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Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American comic book creator and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300. He recently directed the film version of The Spirit, shared directing duties with Robert Rodriguez on Sin City and produced the film 300.

Miller was born in Olney, Maryland, and raised in Montpelier, Vermont, the fifth of seven children of a nurse mother and a carpenter/electrician father. His family was Irish Catholic. Miller moved to New York City in 1976, when he was 19, to find work as a comic book artist. Living in New York City's Hell's Kitchen influenced Miller's material in the 1980s. Miller lived in Los Angeles, California in the 1990s which influenced Sin City. Miller moved back to Hell's Kitchen by 2001 and was creating Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again as the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred. In 2005 Miller divorced Lynn Varley, the award-winning colorist who had collaborated with him on several projects.[citation needed]

Setting out to become an artist, Miller received his first published work in Gold Key Comics' licensed TV-series comic book The Twilight Zone #84 (June 1978), drawing the story "Royal Feast", and issue #85 (July 1978), drawing "Endless Cloud". This was followed by penciling jobs for "Deliver Me From D-Day" short story in Weird War Tales #64 (1978), "The Greatest Story Never Told" short story, and "The Day After Doomsday" short story both in Weird War Tales #68 (1978), and "The Edge of History" short story in Unknown Soldier #219 (1978) for DC Comics and his first work for Marvel Comics, penciling the 17-page story "The Master Assassin of Mars, Part 3" in John Carter: Warlord of Mars #18 (Nov. 1978).

At Marvel, Miller would settle in as a regular fill-in and cover artist, working on a variety of titles. One of these jobs was drawing Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #27–28 (Feb.–March 1979), which guest-starred Daredevil. At the time, sales of the Daredevil title were poor; however, Miller saw something in the character he liked and asked editor-in-chief Jim Shooter if he could work on Daredevil's regular title. Shooter agreed and made Miller the new penciller on the title. As Miller recalled in 2008,

When I first showed up in New York, I showed up with a bunch of comics, a bunch of samples, of guys in trench coats and old cars and such. And [comics editors] said, 'Where are the guys in tights?' And I had to learn how to do it. But as soon as a title came along, when [Daredevil signature artist] Gene Colan left Daredevil, I realized it was my secret in to do crime comics with a superhero in them. And so I lobbied for the title and got it".

Daredevil #158 (May 1979), Miller's debut on that title, was the finale of an ongoing story written by Roger McKenzie. Although still conforming to traditional comic book styles, Miller infused this first issue with his own film noir style. After this issue, Miller became one of Marvel's rising stars, and began plotting additional stories with McKenzie. Learning from Neal Adams,[citation needed] Miller would sit for hours sketching the roofs of New York in an attempt to give his Daredevil art an authentic feel not commonly seen in superhero comics at the time. Miller was so successful with the title that Marvel began publishing the Daredevil comic monthly (as opposed to its previous bimonthly publication period). With issue #168 (Jan. 1981), Miller took over full duties as writer and penciller, with Klaus Janson as inker. Issue #168 saw the first appearance of the ninja mercenary Elektra, who despite being an assassin-for-hire would become Daredevil's love-interest. Miller would write and draw a solo Elektra story in Bizarre Adventures #28 (Oct. 1981).

With his creation of Elektra, Miller's work on Daredevil was characterized by darker themes and stories. This peaked when in #181 (April 1982) he had the assassin Bullseye kill Elektra. Although deaths of supporting characters are common in comics, the death of a major, costumed character such as Elektra was not. Miller made it clear[citation needed] with the next few issues that he intended Elektra to remain dead, but nonetheless she was revived during his time as writer.[citation needed] Miller finished his Daredevil run with issue #191 (Feb. 1983); in his time he had transformed a second-tier character into one of Marvel's most popular.

Additionally, Miller in 1980 drew a short Batman Christmas story called "Wanted: Santa Claus-Dead or Alive" written by Denny O'Neil for DC Special Series #21. This was his first encounter with a character with which, like Daredevil, he would become closely associated.

As penciler and co-plotter, Miller, together with writer Chris Claremont, produced the miniseries Wolverine #1-4 (Sept.-Dec. 1982), inked by Josef Rubinstein and spinning off from the popular X-Men title. Miller used this miniseries to expand on Wolverine's character while featuring more manga-influenced art.[citation needed] The series was a critical success and further cemented Miller's place as an industry star.