It’s also an explosion that has surprised Miller, a soft-spoken, articulate New Englander who startled the comic world in 1979 when he turned “Daredevil” from a run-of-the-mill superhero story into one of the most imaginatively plotted, adventurously drawn and popular comics around. “This is country-and-Western hitting the pop charts.” “This is the crossover book,” says Leibowitz.

“The Dark Knight Returns” immediately sold out its first printing, and DC Comics has yet to ship a second batch to capitalize on the attention Miller has been getting in places like the current issue of Rolling Stone. in Northridge at 3 p.m.), Golden Apple may well be the only retailer in the country to have copies in stock. “This will easily be the best-selling comic book of the last five years, and it’s generating lots of interest in non-comics readers,” says Bill Leibowitz, who owns Golden Apple Comics stores, where Miller will make personal appearances today.Īt the time of the two-hour appearances (7711 Melrose Ave.

Miller’s book “The Dark Knight Returns” is simultaneously a troubling, violent, adult story and a phenomenon in a world that has become one of the publishing industry’s fastest-growing areas: comic books. What happened is that 29-year-old writer-illustrator Frank Miller has dumped 20 years and lots of darkness on a once-campy superhero. Holy “Death Wish,” caped crusader! What happened? When one criminal pleads “I got rights,” Batman kicks the guy through a window and snarls, “Sometimes I count (your rights) just to make myself feel crazy.” There’s an injured nobility to him, but he can be vengeful and embittered, and he grins when he hurts muggers.

He dons a cape and haunts the night only when he can no longer endure rampaging urban crime. Remember Batman? He was a dashing, upstanding guy in a cowl who chased funny-looking criminals around Gotham City and escaped from cliff-hanging predicaments with the aid of a utility belt chock full of bat-gadgets.

Dark knight returns 1986