ROSS, ALEX 531
the second page onwards, Miller shows the diff erence between vertical and horizontal
panels, using fi lmic devices such as close-ups and makes extended use of splash pages.
Ronin predates the strict visual codex of black, white, and one supplementary color
Miller would use in Sin City , beginning seven years later.
Miller closely connects the visual design of the comic book with its content. For
the biogenetics housed in the Aquarius Complex, Miller uses a drawing technique that
simulates biological organisms: tiny circles and fi ne lines connecting them resemble
heaps of cells or molecules that construct more complex forms. Th is graphic method is
not only used on the micro-level of the inside of the Aquarius complex, which appears
as a giant living organism sheltering the characters, but also outside the complex. On a
splash page that appears slightly changed in every single issue of Ronin , Miller displays
the control the Aquarius Complex and its biogenetical engineered metabolism has over
humanity. It literally spreads like a virus over New York City.
Another visual uniqueness can be witnessed in Miller’s graphic handling of battle
scenes. His break with more traditional modes of comic narration includes vivid vio-
lence with a special focus on the timing of the action. At the beginning of issue #3,
for example, Casey McKenna reviews a videotaped battle between the ronin and her
soldiers. Th e panels are not structured from left to right, but from top to bottom, and
are printed in black and white in order to resemble a fi lmstrip. Th e strips exceed the
format of the page and continue on the next page in a diff erent scene. Th ese panels are
sometimes disrupted by an image of Offi cer McKenna, whose commentary describes
the otherwise silent pictures of the fi lm. Miller puts this device to a two-fold use: on the
one hand he sets the comic visually apart from the medium fi lm by placing its disrupted
images in the sequence of a fi lm-strip; on the other hand he evokes the feeling and speed
that only fi lms can produce in the viewer’s mind.
With Ronin , Frank Miller created a heterogeneous comic book that blends various
visual techniques and uses diff erent genres in order to construct a reality that ques-
tions the society readers are living in. While Miller’s Batman : Th e Dark Knight Returns
stands out because of its revolutionary reading of preceding Batman comics, Ronin
introduces new standards for graphic storytelling and creates a perfect symbiosis of
graphic narration and content.
Daniel Wüllner
ROSS, ALEX (1970–). Alex Ross is an American writer, penciller, inker, colorist, letter,
editor, and cover artist. While artists like Mike Allred , Frank Miller , and Alan Moore
were placing a postmodern spin on the canonical DC and Marvel characters during the
1980s and 1990s, Ross created a postmodern take on the superhero canon by creat-
ing photo-realistic art and extremely true-to-life stories of superheroes relating to the
real world. As Ross explains on his Web site, “Fans appreciate that [I] had an obvious
aff ection for the characters [I] paint, demonstrated by [my] attention to detail and the
fact that [I] took the time to make these characters look so believable,” ( http://www.alexrossart.
com). He is best known for creating a series of graphic novels that combine the realism of
