Awhile back I mentioned that some changes will be coming to idrawdigital in the next few months – this post is one of a series demonstrating the shift in thinking this blog will now take. I’m planning on focusing more on illustration around webcomics, with more tutorials geared towards digital art in that genre. I’ve already posted two brief  tutorials on inking and coloring for comics. Have no fear – the TWILL updates will still occur, as they provide a source of inspiration and ideas for many of the regular readers.I’ve just decided

This week I’m going to showcase some of the wonderful webcomic finds that I regularly check out. You may have heard of some of these already – if not, I highly recommend you check them out.

NYC2123 by Paco & Chad Allen

Outside the Box by Brendan Cahill

Inverloch by Sarah Ellerton

Paper Eleven by Dan Kim

Zombie Hunter by H. Rockefeller

The Circle Weave by Indigo Kelleigh

Elsie Hooper by Bob Krzykowski

REX by Danijel Zezelj

Wazabu by Fuschia and Head

Dark Dallas by Heronime and Robinson

Two Rooks by Alice Fox

There’s a small helping of some interesting webcomic/graphic novels available online for your viewing pleasure. I’ll be posting some more in the coming weeks to expose you to some of the finest looking art and wonderfully crafted storylines. These are a few of the webcomics I’ve read, and believe me – there are a ton of them out there! There is a wide cross-section of genres available – space, sci-fi, fantasy, noir, gamerz, comedy, slice of life, drama, etc – you name it, there’s probably a webcomic for it.

I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce the blog of a friend of mine. He is currently in the midst of writing a series that will one day go to print. Please visit and give your support to Darren Hammond over at the PanicAttak blog. With enough encouragement, he’ll press forward with all the amazing ideas he has stewing in that weird head of his. Go forth and command him to produce for you!

Keep checking back for more changes to idrawdigital! See you next time.

- Drezz

If you’ve ever read a graphic novel or comic book and wondered why some stories seem to work better than others, or if you’ve wondered how a medium so simple can house such compelling vision, I highly suggest having a read through Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics. This book is meant more for the lay-person, interested enough in comics and graphic novel storytelling but looking for a deeper, analytical grasp on how the medium truly works.

A good friend of mine handed this book to me when we were in college. I read it from cover to cover while I was working on figuring out how to get started with comics, and many of the topics and ideas presented within shaped the way I’ve decided to present my work. I will warn you, at times the book feels preachy and extremist – but taken at face value, Understanding Comics provides the reader with a reinforcement of what sequential art is truly all about.

The first thing you will notice is the format of the book. McCloud figures that the best way to present the ideas about the mechanics of comics and their role in society is by doing so as a comic book. Inside, the nine chapters explore the different aspects of comics / sequential art, and break them down into specific concepts. Definition, vocabulary, transitions, time, emotion and expression, imagery and narrative, thought process and idea development, the use of color and the complete process cycle are all described in full detail with some examples from art history and the current age.

McCloud uses his experience and research with the support of visual references from his peers to formulate a position that effectively states the case for comics as a suitable medium for creative expression and social commentary. Simply stated, he wants comics to gain the same type of respect that every other media has received, such as television and film, magazines,  journals and periodicals. For years, comics have been classified as material for children and dreamers, but have proven to be a powerful form of visual communication which have not received the mainstream acclaim as other popular media.

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I’d recommend this book if you’re looking for an entertaining read on what makes comics work, and the steps necessary on making a comic more than a bunch of pictures with some narrative. It explains the ideas of depth and personality and meaning. If you can make it through the philosophical aspects and the hammer smashing of points, you’ll appreciate the information in Understanding Comics. You will probably need to re-read it due to the barrage of concepts that are presented, but once you have fully absorbed them, you may experience a brief epiphany in some parts (it happened to me.) There may also be a number of times when you will already know what McCloud is explaining ad nauseum, but there will be more instances when you’ll have to pause and really think about what he’s truly getting at. When you’ve made the correlations, it is actually pretty enlightening.

Pros:
- Great book for learning about the subtleties of comics
- A decent manual for developing your own thought process and attitudes towards comics
- Visually interesting (it is a comic book after all) and entertaining
- Good manual for forming lesson on sequential art

Cons:
- Sections often tend to over-analyze aspects of comics
- Some of McCloud’s points delivered can be confusing to absorb
- Repetition of concepts in certain sections become monotonous
- Some concepts can be questioned or debated

In short, Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics is an interesting read for those who know little about the medium, or for reference material for those who have an understanding of the art form and are looking for some validation. I find myself re-reading it to recall some of the concepts again when I’m having difficulty keeping ideas direct, and also when I need some methods to communicate better visually. Not only did Understanding Comics enhance my creative capabilities as a comic book artist, but it also helped me at work as a Creative Director – finding ways to visually convey and communicate ideas effectively. I highly suggest picking up a copy for your personal library – many artists swear by McCloud’s teachings, and rightly so. The wisdom of his writings will help you mold your own perception of comics and the processes involved.

Understanding Comics – The Invisible Art
Author: Scott McCloud
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (April 27, 1994)
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5
Buy now from Amazon

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The World of Illustration has returned for another week’s worth of illustration goodies for you to enjoy. Check out these latest tools for your inspiration, and some wonderful tutorials and techniques you can apply to your own work.

How to Create a Wide Range of Custom Color Swatches in Illustrator

How to Create an Academy Icon in Illustrator

An Interview with Rod Hunt

LOST inspired artwork at Damon, Carlton and a Polar Bear

Super Stylish Illustrations by Bruno83

Veerle’s entry for Traveling Moleskines

StereoHeadRider by san@ce

Making Quick Global Swatches in Illustrator CS4

Machine56 Bonehead Gallery

There’s some great stuff out there. It’s impossible to fit it all into one post. I usually consult all my main sources and get lost wandering from link to link, portfolio to gallery to shop, to tutorial and so on. I hope you all do the same thing – its easy to get lost in the world of illustration – its inspiring and chock full of information for you to learn and develop your own styles – or even try something new. Enjoy!

In my previous tutorial on Digital Inking, I demonstrated the simplest method to inking your comics after they have been scanned into your computer and ways of developing your page layout for print or on screen. The next step is to begin coloring our work with a few simple steps.

This tutorial was created using Adobe Photoshop. You can use the program of your choice, but in order to achieve the same result(or as close as possible to the tutorial,) make sure your software supports layers, as it is extremely important in maintaining an organized file.

There are several tutorials out there on coloring comics, but in this method I will show you the quickest and easiest way that works for most software.

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1. Establish your Color Mode

Color mode selection is important because it will affect your color swatch selections and viewing application. If you are planning on creating your artwork for use online or displayed on a monitor / screen, work within the RGB color mode. If you are creating comics for print, your file should be set up in the CMYK color mode. Professional printers output files using the CMYK model because it is the most common method for achieving all printed colors using blends of 4 colors of ink – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.

Start off in one of the color modes dependent on your application. There are some ranges of colors that can not be physically printed in the CMYK model but are visible in the RGB model. This is known as a color gamut. You can learn more about it here. If your comics are  in RGB and you convert them to CMYK afterwards, many of your subtle shades and tints will disappear and your colors will become dull because they are not reproducible in 4 color printing.

* There is a method used by Pantone called Hexachrome which offers 6 color printing by adding Green and Orange ink to the CMYK mix to expand the printed gamut. This extra set of inks becomes more expensive to print and requires the use of a specific color profile native to Hexachrome printing.

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2. You should have Four (4) Layers in your file

Linework – this is your previously inked work
Flats – This is for the use flat colors and for building up your tones and values
Highlights – This layer is for the use of shine/ light effects etc
Effects – This layer is for other environmental effects – fog, mist, light rays, snow, rain, darkness etc.

The order should be Effects as the top layer, followed by Linework, Highlights and Flats at the bottom.

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3. Working on your Flats Layer(s)

The Flats layer is for exactly that – flat colors. Use a paintbrush or lasso + paint bucket/fill tool for filling in your areas with the colors you want. After you have laid down your first level of flats, on each section, use a slightly darker tone of the same color, and using your brush, paint in areas that would have some subtle shadows.

Do the same thing with a slightly lighter tone of your base flat color in order to create subtle highlights. You can repeat these steps as many times as you like in order to build levels of depth within your flat colors. If you want to smooth out the lines between each layered tone, you can do so with a blur tool or a smudge type tool to blend all the tones for a softer, smoother effect.

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As you can see in this comparison between Cyclops of the X-Men and Archie from the newsprint based comic books, traditional comics coloring does not have blending, so it is acceptable to have hard lines in between each color tone. You still achieve the same element of depth, just on a flatter scale.

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4. Creating your Highlights

Once your foreground and background coloring has been done, it is time to add additional highlights for extra depth. Start with a small brush, and then paint blots of white in the ‘hottest’ areas of the lighter tones you’ve painted in the flat layer. Do not overdo the highlights, otherwise your figures will appear metallic or glossy (unless they ARE metallic or glossy – then its absolutely fine!)

Once the blots are done, blur the white patches and blend those into your colors underneath by feathering the edges. You could also leave the painted blots with harder edges if you wish to have a flatter appearance. For additional control, create a few more highlight layers and adjust the opacity of each layer (if your software allows it) for more dynamic effects on each panel.

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5. Details through Effects

For additional depth and detail, use your effects layer to really make your images ‘pop’. Perhaps your character has energy spheres that glow brightly or there is an eerie mist in the surrounding environment.

.This layer(s) is where you would place these rendered effects to provide more visual impact, refine and put the finishing touches on your colored work. The reason the Effects layer sits above the Linework layer is to create more of a sense of form and shape. If these effects are oulined in heavy black, the effect is flattened and will lack the depth and shape you want to establish. Only pure black and white comics use outlined effects in order to create a visual idea, since color isn’t an option.

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6. Final Touches and Refinements

Once your colors have been laid down, your highlights added, and your effects finalized, you can do your tweaks and adjustments to all of these layers if you’re not completely satisfied with your rendering. Sometimes its worth taking a few hours off and coming back to the page to see if there are any changes you’ll want to make – or if its fine just the way it is.

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7. Save your Layered working file

ALWAYS make sure you save a working version of your layered file. You may have to make further adjustments later, and without the original working file you’ll have to start over from scratch to mimic the work you’ve already done. That is not efficient.

You have passed the Digital Coloring tutorial. Now that the color work is done, we’ll move on to rendering your type and dialogue if you haven’t done so already. Check out different styles of comics and study how each colorist renders their effects, builds their flat colors and create shape and form. Keep trying new coloring techniques until you find one you are comfortable with.  There are plenty of samples on the internet to learn from. Practice and develop your style, and eventually you’ll be making stunning masterpieces of comic book art.

Another week has flown by – don’t you just love short working weeks? I know I do. One thing is for certain, just because it was shorter, doesn’t mean there are any less great illustration resources to share with you this week. So let’s get to it!

How to Create a Golden, Vector Compass in Illustrator

20 More Useful Adobe Illustrator Menu Tips

How to Design a Skate Deck with a Skull Graphic

PixelBoy Studios – Madden + Sports Illustrated Kids

Francisco Perez – Pacman23 Illustrations

El Grande Jalapeno – TokyoCandies Illustration

Crazy Enough – San Illustrations from Hong Kong

Project Waldo – Learning about Making Comics by Making a Comic

Illustrator CS4 Tip – Using ‘Transform Again’

Enjoy the eye-candy, tips and tricks this week. Use them wisely, and expand your knowledge and creativity. I’ll be back next week to share some more goodies with you folks!

In the previous workflow technique, I explained how using keyboard shortcuts would dramatically improve your efficiency and speed while working. This subconscious action is a valuable skill to have when you work in a pressure cooker environment, or for your own personal benefit if you’re looking to get your jobs done faster. In this post, I am going to expand upon the basic shortcut list with a list of more advanced controls that you will find in Illustrator CS4.

(Commands in brackets indicate the shortcuts for Mac)

Selection Tools

Control (Cmd “command”)
This will access your Selection or Direction Selection tool at any time

Ctrl + Alt + Tab (Cmd + Option + Tab)
This switches between Selection and Direct Selection tools

Alt + Mouse click tool (Option-click tool)
This cycles through the tools behind column tool

Alt (Option)
You can make a copy of your item while dragging 

Shift
Adds to your selection

Arrow keys in any direction
Moves your selection

Shift + Arrow key in a direction
Moves your selection 10 pts in the chosen direction

Ctrl + 2 (Cmd + 2)
This locks your selected artwork so you cannot accidentally select and edit it (good for complex layering)

Ctrl + Alt + Shift + 2 (Cmd + Option + Shift + 2)
This locks all your unselected artwork (reverse of prior function)

Ctrl + Alt + 2 (Cmd + Option +2)
This command unlocks all artwork

Ctrl + 3 (Cmd + 3)
This hides your selected artwork

Ctrl + Alt + Shift + 3 (Cmd + Option + Shift + 3)
This hides all your unselected artwork

Ctrl + Alt + 3 (Cmd + Option + 3)
This shows all your hidden artwork

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Paths

Ctrl + Alt + Shift + J (Cmd + Option + Shift + J)
This command executes the Join and Average functions at same time (for paths)

Alt (Option)
This converts your Pen Tool to the Anchor Point tool while hovering over anchor points

Alt (Option)
By pressing this key, you will switch between the Add Anchor Point and Delete Anchor Point tools

Alt (Option)
With the Scissors tool, you can access the Add Anchor Point tool

Spacebar
This moves the anchor point while you are drawing with the Pen tool

Hold Alt + Release Mouse (Hold Option + Release Mouse)
This one is a bit trickier, but it will create a closed path when you’re using the Pencil or Paintbrush tool

Ctrl + Drag Mouse (Cmd + Drag Mouse)
This will connect to an open (selected) path with the Pencil Tool

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Paint Tools and Transformations

Alt (Option)
This accesses the Eyedropper tool from Live Paint Bucket tool

Shift
This takes an intermediate sample color from a gradient, picture, etc. with the eyedropper

Alt + Mouse click with Tool (Option + Mouse click with Tool)
This sets a center point and shows dialog

Alt + Drag Mouse (Option + Drag Mouse)
This makes a duplicate and allows you to transform your selection

~ (tilde) + Drag Mouse
This transforms  your pattern without transforming object

Shift + Drag object bounding box
This allows you to proportionally scale your object with the selection tool

Alt + Drag object bounding box (Option + Drag object bounding box)
This allows you to scale your object from the center using the selection tool

Shift + Drag Mouse
This will move a mesh point along path when using the Mesh tool

Shift + Click Mouse Button
This will add a mesh point when using the Mesh tool and does so without changing the color

Alt + Click Mouse Button (Option + Click Mouse Button)
This will remove a mesh point when using the Mesh tool

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Drawing Shapes

Alt (Option)
This will draw your shape from center

Alt + Click Mouse Button (Option + Click Mouse Button)
This will draw your shape from center with a dialog

Shift + Draw/Drag Mouse
This will constrain (maintain) the proportion of your drawn item

Shift + Draw/Drag Mouse
This will constrain (maintain) the orientation of your polygons, stars, spirals from the shape tool 

Spacebar
Allows you to move your object while drawing

Up/Down Arrow
This will add or subtract the number of sides, points, spiral segments

Ctrl (Cmd)
This will decrease the inner radius of your shapes

~ (tilde) + Drag Mouse
This will create numerous duplicates following your mouse movement

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Viewing & Guides

Spacebar
This activates the Hand Tool so you can pull and drag yourself around your viewing area. 

To activate the Hand Tool when you are editing type (this one requires timing and practice:
Ctrl + Spacebar, then release Ctrl once the Hand appears and drag your mouse
(Cmd+ Spacebar, then release Cmd once the Hand appears and drag your mouse)

Ctrl + Spacebar (Cmd + Spacebar)
This activates the Zoom In Tool

Ctrl + Alt + Spacebar (Cmd + Option + Spacebar)
This activates the Zoom Out Tool

Ctrl + Spacebar + Drag Mouse (Cmd + Spacebar + Drag Mouse)
This will Zoom In to exact size of your artwork

Tab
This quickly hides or shows all your tools and panels 

Shift + Tab
This quickly hides or shows all your panels except the toolbox

Alt + Drag out New Guide (Option + Drag out New Guide)
This will switch between a horizontal and a vertical guide

Shift + Ctrl + Double-Mouse click (Shift + Cmd + Double-Mouse click)
This will release your guide and turn it into a regular path

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Type Tool Shortcuts

Ctrl + Shift +< (or > to increase) (Cmd + Shift +< (or > to increase))
This will decrease or increase type size

Alt + Arrow Up (or Down to increase)
(Option + Arrow Up (or Down to increase)) -This will decrease or increase leading

Alt + Arrow Left (or Right to increase) (Option + Arrow Left (or Right to increase))
This will decrease or increase kerning/tracking

Ctrl + Alt + Arrow Left (or Right to increase) (Cmd + Option + Arrow Left (or Right to increase))
This will decrease or increase kerning/tracking by 5

Shift + Alt + Arrow Up (or Down to increase)(Shift + Option + Arrow Up (or Down to increase))
This will decrease or increase your baseline shift

Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Arrow Up (or Down to increase) (Cmd + Shift + Option + Arrow Up (or Down to increase))
This will decrease or increase baseline shift by 5

Ctrl + Shift + (L or R or C or J) (Cmd + Shift + (L or R or C or J))
This aligns your type- L = left, R = right, C = center, J = Justify

Ctrl + Shift + F (Cmd + Shift + F)
This will Justify your last line

Ctrl + Shift + X (Cmd + Shift + X)
This will reset horizontal or vertical scale to 100%

Ctrl + Alt + Q (Cmd + Shift + Q)
This will reset your kerning or tracking to zero (0)

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Palettes and Function Keys

F5
Shows or hides your Brushes Palette

F6
Shows or hides your Color Palette

F7
Shows or hides your Layers Palette

Ctrl + F8 (Cmd + F8)
Shows or hides your Info Palette

Ctrl + F9 (Cmd + F9)
Shows or hides your Gradient Palette

Ctrl + F10 (Cmd + F10)
Shows or hides your Stroke Palette

Ctrl + F11 (Cmd + F11)
Shows or hides your Attributes Palette

F12
This will Revert the file to your last saved state 

Shift + F5
Shows or hides your Graphic Styles Palette

Shift + F6
Shows or hides your Appearance Palette

Shift + F7
Shows or hides your Align Palette

Shift + F8
Shows or hides your Transform Palette

Shift + Ctrl + F9 (Shift + Cmd + F9)
Shows or hides your Pathfinder Palette

Shift + Ctrl + F10 (Shift + Cmd + F10)
Shows or hides your Transparency Palette

Shift + Ctrl + F11 (Shift + Cmd + F11)
Shows or hides your Symbols Palette

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Layers Palette Shortcuts

Ctrl + Mouse click on Eye (Cmd + Mouse click on Eye)
This will toggle your layer between Preview & Outline mode (filled in eye/ outlined eye)

Alt + Mouse click on Eye (Option + Mouse click on Eye)
This will show current layer while turning off all others

Alt + Mouse click on Layer Name
(Option + Mouse click on Layer Name)
This will select all the items on your layer

Alt + Mouse Drag selection square in Layers panel
(Option + Mouse Drag selection square in Layers panel)
This will copy your selected item to a different layer

Ctrl + Mouse click (Cmd + Mouse click)
This creates a new layer at the top of list

Ctrl + Alt + Mouse click (Cmd + Option + Mouse click)
This create a new layer below the selected layer

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Color Palette Shortcuts

Shift + Drag color slider left or right
This will saturate or desaturate the current color 

Shift + Mouse click color bar
This will change your color mode 

Ctrl + Mouse click color bar (Cmd + Mouse click color bar)
This will select the complimentary of your current color

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Swatches Palette Shortcuts

Ctrl + Shift while creating new color
(Cmd + Shift while creating new color)
This will create a your new swatch as a global color

Alt + Mouse drag new swatch over old
(Option + Mouse drag new swatch over old)
This will replace a swatch with another

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Now most of these shortcuts can be altered in your options to whatever you prefer. If you have graduated from these advanced ones or just want to set up your working area with custom keyboard shortcuts, you can easily modify them in your preferences/options to suit your particular needs. they can be saved as separate profiles as well.

I don’t even use all of these commands as some of them do not benefit me and the work I do, but there are several here which are absolutely necessary in order to complement the basic shortcuts and make me more efficient during my illustration work. If you need a refresher on the basic commands, check out this blog post and familiarize yourself with them. Or just check it out if you’re new and looking to speed up your working time and turn yourself into a power-user.

With this series on workflow techniques, you’ll be well on your way to efficiently completing tasks and projects in almost half the time. Practice and use each function repeatedly until you commit it to memory – its the best way to learn!

Another week, another set of updates in the world of Illustration. Check out these wonderful finds from the past seven days.

How to Create a Caramel Ripple Effect

Old Moab – Tropical Toxic

Create a Fun Illustrated Toy Store Site in Photoshop

Create your own Monster

Add texture to your layered vectors

Dan Stafford’s – Panda Diplomacy

Modern versions of Stylish Constructivist Illustration

Illustrations of the Old West

Ray Gun designs by Dave Franzese

Tutorial for Using Live Color in Illustrator
So there’s another week flown by – it seems the summer has begun to slip away and soon the fall will be upon us (at least on this side of the globe). Check back in next week for more updates from the world of illustration – for eye-candy, tips, tricks and inspiration!

If you’ve been abreast of things in the comic book-turned movie world, you’ve already come across a number of Frank Miller’s works in recent years. He is best known for his dark, film noir-style graphic novels such as 300, Sin City, Ronin and more familiar names with Daredevil: Born Again (during his run at Marvel) and Batman : The Dark Knight Returns (with DC).

His gritty, loose style gives his characters more of a darker, mysterious edge. Miller is well known for his use of contrast and deep shadows to create some dramatic looking imagery:

Miller refined his style with the issues he developed for Daredevil in the 80s during his time at Marvel, and collaborated with Chris Claremont on a Wolverine miniseries. Miller was able to expand Wolverine’s character through the new storyline, and introduced more of an Eastern flair with his artwork featuring some manga-like undertones.

From there, he moved on to produce his own ‘creator-owned’ title for DC – ‘Ronin.’ The story is about a reincarnated Ronin samurai who ends up in an alternate version of a future New York.

In the mid 80s, Frank Miller produced one of his greatest pieces of work, which still remains as one of DC’s best selling series of all time: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Set in the future after Batman retires from crimefighting following the death of the 2nd Robin, the story develops with Batman returning to action as a meaner, grumpier version of the vigilante in future Gotham which is overrun by punks. The political and moral aspects of the stories bring Batman to face one of DC’s greatest champions in a duel to death for the fate of society.

After a contract dispute with DC over ratings and censorship, Miller produced the first of a series of stories for independent publisher Dark Horse. This series, entitled Sin City proved to be the pinnacle of Miller’s work and his calling card for future work to come. Set in seedy Basin City, the stories revolve around a number of darker anti-heroes forced into noble roles in order to complete their tasks. All of the stories intertwine in some manner, creating a rich, yet pulpy film-noir world of booze, broads, and bullets.

Some of the books were transformed into live-action sequences for the Sin City movie. With Miller on the production team, the director, Robert Rodriguez was able to follow the pacing and use the books as the official shot storyboard. It was one of the few graphic novels that stayed true to the story and appearance, and followed the books frame by frame. Here are some examples:

Miller went on to write for a series of different stories – Hard Boiled with Geof Darrow, a new Daredevil series with John Romita, the scripts for RoboCop 2 and 3, and numerous others. In 1998, he hammered out his version of the ill-fated battle of Thermopylae, simply entitled 300. Using his trademark shadowy style, Miller illustrates the battle between the vast Persian army and their defeat at the hands of 300 Spartans told from the perspective of King Leonidas of Sparta.

300 was also brought to life on the big screen and followed many of the same techniques used in Sin City, under the direction of Zack Snyder. Here are some of the stills from the movie, and you can see how they mimic the style of the graphic novel:

Setting aside his differences with DC, Miller returned to produce a sequel to The Dark Knight Returns entitled the Dark Knight strikes again. The story continues on where DK left off, but this time the story revolves around the criminal activity of Lex Luthor and a band of superheroes forced to work for him.

Miller also produced a pet project of his own, another silver screen adaptation of one of his favorite comic book icons, penned by the immortal Will Eisner – The Spirit. Panned by critics and fans for its lack of substance, you can still feel the noir edginess Eisner developed in his books from the 40s-50s. Miller extended that edgy, pulpy feel to the movie – unfortunately, the dialogue was out of date and out of context for today’s viewers, and it remains only as a piece for die-hard fans and eye-candy for the rest of us.

Currently, Frank Miller has been busy working on the sequel to the Sin City movie, and rumors were reported to have him create a series of new stories for the film which would also be available in print. Miller has also completed work on the first draft of a followup graphic novel for 300 which has yet to be titled. His work has influenced many, and he has been awarded for his revolutionary edginess in writing for classic comic book characters as well as for his artistic works done on his own terms. Frank Miller is an icon and a pioneer in the comics world, due to his unwavering attitude towards the display of the darker, violent side of reality.