"GUTS”
Scripter/Storyteller: Frank Miller | Penciler/Inker/Colorist: Klaus Janson
Letters: Joe Rosen | Editor: Denny O’Neil | Supervisor : Jim Shooter
Scripter/Storyteller: Frank Miller | Penciler/Inker/Colorist: Klaus Janson
Letters: Joe Rosen | Editor: Denny O’Neil | Supervisor : Jim Shooter
Eventually Foggy’s path leads him to the Kingpin, who has purchased explosives from Glenn Industries to use in a waterfront heist. While Foggy verbally spars with the Kingpin, Daredevil thwarts the Kingpin’s operation and then warns the crime boss not to mess with “Guts” Nelson.
Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: “Guts” was apparently Foggy’s fraternity nickname, which he has adopted as a street name for the duration of this tale.
During his adventures, Foggy crosses paths with Eric Slaughter and Turk, with the latter accompanying him for the remainder of the story until Foggy ditches him by putting him on a plane to Chicago. The Kingpin’s right-hand man, Flint, also pops up.
My Thoughts: This is easily one of my top favorite Miller DAREDEVILs. Sure, the Bullseye stuff is good. The Elektra stuff is good. The early Kingpin material is great. But at this point, Miller is having some genuine fun and it's great to see. We've had some really dark stories lately with the death of Elektra, Matt’s refusal to accept it, and then the angel dust two-parter. It's nice to see Miller lighten up and tell a breezy, funny story even as he furthers the Glenn Industries sub-plot.
There are only a half-dozen Miller DAREDEVIL issues left after this one. It's possible he knows at this point that he's on the way out and just wants to have a little fun before switching back to serious mode for the big finale — next issue is also played largely for laughs, as we’ll see next week. But whatever his motivation for taking things in a lighter direction, I'm glad to see Miller do it. As I said once before, a lot of people seem to forget that amid all the dourness, gloom, and doom, Frank Miller’s DAREDEVIL had some genuinely very funny moments, and this entire issue is easily among the funniest.
Artistically, it's notable that Klaus Janson is now penciling DAREDEVIL, with Miller listed as "scripter/storyteller". Some time back, Miller gave up full pencils and began doing only layouts for Janson to finish. Based on this new division of labor, I can only assume that Miller must be providing thumbnails or something, with Janson fleshing them out into full pencils and then inks. (And what a workhorse Janson must have been! Hard to imagine any artist nowadays managing full pencils, inks, and colors on a monthly basis, never missing a deadline!)
One last note: get a load of these panels from the issue’s final page. It's almost impossible to remember a time when passengers on an airplane could A) smoke and B) casually choose to disembark and not take the flight after boarding!
Oh, how I love this issue.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of a shame that Miller lost his ability to be self-aware about his writing, because this is a magnificent send up of everything he's done on Daredevil to date. My highlight of the issue was the fight where "Guts" seemingly takes out all of Slaughter's men, when it's actually Daredevil doing it in the dark while Foggy is providing hilarious narration and poking bad guys in the eye. After all the hyper seriousness of the previous few issues, this one was like getting splashed with cold water, and is utterly hilarious.
Sure, to enjoy it you have to ignore the fact that the Kingpin put out a contract on Foggy just a few issues ago yet doesn't seem to recognize him, but this is the kind of story that if you're taking it that seriously you're doing it wrong.
A simply magnificently hilarious story.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Kingpin’s failure to recognize Foggy nags at me but I still think the story’s a hoot.
// Miller is having some genuine fun and it's great to see. //
Yeah, I agree. The comedy of errors played out within a larger, more serious drama is very reminiscent of Eisner’s Spirit — an homage that may well be intentional, may be a reflection of Miller having internalized that material, or may be some combination thereof. A particular kick is the nutty parody of typical hard-boiled detective prose, both on the face of it and in light of Miller’s later work.
Yeah, Janson doing essentially the whole art package from Miller’s layouts is impressive whether or not you care for his particular style. I wonder if Miller wasn’t in fact doing roughs directly on the art boards, though, rather than providing thumbnails on separate paper — first, because there’s enough Miller in some of the faces to suggest his direct hand; second, because having the pages lettered with dialogue before sending them to Janson to literally finish makes more sense than Janson having to do the pencils, send the pages to the letterer and/or to Miller for final scripting before they’d be sent to the letterer, and then get the pages back again for inking and color guides, although such an option admittedly isn’t unheard of and Janson could be using a projector or lightbox to get certain thumbnails on the boards if he wanted to follow Miller’s composition as closely as possible.
Someday I'll read some Spirit. I know Eisner is a massive figure in the history of the industry, but his art style has never really jumped out at me. Still, if only for historical significance, I feel I must read his work someday.
DeleteGood point about the order of operations. Miller probably was doing quick sketches on the boards in that case, unless -- as you suggest -- there's some lightboxing or overlays or something involved somewhere along the line.