Artist edition Daredevil by Frank Miller. But is the inker the unsung hero here? Maybe..

[00:00:02]Hey, thanks for joining me. Uh, this one kind of comes out of the blue. Uh, what I mean is that I ordered it um just like 3 days ago, 3 or 4 days ago, and it showed up pretty damn quick. Um, I've been aware of this one, but I've kind of avoided picking it up because these artist editions are typically very expensive. They normally have a a cover price. I don't know if they list it on this thing, you know. I don't know if they put it on there, but these things new are usually something like $150 and that makes them you [snorts] better have a lot of money or just dying to get it. Um, and I don't always have that. I have to pick and choose. And I've got I've got certain artist editions because the artists are the ones that I grew up with and I'm just so absolutely in love with.

[00:00:50]Meaning, I've got the McFarland uh artist edition. And I've got the Jim Lee X-Men, the Eric Larson Savage Dragon. Um I did pick up the um the John Burn X-Men one, which I just had to get that absolutely classic art and just get to look at that masterful work. Um I think that's all the ones I have.

[00:01:17]Um, I will be getting soon to be released the Rob Lifeeld Young Bloodood one. Um, got to have that. How can I not? But it's from an era of Lifeel's work where I was still kind of into his work and the black and white line work that he does. We'll get into that. The point I'm getting at is that I didn't grow up with this work exactly. There is a little bit that I did, but it's one of those I'm like, it's on my I need to get, but it can wait.

[00:01:47]This one can wait. And I'm glad I did. I just was kind of casually flipping through Amazon online and I don't know what made me think to look it up, but I found this goddamn thing for like $49, you know, plus shipping, of course.

[00:02:04]I'm like, $49 bucks when they're normally 150. Had to order it. Had to get it. Just I'm like, okay, let's do this. So, I have flipped through this.

[00:02:14]Uh, it's one one of the first things I did today when I got home, saw it sitting on my porch and I'm like, I bet I know what this was. I actually thought, oh yeah, that reminds me. I I thought for a second that I I have also coming the J Scott Campbell Danger Girl Artist Edition. For some reason, I thought that's what this was cuz one of my buddies was telling me that it should be arriving soon. And I kind of forgot that I'd order this ordered this one cuz I did on such a whim. I'm like, "Oh [ __ ] order. Boom, send." I just kind of put it out of my mind. So, when I flipped it open, I was like, "Oh my god, it's going to be the J. Scott Campbell."

[00:02:45]Oh, no. Right. Oh, right. It's the Daredevil one. I forgot that I got that.

[00:02:48]So, I did flip through this uh first thing when I got home from work today.

[00:02:51]Um, of course, it's great. But, there's one thing that I kind of like I I don't know if this has been brought up. It says Frank Miller's Daredevil. So, you know, I I take this as a Frank Miller artist edition, but it's not necessarily a Frank Miller artist edition specifically as much as it is just his Daredevil work artist edition. What's the difference?

[00:03:21]Well, I was sitting here thinking about this is not exclusively the the brilliance of the art is not exclusively Frank Miller. It's the inks from Claus Jansen. And I'm like, how can you leave his name off of this?

[00:03:37]I don't know for sure, but my understanding is that Claus Jansen's inks, I mean, obviously Frank Miller pencils and gives it the composition and the detail and basic indications of lighting, but Claus Jansen's inking gives it the finish that's distinctive.

[00:03:57]Like gives it the distinctive look that is like from an artistic perspective, it's almost a 50/50. You know, there's one thing for the artist who, you know, does the majority of the mileage of like, yeah, okay, so in the also in the case of this stuff, Frank Miller is writing it and he does the scripting as far as I understand it. He does all of that, but then he has to break down each page. He's got to do the layouts and the basic figure work and the panels and the compositions and pencil the whole thing.

[00:04:26]And you hand it off and an inker doesn't have to worry about any of that stuff.

[00:04:29]He just has to finish the art. So, yes, the pencellor typically has a greater list of things to do, but my understanding is that the pencils were not super tight.

[00:04:42]And Claus Jansen's inks are it's more than just inking him. It's finishing him. That's my understanding. Now, I'm sure there's a lot of you out there who know more than me. Uh, I would love some clarification, but I just remember flipping through this thing a couple hours ago and I'm like, this should have Claus Jansen's name on it as well. This is all about him just as much as Frank in terms of the art. Now, they're trying to sell it as Frank Miller's Daredevil.

[00:05:10]Sure, but we're not reading this [ __ ] Yes, everything's lettered, but [snorts] they're just sporadic pages. So, this is just showcasing the art and like Claus Jansen's name should be up there. So, it I it doesn't ruin anything, but it does kind of bother me. Love this interior uh page, the inside cover where they take a small couple of panels from a specific book and blow it up and make it huge.

[00:05:38]You could see like the white out lumped into here. And I know this exact scene.

[00:05:43]There's some my one of my favorite things in all of comics is in this book.

[00:05:47]We'll [snorts] get into it when we as we get closer, but I love the the using the inside uh [snorts] front cover space.

[00:05:53]Some some books you get like this and it's just blank white when it's an artist driven thing. Use this surface for God's sakes. Like what what could you possibly What What reason would you not do that? God, I'm sitting here looking at these great fence lines and how I'm wondering if these were painted in.

[00:06:14]Looks like kind of a combination of inked around it, but no. As I get closer on it, it looks like they were 100% painted in. And if you can see that clearly, it's like cuz this panel is a lot smaller than this in the original artwork. So, I wonder what they use. But it's not like it's flawless perfect lines. are kind of chunky and little blobs of roundness and double lines and stuff like that. But it doesn't have to be perfect. That's something that I kind of struggle with on my own art is like everything has to be a flawless perfect line and I can never get it that way.

[00:06:46]But that's the goal. But when you actually look at original artwork and you see it up close, it's often kind of a mess for lack of a better term. And that's just interesting how it's just painted in great fence line of all the weird random things to look at. [snorts] So, there's your inside cover.

[00:07:07]Big closeup on another figure. Again, I'm sure the original artwork on this is many orders of magnitude times smaller, but it's interesting to see these ink lines up close.

[00:07:19]Really neat. And then it gives a breakdown of where everything comes from. What the thing that I was most interested in and I was kind of surprised at Daredevil 181. Look at how many pages they have. 2 3 7 8 9 10 13 17 19 20 21 22 23 22 24 25 missing 26 27 missing 28 29 and 30 besides 175 that's the longest run and Daredevil 181 that's the issue where Bullseye kills Electra Daredevil 181 um I I don't remember how old I was I might have been 10 1987 maybe I was 11 something like that. And um I was kind of getting into comics and some kid that I knew, just some buddy of mine, just ran across a pile of comics in his house. He didn't know where they came from, so he brought them to me and gave them to me. And Daredevil 181 was in that pile. And that was my introduction to Daredevil, to Bullseye, to Electra, and to Frank Miller. That's the first time I ever knew anything about these characters. I was aware of the existence of Daredevil on a microscopic level. But yeah, this was my first introduction to all those characters. And what an introduction.

[00:08:34]I've actually reviewed that book twice on my channel. First time years ago, and then recently I got a couple more issues uh before and after that. So, it's kind of fun to kind of revisit that. But I love the fact that they have all these pages from 181 in here because I have gone over that book a billion times as a younger kid. It was I didn't understand the brilliance that I was looking at. I was enthralled. I was engrossed with the story. It's a huge book. I think it's like [snorts] 48 pages. The story was a perfect self-contained thing. It was dramatic. It was kind of horrifying watching Electric get killed so brutally and then Daredevil's fight with Bullseye at the end. That's one of my most memorable and formative comic experiences is Daredevil 181. And to get to see these pages in their original form, you know, raw scanned and so many of them, that is fantastic. That works for me so well. I mean, that shot right there is right out of that book. Looks great. So, a lot of these other pages, most of these other ones I've never seen before because I wasn't collecting the book. Um, it's fascinating to see. I talk about this anytime I look through these artist editions, how some of these pages have just yellowed so terribly and some of them much worse than this. You can see how the corners are cut up for whatever that reason is that get they get cut up when they get I think back in the day art was photographed I think for print cuz they didn't have digital scanners. The only thing they could do is photograph and I don't know if they had to chop it up but some of these pages are terribly yellowed and just chopped to [ __ ] Um but there's a lot of pages like look at this bright white one. like this one's been obviously kind of cared for and um kept out of the sun and out of a smoker's you know out of a smoker's presence um as compared to like this one. Um but yeah so Frank Miller at least on this issue this page Frank Miller pencils and Joseph Rubenstein and Claus Jansen on inks. Um, I love the use. There's there's a lot of use of zippotone all over the place. And I'm sure everyone listening understands what zipotone is, but for that that one person who doesn't know, there's sheets of these patterns that you can get and they all kinds of different patterns and gradations and stuff like that that you can just put on a thing and then cut out the part you want to keep and then peel the stuff off and you get that gray pattern. You got it there. You got it there. There's even kind of like a zippotone halo effect around Hulk's arm there. A lot of zippotone in this stuff that I noticed.

[00:11:07]And man, if I did digital comics or, you know, I I'll never do digital comics, but if I had the technology technology and the knowhow, I would do a lot of digital zippone on top of my original artwork. I just I don't have the means to do that. I don't know how how to go about that. There's another great shot. All the rooftops have got that little kind of midtone on it that's more zip cut out onto that. So, got to kind of zip through some of these pages because there's a whole book to look through here and I want to focus on some other stuff. But just getting to see the original artwork like this just knowing that at one point Frank Miller was sitting on a page just like this drawing it in and then Claus was coming in. I if I don't know again anybody who knows better correct me but I'm pretty certain that Claus Jansen is almost exclusively brush work and that's the stuff that it like really stands out. Now again these pages were I think it said you know had Joseph Rubenstein doing some of them. Uh nope on this one. This one's just all clouds. So anyway, um I I feel like his work is all brush and it just kind of shows um you know a nib is a sharper line, but this stuff look to me looks like almost all um brush work. You can see a difference in like if you can see that the uh black on the figures is much darker than the lines on the stairs. So, I'm guessing use some kind of maybe nonarchchival ink, maybe a pen for these thin, straight, perfect lines. Uh, it's super huge pain in the ass to do that [ __ ] with the brush. So, you use some kind of pen, but the ink fades over time and that's why those stairs and the window behind them and a couple other things, the backgrounds back here, some of these things, they just don't have that raw deep black ink like you use with an India ink on so many of these other things. So, that's kind of interesting to see, you know, wonder what the choice of tools were that he uses. Um, and I love these close-ups on the eye and these nice heavy thick brush lines.

[00:13:14]I wonder if Claus just is good enough to just throw the line and stop at the border every time he throws these lines.

[00:13:23]Maybe he starts from over here and brings it into the black because you don't have to worry about, you know, cuz then you could come in and throw in the uh eyelashes on that.

[00:13:34]But I wonder my my natural inclination when I ink is to throw it left to right.

[00:13:39]But um or what I do is I take a yellow Post-it note and I put it on the edge right across the border so that I can throw the line and go on to the yellow Post-it note, not worrying about stopping before I come to the border so I don't make it look ugly. And then once you're done, you just take the Post-it note off and it's a perfect clean line.

[00:13:57]Love to know what some of these artists do. Anyway, love [clears throat] the atmospheric sky going on there. That's really cool. Uh boy does Frank Miller do some great fight scenes in these books.

[00:14:08]um in a way that you just kind of don't see in a lot of comics anymore. Uh there's something different and unique about the way that he does it, but I want to obviously get to the some of the stuff I'm more familiar with. Um interesting shot on Electra's uh Electra's face where she's kind of got the casual like smile on her face almost. Um he makes her look a little bit more sinister as the the story lines go on.

[00:14:35]Um, great shots here. Such an iconic costume design on Electra with the the outfit cut across the bare legs, the sash, the the the hanging dress design, whatever it is, the bandana.

[00:14:52]Really great. Again, great atmospheric backgrounds. That looks really great.

[00:14:58]Drawing people kissing is hard. I've said that a bunch of times. That looks really cool.

[00:15:05]God, look at how yellow these pages are.

[00:15:07]Good lord.

[00:15:10]I wonder where what kind of environment they sit in to get this yellow. Um, yeah. Let's keep zipping through here.

[00:15:18]One of Bullseye and Daredevil's earlier fights, beating the [ __ ] out of each other.

[00:15:24]This interesting gun design that Bullseye has that Frank Miller seemed to really like. It almost looks like Han Solo's blaster, but there's a specific gun uh in a later one of these later pages that he uses very specifically that he seems like he likes to have bullseye have. Um this page, a lot of zippotone.

[00:15:44]I wonder if that color is what the color of the zippotone is or if it's kind of faded over time. It's a really interesting use to have her in front of this um the Venetian blinds and so the light's coming through. So, you got to kind of have uh rim lighting on the figure. Really interesting. Odd but cool pose. I think it looks really good. I like the face. That looks really cool.

[00:16:09]Um yeah. Yeah. Frank Miller story art and Claus Jansen finished art.

[00:16:19]This should have more of a hype for uh Claus Jansen's work. Um, yeah. Loving anytime there's a shot like that. That looks awesome right there.

[00:16:30]Great storytelling.

[00:16:32]This stuff looks all fantastic.

[00:16:38]Love the uh ninja design. It's funny is like I think the first time that I remember seeing these the hand ninjas in this design was when Jim Lee was drawing them in Uncanny X-Men. And so I'm just kind of assumed that this specific design is a Frank Miller or originated thing. Am I do I have that correct? But it's a whenever I think of ninjas, that's the design I instinctively want to put them in. It's like the loose billowy shirt and kind of little strappy things around the arms and legs. When I think ninjas, that's the design that comes to mind because I saw Jim Lee do it in um those Uncanny X-Men issues. And I'm guessing that was all just pulled straight from here.

[00:17:16]Very cool.

[00:17:18]Um, let's just keep going. Let's keep going because I'm going to stop and spend some time on some other pages coming up later. Great lighting on that shot there. There's that zipper tone in the background and then like hand painted on with I don't know if it's like white acrylic paint or something white out whatever it might be with these little I've noticed that this happens a lot where there are these glinting parts and I again I assume this is all Claus Jensen and it it looks so perfect with all these little flicks of white coming out to be that glowing sparkle bright light. You got it there there. It's all over the place in these books and I'm like, man, what a sharp hand to be able to make those sharp lines in the white on top of the black ink. Fantastic stuff. Great fight scenes going on here.

[00:18:10]So great. Um, yeah, more fighting, more hand ninjas.

[00:18:18]Electra's kicking the [ __ ] out of these guys. I like that. Stabbing them through the guts on the side there. I like the silhouette top panel. That looks great.

[00:18:27]Like I said, Frank Miller does some of the best like fight choreography in these things. Fantastic. Love the use of the daredevil face with the heavy zippone, giving it the, you know, you got the heavy blacks and the white highlight and then the mid-range tone with the zip. Very cool.

[00:18:48]Let's keep going.

[00:18:50]Anytime someone effectively uses silhouette stuff that looks very sin city for the beyond the obvious reasons where it's just straight silhouette shot, but you can kind of see where Frank Miller was going to go in the future. And uh doing all silhouette is hard because you got to make sure what you're doing is extremely clear. [snorts] Um this ninja I like how he's come through. He's got the sword in him. very big upper body, but uh I think it looks great. And more great fight scenes. Look at all this crazy action.

[00:19:26]God [clears throat] damn is it so great.

[00:19:28]Most fight scenes seem to be just like a page with like a panel or two of people like grunting and screaming at each other and throwing a haymaker fist or something like that and then like one finishing move and it's over. This is like a choreographed fight scene. Like ducking, stabbing, clacking weapons, throwing stars, having to dive out of the way, kicking something at him, throwing something at him. It's like a choreographed battle that just keeps going on. Um, love the heavy silhouette with the rim lighting on the art there.

[00:19:58]Guy on fire is great. This shot looks so good. I can't tell you how much I love this atmospheric like the clouds. It's kind of dry brushed on and then it looks like I don't know if I'm going to be able to you're going to be able to see it, but as I bring it up to look at it where like you've got the solid white and then there's the solid black. But the transitions from the black to white is like it looks like a fingerprint where the ink, you know, like literally the artist gets some ink on his finger and he dabs and pushes on it to give it a specific kind of pattern that gives it kind of a gray tone. And that is some of my favorite like atmospheric clouds I've ever seen. It looks so good. And there's no way that Frank can pencil that in.

[00:20:43]That is all an inker making that choice.

[00:20:46]Like obviously Frank penciled in clouds somehow someway somewhere, you know, but this specific kind of fingerprint inking that's got to be all clouds like that.

[00:20:58]So much of this art is him. I like the kind of the brushstroke lines be like the rain and the clouds. The atmospherics of that shot are spectacular.

[00:21:08]So cool. I've never I I've been aware of people doing the thumb print thing. I've never tried it and whenever I ink I get [ __ ] all over my hands but I never stopped to think to like let me try and do that and see what it does. One of these days I'll remember and actually give it a shot.

[00:21:24]So then you know here's the thing with Matt Murdoch training probably with stick. Yeah. Um I do not know what the story is and what this monster thing is.

[00:21:33]Holy [ __ ] is that cool looking. Like good lord. Like just out of the blue here comes some wild stuff. Um looks like it's duo tone. I I mean in some places I'm I'm not sure. It almost looks like a combination of a zippotone and duo tone, but I'm just going to guess it's all duo tone. For anybody who doesn't know, there's specific kind of boards that are built into it uh with a specific kind of like where you you get two chemicals. I've never done I've only heard people explain this basically on the cartoonist Kayfabe channel. Uh they were explaining it. So I'm kind of giving my memories what I'm able to pull from my memory the explanation of how it works. The paper has this stuff built into it where you get two chemicals and one chemical will bring out one of the lighter tones and the other chemical will bring out the darker tone. Depends on which one you use. So you get duo tone, duo two tone, two tones, light and then a darker. So you can have your black and your white but then you get two layers of like a gray tone to put on there. I am not a huge fan of the effect of what duo tone looks like. I've seen it over a lot of art and it's it's used to great effect here, of course, but I don't know that.

[00:22:53]I feel like there's easier ways to get some kind of look like that than some weird chemical board weird mess thing. I don't know. I'm never a huge fan of how it looks often, but I think it works great here.

[00:23:05]whatever the hell this demon monster is, especially the close-up face there. That is badass. Um, yeah, again, whatever it is, and lots of duo tone used all over the backgrounds on these things. I don't know if maybe Frank got [snorts] a hair up his ass and just like, I want to try that and thought it was interesting, so he gets really experimental with it. I don't think he sticks with it for too many pages, at least in as far as is represented in this book. I don't know, but or maybe he just wanted to use it for this scene. and gives it kind of an otherworldly feel cuz he's, you know, fighting this monster thing that was just in his head, I guess.

[00:23:39]Again, no idea what the story is.

[00:23:42]More great fight scenes. Oh [ __ ] look at Electra stabbing this guy right through the chest and the poking and pushing the shirt out. Ominous. Um, great continuing choreographed fight scenes. So good.

[00:23:57]Uh, yeah. And then again, like this close-up on the guy's face there, you can see how there's a lot of white paint used to like emphasize the inside rim there and some of these little details on the inside, the edge of the glasses, and then folds in his skin and then his eyelashes there. Great inking from Claus. Love this upper shot. Love the shot of her face, the cross-hatching lines on the the shadows going down into her mouth, her lips. That looks so good.

[00:24:27]And then this face here, there's that zippotone. And then there's that painted on white, you know, giving it that glint. Again, however he does it. I mean, I guess he just kind of gets in a center part here with the brush and then just kind of just flicks those out from a center point. It's not as easy as you would think it would be, especially the longer you get your lines. You got to really know how to control it. But it gives such a perfect little highlight glint. That is so neat.

[00:24:58]Love that page. That one looks just fantastic. Um, is that the Kingpin's fat ass wearing a dress?

[00:25:06]Probably not. I don't think it is.

[00:25:09]Anyway, okay, here we go. Now, we have jumped into Daredevil 181. This is, like I said, this is that issue where Bullseye kills Electra. Um, the first comic I ever had that had Bullseye, Daredevil, Electra, and the first Frank Miller thing I'd ever read. Formative to me in a big way. And I've stared at that original comic when I showed it on my channel. My original one is just in like the worst shape. It is just just shredded. I, as a young cut, I even stapled it together because it was falling apart, but that kind of screwed it up even more. It's trashed.

[00:25:46]but to get to see the original artwork.

[00:25:48]There's been some closeup on eyes in previous pages back through here in various places and I'm probably not going to be able to run into one quickly without just wasting time, but this is like a whole other level. I don't know if Frank was inspired and penciling it with a more greater focus on realism or if this is clouds just bringing it home, but those eyes are perfect. all of that organic look of the skin and the furled brow and then cutting back as I like the shot of we're close up on his eyes and then because this is bullseye starts up here and then he's intercutting his fight with B uh Daredevil and how he's pissed off that Daredevil saved his life but it pulls back and it pulls back even more and it pulls back even more and then boom zooms back up on on his face and that shot is incredible. The one thing that is like I've talked about often how I am a huge fan big time of black and white artwork, but I have to say the coloring in this issue in the actual comic on that old news print actually works flawlessly. It's perfectly. There's some emphasis on colors that the coloring did that is just so incredibly perfect. Um, in a way it almost feel like it's missing something, but that's like a minor complaint. Again, you get that looks like it's the uh duo shade board giving it that shadow, the intense look on his face. That drawing is so good.

[00:27:19]Everything about that page, those eyes, the top and bottom panels are my favorite. And then again, I studied this stuff as a kid, looking at the muscular anatomy, the moves that the character would do. Again, this is my introduction to Bullseye. Bullseye was instantly a super badass. He was so incredible. I didn't know anything about him except that he's an assassin and his whole gig is that he never misses, which I didn't know immediately, but I I caught on pretty quick and um it's just so great.

[00:27:48]And then of course, they're going to do an interview on this famed assassin in jail. So, he's going through this interview. He fakes having a headache because that's a thing that's been consistent with the characters that this uh guard has to give him as medicine.

[00:28:01]But it's just all a gimmick to get the pill in his mouth so he can spit it out of his mouth into the cop's eye. The cop immediately draws his gun and shoots. So Bullseye uses that because he's got a big um like a heavy metal belt on, I guess, as part of his prison attire, but he uses the bullet to break the chain on his belt. I mean, that's what that is, right? I mean, that is some kind of big heavy metal belt. That's how I always read this scene because he could use the chains as a defle, you know, he's using the chains to get busted because of the bullet shooting, but I also thought that impacted on his gut, but that's because he's got a heavy metal belt on that's part of his um shackles. Am I reading that right? Anyway, bullet breaks a chain. So, now he's got his hands free.

[00:28:45]He kicks the guy in the face. Now he's got a gun and he uses the microphone from the interviewer to swing it around like a weapon to grab onto people and choke them. I was like, "Holy shit." As a kid reading this stuff, I'm like I had been reading comics for a little while, but I'm like no one had ever choreographed a fight like this in a way that made sense. Like it I understand in a very cool action movie way like how he gets out. Like there's a thought and a logic to every move. This was just mindblowing.

[00:29:14]And again to get to see this arc in its original form. Um shoots a cop that gave him [ __ ] earlier. Bunch of zippotone all through these pages. Looks fantastic.

[00:29:26]Again, look at these pages chopped up on the corners. God, it's so obnoxious.

[00:29:32]Um, love this shot right here. Um, I've always thought this was a great panel in the comic, but getting to see it up close, it's kind of complicated because they're like down by the dock. So, here's the actual dock up high, but then there's this kind of like living quarters underneath the dock where the building itself is like right on the water's edge. You can see the reflection. I don't like is that a thing? I don't know. But I like how it's kind of like almost hiding under the docks. And then you got the guy's hand is reaching out the window so he can, you know, ash. And it's there's little white highlights here as he's ashing his cigarette and it's dropping into the water. But then there's this white smoke that's partially left open from the black ink line, but then then it's been painted over with like white paint to give it kind of a hazy smoke effect as it comes up. And then the zipotone in the sky in the background. The building in the background that's all black and then comes into like a brick pattern as it comes down to a light source. There's like a white highlight around the top of these dock pier uh you know structural posts. Just everything about that panel blows my mind. I would never conceive of how to draw something like that. I've always thought that that side view of that face. Like I'm guessing that's referenced off something. Um there's just a higher level of art in this issue from Frank and Claus than the previous stuff. However, whenever that comes about, I don't know. Love that shot. And then um then of course we we cut over a couple p this is page 17. Now we jump to 21. Uh, again getting into the entire fight scene between Bullseye and Electra. The entire scene is in this book. I was actually kind of shocked like every page is there. Um, and it's fantastic. It's so cool. Uh, I was kind of blown away as a kid like how this guy could take a playing card and flick it and cut a guy's throat. I'm like, "Oh [ __ ] that's so dangerous. What a badass." There's more of that zippotone and then white paint painted on top of the zip for the smoke effect. Um, and then even this like the car pulling away and like the exhaust is kind of like the paint is like dabbed on there.

[00:31:45]Really interesting stuff.

[00:31:49]But yeah, in one of what is to me probably I I I struggle to think of a fight scene in a comic that's better than this. I'm not saying that there isn't and I would be interested to have anybody kind of um submit other potential possibilities for a fight scene between two characters that's better choreographed, has more anticipation and getting your ducks in a row in terms of the characters and the buildup previous issues to have these two run into each other and have the emotional weight of how this thing ends.

[00:32:25]because it can't just be like put two characters together and have them fight.

[00:32:28]But it's it's the encompassing story of how we've been introduced to Electra. We know Bullseye. I don't know that they've ran into each other yet, but by the time they get to here, we know the characters. We know who they are and who's going to win this fight. And by God, I don't think anybody would have ever predicted the outcome of this fight. Now, of course, everyone watching this, you know what happens. But I submit this as maybe the best fight in comics.

[00:32:55]And if it's not, it's in the top 10 for sure. Top t top five probably. But for me, it's kind of the best. Love the shot. Great eyes, great texture in her eyes, great inking on the lips.

[00:33:09]It's It's funny cuz the lips are really white as compared to the yellowing of the rest of the page. So, I wonder if he did one thing and didn't like it, so he had to white it out and then reink over it. If uh Claus did, God, does that still look great, but she's supposed to kill Foggy Nelson, and he recognizes her as um Matt Murdoch's old girlfriend.

[00:33:31]He's like, I know who you are, Electra.

[00:33:33]And she's like, get out of here. So, she can't go with it. And then again, silent fight scene in terms of there's no text box. She's just she lets him go and she's just kind of there with her head down kind of like thinking about I I the Kingpin sent me on this gig to kill him and how is she going to get out of this.

[00:33:53]There's that gun. That is a very specific I want to say that's a Germanade firearm. Uh it's interesting that uh Frank wants to have him Bullseye have that gun specifically. But I like how he just comes out and he's like he thinks he's going to get the drop on her like this is an easy kill. Like Bullseye doesn't want to like he's not like I don't want the challenge of fighting her. He's going to [ __ ] kill her. But I like how she's 100% aware. Just this simple shot of her eye looking behind her and then one of my favorite fight scenes ever. Flipped back, kicks him in the face, disarms him, gets the gun out of his hand, takes her weapon, puts it right across his chin, boom, boom, boom, jumps. He dives out of the way. She shatters the window of the car and then she immediately reverses kicks him in the spine, sends him flying. I was like, "Holy shit." As a kid, again, however old I was when I got that book, 10 or 11, like I thought it was amazing, but I didn't have enough comics reading under my belt yet to understand how great this was. But it just gets more interesting and better with time. Holy [ __ ] did they take a chainsaw to this [ __ ] book. [clears throat] Corners just rip it apart. This brilliant page. Um, but yeah, kicks the [ __ ] out of Bullseye. And the text from him, he's like, "Holy [ __ ] she's good.

[00:35:12]She's been trained by ninjas." Uh, he's like, "I better be careful with her." So again, he's kind of sneaking around in the dark. There's more of those great white highlight flicks for the glinting weapon. But again, Bullseye, he's no fool. He's a badass.

[00:35:28]She tries to swing her weapon at him, but he ducks and puts his He um really I I don't I I have to imagine this is a specific thing, but the way that Frank Miller choreographed the fight, it's one thing if he like punches her in the guts or something like that or kicks her in the back, but he has her him go for her head multiple times, which is like that's how you disorient a person and [ __ ] them up. He puts a foot straight in her face. Then he puts a knee straight to her chin. Then she slices at him. Just barely cuts his face. She dives at him. He kicks her again. A heel kick to the jaw. Like that's boom boom boom. Three big shots from a big man punching a woman straight in the face with his like all of them are with his feet and his knees. Like that would knock anybody [ __ ] cold.

[00:36:18]And of course, Electra is a badass. But I'm like, that makes sense how he could defeat her by just taking his like legs and knees to her face multiple times.

[00:36:26]Boom, boom, boom. I like how she pulls her bandana off and wraps it around him as if to choke him. Love that shot of her. So great. And then once again, continuing the motif of him [ __ ] up her head. He slams her skull down onto the pavement. Boom. And she's like dazed. And of course, the classic scene right here, spread across this [ __ ] He's like, "You're good. You're pretty good, but I'm magic." takes that card, flicks it right into her throat, and then this shot of her like she's kind of like she's lost all her strength and her power with that kind of the way her knees are kind of turned in and the way her feet is kind of a weak pose because of course she's got the [ __ ] beat out of her and her throat cut. The way he picks her up and this kind of like weakened dazed look in her face and like I couldn't believe you could do this in a comic. This is a brutal straight hardcore murder. the look on his face and he's like for my next trick and that incredible shot of him just stabbing her straight through the chest, the blade piercing the back of her outfit.

[00:37:25]Shocking that they could get away with this. This stuff looks so great in these multiple panels. Again, no words. Thank you, Frank Miller, for having the good sense like some other creators don't have of shutting the [ __ ] up and let the visuals tell the story. There's no text anywhere that anybody could conceive of in my mind that would make this scene better.

[00:37:48]It's just silent. Stabs her and he just he's one. And so he just kind of like watches her. Now, of course, if you're stabbed through the heart and bleeding that hard, like she traverses what seems to be several blocks to end up on the doorstep of Matt Murdoch, and this is a comic book, and narratively it works perfectly, but realistically she'd never [ __ ] make it five feet with a stabbed heart and bleeding that much blood. But I love that she's crawling away. She falls to her ground. She gets back up and uh Bullseye is just following her quietly because of course he wants to confirm that Murdoch is Daredevil. And the first thing she does is crawls right to his house and she dies in his arms.

[00:38:30]There's that inside front cover image right there of those things. And then in the original book, the coloring on this is all kind of like I think one kind of monochromatic color except for a bright yellow on Bullseye flicking open is lighter. So great. And then that's page 29. Uh we're moving on to page 31 here.

[00:38:48]Another one of my favorite scenes cuz Bullseye, now that he's got the idea that Murdoch is Daredevil, he follows them to the hospital where he kind of sneaks into the emergency room or whatever where there's the doctor and Matt Murdoch and Foggy Nelson as the doctor is explaining how Daredevil or how Electra's dead. It's like multiple concussions, stab wounds, lacerated throat, metal pierced by some or heart pierced by something metal, you know, and Bullseye, he's like he's not 100% sure. So, he sneaks in. And you just think that again, Bullseye thinks that no one knows he's there. And if it's anybody else on the planet, no one does know he's there. So, he just kind of casually snags a scalpel and then just casually just flicks it at Daredevil and it would have gone straight into his head. Not that one to kill the man, but and I love like this just illustrates that Murdoch 100% knew that Bullseye was there. And he just quietly flicks his club up thunk just to block it. And then there goes Bullseye running off. He's like, "Fuck, that's Daredevil. I I I had a doubt that Murdoch, the blind lawyer, is Daredevil." That's all the proof he needs. It's such a brilliant storytelling scene. It's one of the best, most perfect scenes in any comic I've ever seen. This entire issue was absolutely brilliant. And then unfortunately there's not much more of this issue. There's a whole fight between Bullseye and Daredevil. I would love to have had every page of that book in this thing. Uh we don't get much more. There's that great shot of Daredevil smacking the [ __ ] out of him.

[00:40:20]And so they have a big fight. And then I think that was it cuz that was issue 181. Now we're up to 184. And I've never seen these issues. So, the best part of this book, the most interesting stuff, we were now past doesn't make it any less interesting. Um, it's just fantastic, amazing stuff. Um, you know, again, Frank Miller story and art, but then Jansen finished art. So, I would love to know what these pencil pages look like just to have some kind of sense of how much the pencils, how light they were, how basic they were versus what Claus brings to it specifically. And then down here, Miller says scriptor and storyteller. But then this one, Jansen.

[00:41:08]Claus Jansen is penceller, inker, and colorist. So Claus Jansen did everything except the lettering. [snorts] So Frank Miller is still scriptor and storyteller. So, this is where I also feel like there's an argument to be made that Claus Jansen deserves way more credit for the beauty of the finished art because now in this at least this one issue at least it's Claus Jansen pencellor inker and colorist to the casual eye and kind of to me I don't see a difference like there are some things where I'm like this feels Frank Millerish but not exactly but to just a regular person looking at that, you probably wouldn't even even notice that it's a different artist. Love this shot of Daredevil sitting outside the window with the heavy shadows on him and then the city line in the background being white and then the zippotone. Um, but I mean again, like I said, to the casual viewer, do you really look and see much of a difference? I do see a little bit of a difference.

[00:42:14]Um, but holy [ __ ] is that great. Look at the lighting.

[00:42:18]choices, the rendering on this, like I I would never in a million years think to draw anything like that. The choice of like the cross-hatching lines coming up, the way the fist is rendered, the the lighting on the underside of the face, this cross-hatchy scratchy background, it looks so great, but like I'm just repeating myself and I'm sorry, but I'm like, does the casual viewer know that this isn't Frank Miller anymore? It looks just like his work. It's like a 85 to 90% looks just like him. Um I don't know. So he deserves way more credit these shots.

[00:42:56]I guess his uh senses are picking up like the sound is like the the his hearing is going crazy. So he's kind of going nuts. But this is this is just crazy how it's it's such a close approximation.

[00:43:10]Um and it looks fantastic still. Now, this one again, this issue, Frank Miller, writer, storyteller, Claus Jansen, pencil, inker, colorist. Like, good lord, what an incredible cityscape.

[00:43:23]I love that. Looks like such an old school old New York. The water towers, the heavy lighting on them, the zippotone. I love the uh the billboard here and the zippone with the split kind of like the highlight of the lights casting the light down on that. Like that takes some real understanding to give them the curves like that from the above light source. But yeah, it's just all Claus Jensen. It's just so close.

[00:43:49]Like heavy zippotone. Got Black Widow in here. Love that shot. Love the ink lines everywhere. That heavily lit shadowed face. Goddamn [clears throat] is that good. So much zippetone all over the place. Um that is the Black Widow, right? Yeah.

[00:44:08]Natasha like she always was illustrated with the short hair and that zipone outfit. [snorts] Um, great cityscape down there. Holy [ __ ] And then the zip sky uh skyline in the background.

[00:44:24]Um, god damn is this stuff great. Makes me want to draw. Makes me want to get out a brush and start inking. Another issue. Um, Jansen penciler inker colorist. Love the framing of it. the heavy like alleyway heavy shadowed and then I'm guessing hand ninja and then the building in the background with the zippotone over it and then lines to show it's raining and the one window we're focused on it's a bright little white highlight to focus on what so we understand what they are looking at simple [snorts] but brilliant brilliant stuff and then again that heavy shadowed Great inking. God damn, all this stuff looks good.

[00:45:12]I know Claus Jansen can draw can draw.

[00:45:14]I'm not surprised in the slightest. I'm not like I didn't know Clauss could draw. Of course he can. I've known that for a long time. But just seeing how good he was and just picking up and doing all the art duties. Um it's fantastic. What a great shot.

[00:45:28]Is this still clouds exclusively?

[00:45:36]Not sure. Um, great shot. All of this stuff in a way. This stuff almost looks like it would work better as a black and white comic. Um, it would work just as effectively. If they were to re-release this comic, just re-release the entire series just in black and white. I think that you'd have a hit on your hands. I would definitely be picking it up. Um, we're going long here, so let's get through this. Uh, says Frank Miller and Jansen. Um, looks like it's more of the duo shade.

[00:46:12]Really interesting. Love the facial structure, especially the eyes and the way that nose is drawn. That is so well done. I'm going to say probably use some reference.

[00:46:25]Um, which I'm not that's not a complaint, but like that. [ __ ] does that look good.

[00:46:30]very moody, very evocative, just like nothing like that. What I thought was interesting here back with uh Frank Miller, writer and pencil, now you got Terry Austin inking him. Terry Austin, I know specifically is the inker over John Burn. I've come to understand Terry Austin's ink line a little bit better. Uh, as time has gone on, I've had some kind of in uh I know like inker I know Chuck Gibson.

[00:46:55]He's a professional inker and uh he's kind of given me a lot of tips and knowledge and personal insight information and I've come to recognize a little bit a Terry Austin ink line in this era. It's a little bit flatter like a dead line. There's not like thick to thin transitions in the way that Claus Jansen's ink lines um would look like.

[00:47:19]I'm trying to think of find like a like these are more haphazard organic and I mean that in every way that's positive the way that clouds inks his lines. Um but see how they're thick to thin but Terry Austin seems like for the most part he's kind of got like a more of a a dead line like a singular straight like a not a lot of line width variation.

[00:47:45]There obviously is in some places. I'm I'm speaking in broad generalities and I'm also not saying it as a negative. I think it looks good. It's a different vibe to Frank's pencils, which it does say he's penciling again, but having Terry Austin on it, I don't know. I would have identified that originally if I didn't have someone tell me, but when I get told that's Terry Austin inkline, I kind of see it. I get it. And like th this does not look like the way the clouds would have inked this. This is definitely a different vibe and it looks great, but it is different.

[00:48:20]Really good stuff. Um, more great pages.

[00:48:23]More This looks like more of a modern drawing from Frank. Um, looking to see if there's a date on there. But this thing, oh yeah, look, this is another thing [clears throat] cuz it's a scan.

[00:48:35]There is the duo shade board. Uh, what I'm guessing the original artwork must look like. They've got this duo shade.

[00:48:41]Um, let's see if I can read what it says. Two hidden shades, light and dark graphics, light tone developer number one brings up and then of course it disappears off the page. Um, be sure to clean brushes or pens. Is advisable to have different brush or pen for each developer? So each tone. Uh, really interesting. I've never even noticed that before. That's really fun. But then this thing flips out. Look at this. God, is that awesome. Holy [ __ ] Look at that.

[00:49:12]Holies duo shade background.

[00:49:16]God, I bet that took that was time consuming. [snorts] Frank Miller and Claus.

[00:49:23]That is incredible. What a great shot. I kind I mean, I'm not going to, but I kind of want to tear this out and frame it and hang it on my wall. That is [ __ ] fantastic. I can't get over.

[00:49:35]Look at the elevated shot in perspective of this cityscape below him in the duo shade. Is kind of interesting how it's just kind of like a flat over here, but then it gets a little bit vague, but then it gets really sharp as we get closer to these buildings.

[00:49:53]What a pain in the ass that must have been. But it works.

[00:49:58]God damn. Is that cool. I don't know if I've ever seen this before.

[00:50:03]Very cool.

[00:50:10]And then there's another uh interesting shot of um Electra. Again, I'm looking for a date on this, but it seems to be like a more modern version of Frank's art. I like how he gives her like rippling muscles. Like he didn't draw her like that in the previous books. Uh I think it's an interesting design. I like that.

[00:50:32]uh Spider-Man, Electro, Wolverine.

[00:50:37]So, other bits of art that he's done.

[00:50:41]Going to kind of zip through some of these. Frank Miller doing Spider-Man.

[00:50:45]Um, look at that one. More of that duo shade and interesting use of the design elements with the color behind it, but you got the name Electra, the block of color shape that she's just posed on, the block coming off her weapon there.

[00:50:59]In fact, both weapons. There you go.

[00:51:01]That's interesting. The weapon coming down and the shade coming off it there.

[00:51:04]The same thing here. [snorts] Fantastic. Really interesting. Very stylized.

[00:51:10]Lots of uh looks like duo shade use all through this.

[00:51:15]Yep. Oh, in fact, there it is. There's even that edge that's indicating the duo shade board right there in front of my eyes. Uh we're almost done. I didn't think this would go long, but holy [ __ ] what an awesome page. Uh yeah, that's Wolverine fighting a bunch of hand ninjas. Arrows everywhere.

[00:51:32]Again, those designs I'm like I the first time I ever saw that was Jim Lee doing in those uncanny X-Men issues.

[00:51:37]Love it. That's what ninjas look like in my head. Great double page spread.

[00:51:44]Great shots of Wolverine stabbing the [ __ ] out of people wearing little lampshades for helmets. That's really cool.

[00:51:53]I didn't know. I've seen this image before, but I never known that shot of Punisher holding Captain America at gunpoint was a Frank Miller drawing. Had no idea.

[00:52:02]That's awesome. I learned something today. And then, of course, the cover galleries. These are always fun. There's your cover to the book. Good lord, is that yellowed.

[00:52:13]Somebody took a piss all over it. Um, the one I'm looking for, the 181. These are all great. That looks fantastic.

[00:52:23]Um, there's Matt fighting that demon thing. Classic shot of Electra with the uh, Sai stabbing through his mask.

[00:52:32]There it is. There's that cover to that book. That duo shade. I remember looking at the original cover on the comic and seeing these weird tones and lines. I'm like, how do you do that? What? How do you How do you do that? I don't get it.

[00:52:45]Of course, now I understand. Um, fantastic cover. And then of course Matt making sweet love to Electra's gravestone.

[00:52:53]Um the gun pointing at you. That's awesome.

[00:53:00]That shot of Daredevil and Black Widow.

[00:53:03]That looks freaking badass. That is so great.

[00:53:08]Um I'm guessing this is a much newer.

[00:53:11]Again, it's not dated, but Frank Miller didn't always sign his name. Just a little FM. That feels like a more modern as opposed to like years removed from the 80s version of Daredevil that he's doing. This is more of his Sin City [ __ ] That looks awesome. I got to say that looks really cool. Daredevil all in black and just the gloves and the boots.

[00:53:29]I've saw Joe Casada would kind of do a style like that when he did his Daredevil run. That [ __ ] looks awesome.

[00:53:35]I'm a big fan of that. That shot there looks great, too. Um yeah, I love that one. That's inspiring. More Electra stuff, of course.

[00:53:49]those classic Wolverine covers.

[00:53:55]Uh, weird Spider-Man. I heard a lot of people say that Frank did a little tiny run on Spider-Man. They always wanted to see more. Uh, that's interesting. Again, that dual shade city shot in the background. Very interesting take on Spider-Man. Very different. Um, [clears throat] god, how do you do this with the zipper tone? You just cut out all these windows.

[00:54:19]Oh my god, would that be tedious, but the end result is awesome.

[00:54:25]There's a Doctor Strange. There's a Wolverine. There's a classic bullseye smoking Daredevil standing there. Electra standing there.

[00:54:36]And then, of course, a breakdown of Frank Miller and his background then.

[00:54:39]Anyway, uh, fantastic addition to my artist editions.

[00:54:45]Um, big fan. Like I said, I know I've got two more coming. Well, I haven't ordered the Rob Lifeeld Young Blood one, but I will. I do have the J. Scott Campbell Danger Girl coming. So, this is fantastic. the artistic skill in this, I'd have to say in terms of artistic skill used in this, that is the most shocking in terms of how good uh the art obviously is. Um, you know, I'm going to say the artistic skill in this one is probably better than any of the others. The only one I give a um kind of a run for its money is the John Burn work in this X-Men one.

[00:55:25]these old school artists just putting pencil and ink on paper and using all kinds of different techniques to give atmospheric mood and style and vibes to everything. Um, like just revolutionary art in in comic books. Like these guys took it seriously and uh made real fantastic true art. And um I mean I'm glad to have any of these and there's a ton of artists I wish they would make an artist edition of. So I'll be glad for everyone that I I'm lucky enough to get my hands on. But um uh classic masters and I'm glad I got to add the Daredevil one to my my uh collection now. So that's all I've got. Um almost an hour.

[00:56:06]Thank you for joining me. Uh if you stay along for the whole thing, I appreciate it. I hope that this stuff was as fascinating to you as it is to me. Um like I said, I found this on Amazon. I just randomly looked and they had it for like 48 bucks, $49. So if you want one, go look. Maybe that deal is still there.

[00:56:23]It's the time to buy it. Like, holy [ __ ] I was like, how did I [ __ ] you know? I'll buy that for that cost.

[00:56:30]Anyway, that's all I've got for this one. Thank you for joining me. I really appreciate it. I'll see you next time.