Well is he? He certainly has the midas touch when it comes to movies made from or inspired by his creations. The film incarnations of Batman, Daredevil, Elektra are all directly or mainly inspired by the comics he has produced. The latest movie adapted from his comics, Sin City, even pays him the compliment of trying to ape his visual style as well as giving him a cameo role as a priest in the confessional - very appropriate given the tone of his Daredevil stories.

At their best Miller's stories have a pacing and style that is up there with the best. And it is difficult to imagine a certain type of comic now without reference to his work, just as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (and Steve Ditko) blazed a trail that changed the comics landscape in the sixties.

Take Batman for example. Miller revitalised the character, almost restoring him to the vicious masked vigilante that was first created in the forties, the difference being that this one is tad older and the world a mite more complex.

And the Daredevil. I've always liked that character but as the storytelling moved away from the likes of Lee the concept was approaching burnout - that is until Miller gave him a bunch of pulp villains to fight, a modicum of catholic guilt and an assassin girlfriend called Elektra to moon over.

Miller wanted to be like Eisner - to write and draw his own stories. But this didn't fit in with assembly line comic book production that included editors, pencillers, inkers, scriptwriters. Eventually he almost made it with Sin City but along the way he found some good collaborators.

On Daredevil he worked with Klaus Janson, a genius at zipatoned background work, if (on Daredevil) a little shaky on his figurework. Together with the excellent colour work of his (ex?) wife Lyn VarleyIt was this team that began a story arc where Daredevil Matt Murdoch met and fell in love with Elektra whilst in college, failed to save her father, lost her and then found her again, this time a martial arts trained assassin.

She was introduced in issue 168. By issue 170 Bullseye and Kingpin that would join the cast to play out the scenario that culminated in E's death and Bullseye's hospitalisation in issue 181.

Wow. She died. How shocking. People don't die in comics. They keep coming back don't they. Of course they do. In no time at all (issue 190) she was back, complete with faint heartbeat - strong enough to get her going at any right.

Truth is, at times, the Elektra saga is a teensy bit boring. In part this is due to the constraints imposed the need to produce a bi-monthly comic. In part it's the uneasy mix of combining fairly conventional criminal archetypes and superheroes. that sort of stuff hasn't really worked since the 40's. And in part it's due to Elektra herself. Generally women in superhero comics get a raw deal, saddled with impossible costumes (come to think of it aren't they all) and generally doomed to play subordinate rolls. Of all the women characters Elektra is arguably the most colourless. She doesn't have much to say and then she dies.

But that blandness gave her a mysterious quality that enabled Miller and other writers to use her as a palimpsest.

In this Miller has been the most successful. He went on to create the superbly self illustrated, if densely told tale "Elektra Lives Again" as an attempt to equal the quality of European comic illustrators.

"Elektra Assassin", illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz was even more successful. It was also a challenging read, which is rare for comics let's face it.

But it was "Batman - The Dark Knight Returns" that really made the running. Reunited with Varley and Janson this was a bold and exciting tale, a real page turner that matched story and illustration perfectly. It's been stated many times but this is the comic that turned Miller into a superstar in the comic world.

But as I said before it was a certain type of comic. Miller liked Eisner and even when he was working with superheroes plain ordinary criminality kept intruding. Miller liked crime. He also liked samurais and ninjas and such like (pace Ronin and Elektra) but he did like crime.

It was therefore logical that he would attempt to present his own superheroless underworld, which turned out to be "Sin City". Despite it's lack of superheroes it was no less bizarre and no more realistic. The comics are noir fuelled abstracts where the prostitutes are beautiful, the killers grotesque, the heroes loners, the language purple pulp and everything is in stark black and white except for the blood.

I don't know how much of a percentage gets from merchandising or film rights and I don't care. Maybe I hope it's enough but maybe I hope it's not enough to keep him satisfied. Some say Miller's vision is sexist, even fascist. All those scantily clad babes and vigilante killers. I think they're skewed pieces of forties nostalgia. anyhow I hope he's still hungry and I hope he keeps churning out the good stuff.

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