Following the president’s State of the Union address, Frank Miller appeared this week on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, as they decided to “move past the political analysis and punditry and hear from innovative thinkers and creative minds about their view of the state of the country.” The site has a link to the audio file.
Other guests included singer Merle Haggard, screenwriter Nora Ephron and author Elizabeth Nunez.
Miller can be heard about 30 minutes into it. “Mighty cultures are almost never conquered; they crumble from within,” Miller says.
“Also I think that George Bush has an uncanny knack of being somebody people hate. I thought Clinton inspired more hatred than any president I’d ever seen, but I’ve never seen anything like Bush hatred. It’s completely mad.”
January 26th, 2007 at 1:59 am
Hey, whatever happened to Miller’s Batman vs. Al Qaeda mini-series (or whatever it was going to be)? Or did DC get cold feet (or good business sense)? Either way, my admiration for Miller (qualified as it’s been since Sin City), is at an alltime low.
So anyone who hates Bush for what he’s done domestically and around the world is completely irrational? Sorry Frank, but get your head out of a comic book and join the real world. Or, better yet, stick to what you do best (hint: it’s not political analysis).
January 26th, 2007 at 3:13 am
Yea, that’s right, what happened to Batman vs. Al Qaeda? I thought that we were supposed to be keeping our eye on the boogy man so that we wouldn’t notice that our rights were being stripped from us here in the communist states of America. Frank, you are not holding up your end.
January 26th, 2007 at 3:28 am
My respect for Frank Miller and interest in his work is at an alltime high. I think our entertainment media has really dropped the ball in this war, and I have SO LITTLE INTEREST in the superhero genre right now. What is considered ‘relevant’ in entertainment right now isn’t works dealing with terrorism or exitentialist murderous foes, it’s (yet again) works dealing with ‘is American turning into a facsist Nazi Germany?‘ yet again. Something special, something tailer made for the genre, war morale, is the only thing that has caught my interest for it.
All Star Batman and Robin? No thanks. Bad writing (I think) and no point to it. Holy Terror, Batman is a reason to use the genre.
Does anyone still back Bush? Hardly. And sure as hell not me. But certainly Amercia can man up on the homefront.
Even if he’s not the best (possible? no. but maybe best we have offered), he’s certainly a PIONEER of the comic book medium and knows how to move it–how to EXPAND it. It’s one of the reasons he is such a success, above and beyond the rest of the ‘superstars’ of comic books.
I listened to what he said and I can’t help but think that many Americans have forgotten 9/11. It’s a defining moment in my life and I don’t think I can stop studying, alalyzing and learning from it. I fully support the War on Terror even if President Bush doesn’t or executes it poorly. Entertainment media is SAME OLD SAME OLD, and if it wants customers, it better back off “bad USA” and explore religous (yes, even directly ISLAMIC) terrorism.
Is this right wing? Is this neoconservative? Think again. This is common sense that every liberal Amrican can understand. Don’t be fools.
January 26th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Interesting interviews with all of the guests, though I have to say it was odd that Frank Miller said that Iraq declared war on the United States; also odd was Miller equating the attack on Pearl Harbor and our involvement in World War II with 9/11 and the current war in Iraq.
I can understand where he’s coming from and I don’t think any of us will forget what happened on 9/11, but I can’t support the war on terror in its current, poorly executed form.
January 26th, 2007 at 10:23 am
This was Frank Miller calling us all Nancys on NPR of all places.
January 26th, 2007 at 11:52 am
I was just re-reading DK2 and I love the cartooning all through it, even if I don’t agree with the worldview that it has tattooed on it’s forehead, to make sure it’s RIGHT IN YOUR FACE! I’m looking forward to this barmy Batman/Al-Qaeda thing, just as a work of art. If it works for you as political propaganda then maybe you’re a little emotionally high-strung. I’d like to think the superhero genre and the readership have grown some since the forties.
January 26th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
What happened to the guy who wrote “A man without hope is a man without fear”? With his quavering voice and irrational babblings (MORE blood, but not his own? Iraq declared war on the US?), Miller sounded like a man who was CONSUMED BY FEAR and GIVEN UP HOPE.
It looks like the dirty work of Osama bin Laden and the Deaprtment of Homeland Security have been particularly effective on this poor, sick COWARD… Miller sounds so effectively TERRORIZED.
January 26th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Did Frank sound completely loaded during that interview or what?
January 26th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I’ll say what Grant Morrison said; if you feel that bad, Frankie, ENLIST.
January 26th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Frankie’s letting his fear get the best of him, I’m afraid. It’s always sad to see people flirt with fascism because it makes them feel more secure in their old age.
And if I hear one more right-wing blowhard accuse me of forgetting 9/11, I’m gonna puke.
It’s your hawkish policies that led us to a disastrous war with a country that had absolutely nothing to do with those terrorist attacks. And you somehow have the gall to say that you do this in memory of 9/11?
Heroism and patriotism have never been defined as the ability to rewrite history to make it justify your own failed vision.
“Man up on the homefront?” Maybe if you’d brain-up it’d do ya some good, but nobody’s holding their breath here.
January 27th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
I listened to it again, and good lord, that man is terrified, isn’t he? It’s like he lives his life like every day is September 12th, 2001.
You can’t argue for moderation with those kinds of people.
January 29th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
It was really disappointing to me.
Love Frank Miller’s work and will continue to
love his work, but this is silly. And I was
actually looking FORWARD to Holy Terror.
The war in Iraq has nothing to do with an
existential foe nor with the “idea” that cost us 3000 lives on September 11th. Saddam Hussein was a bastard who is rotting in hell if there is any justice, but he was a secular leader. He did not rule his country like an Islamic extremist because he wasn’t one. His religion was keeping himself in power and he would never have risked losing his power in order to attack the United States, unlike the religious extremists who are willing to die for their twisted cause. Religious
extremeists who are far more prevalent in Iraq than during Saddam’s reign.
I’m all for attacking the “enemy” as Miller puts it. They attacked us. They killed innocent people for the stupidest of reasons. I, and most people, supported
military intervention in Afghansistan, which housed the Taliban, who were knee-deep in ties with the terrorists that threatened and murdered us. A war that has been undercut by the actions in Iraq and now threatens to overturn any progress there.
And after this misguided attempt to unseat an evil, but contained monster(unlike Hitler in the 1940s who was actively trying to take over Europe), we’ve only created more terrorists. More people that hate us. Only ensuring that the “existential foe” grows in strength.
And history also shows us what happens when empires overstep their boundaries and try to take on more than they are capable of.
I’m not going to sit here and say I’m going to boycott Frank Miller’s work. I’ve bought everything the man has ever written or drawn. I like it too much. I’m just disappointed he thinks so little of me.
January 29th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Can we also stop calling Iraq the War on Terror?
It isn’t. It never has been. Prior to 9/11, the Bush Administration was lax on terrorism. I’m not saying they could have prevented 9/11 or anything like that, but it’s clear they thought there were more pressing concerns than international terrorism. That’s why they actually cut intelligence on terrorism while upping it on things like obscenity.
On the other hand, the war on Iraq has been proposed since the late 1990′s. Take a look at the Project for A New American Century which advocated overthrowing Saddam for years. People involved: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, I. Lewis Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, William Bennett, and Jeb Bush.
September 11th was an excuse to do something they had been advocating for years. It’s not part of the war on terror. It never has been.
February 1st, 2007 at 1:52 am
“Can we also stop calling Iraq the War on Terror?”
hear hear, old chum.
can’t stand that term, might as well have a war on purple, since they’re both non corporal.
February 20th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I am glad people are talking about this.
I heard Miller’s comments and I was shocked–though many others familiar with him and his work told me that I shouldn’t have been.
He was totally uninformed, out in left field and almost hysterical. Any time Merle Haggard (who wrote and sang the Vietnam era song “Okie From Muskogee”) sounded hipper than Miller I think it is time he examined himself.
There have been little things here and there in his work all along that I have given a pass too that indicate he has issues–now I’m sure of it.
I think I will avoid his work from here on out.
March 23rd, 2007 at 6:21 pm
I’m really taken aback by his comments.. I was a huge fan but am not gonna follow his work anymore..
June 17th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Yes…yes…
Destroy this fanatical freak.