Graphic Lit: Vintage, Independent, Marvel, and DC
In what may be an expression of nostalgia, we carry a lot of the genius of newspaper-published graphic literature, a Golden Age that lasted from the 1930s to the departure of Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes. The two comic book behemoths, Marvel and DC, are included here. We don’t cover the “universes” of each company. Occasionally, however, they publish some strikingly original or quirky work that suits our inventory. On this page we feature all our adult graphic literature (some of which, of course, is perfectly appropriate for children); our Young Adult graphic literature has its own page under that name.
Content note: I have moved all of Neil Gaiman’s work (Sandman and others) to his page here.
Push the Wall: My Life, Writing, Drawing, and the Art of Storytelling
Push the Wall: My Life, Writing, Drawing, and the Art of Storytelling
From the all-time bestselling mind behind Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil, 300, and Sin City, Push the Wall is part memoir, part master class for budding artists and writers by one of the greatest living creators whose work has influenced pop culture for decades.
Frank Miller is our greatest living comic book writer and artist.
Frank Miller shares his life, and through, his artistic process. Miller’s artistic influence is evident in so very much of our popular culture, perhaps most notably with Batman—every film adaptation from the past forty years has been influenced by Miller’s work with the dark knight.
Simply, Frank Miller has transformed the way comics are told.
Here, Frank’s mix of autobiographical lessons evokes Patti Smith’s Just Kids as it weaves his struggles as a seventeen-year-old kid fresh from Vermont into a seedy 1970s New York City with his eventual success on reimagining Daredevil and Wolverine. From there to Miller’s rescue and revitalization of Batman, to his time in Hollywood, the Sin City comics and film adaptations he would codirect, and the retelling of the Spartans’ last stand in 300. Miller, by constantly challenging himself as an artist and writer on his terms, built an iconoclastic career.
With over a dozen illustrations of Miller’s art, Push the Wall is the work of his career—it is a masterclass as it encapsulates his life in sixteen lessons for the aspiring creative reader.
