy announced this week that it's adding even more to the list. Keeping in line with its return to science fiction and fantasy programming (though it's keeping its oddly spelled name, it seems), the network is launching a huge slate of new shows, including fou