300 (comic)
| Comic | |
|---|---|
| title | 300 |
| Original title | 300 |
 | |
| country | United States |
| author | Frank Miller |
| Illustrator | Frank Miller |
| publishing company | Dark Horse Comics |
| First publication | May 1998 - September 1998 |
| expenditure | 5 |
300 is a graphic novel miniseries drawn and written by Frank Miller and colored by his then wife, Lynn Varley . The series was originally published by Dark Horse Comics .
The series deals with the battle of Thermopylae , in which, according to the histories of the ancient chronicler Herodotus, the Spartan king Leonidas, with three hundred Spartians and almost 4000 other Greeks , was able to hold off an overwhelming majority of the Persians for two days and perished in the process.
action
480 BC A small army of Spartians marched through the Kallidromos Mountains in the direction of Thermopylae ; in that bottleneck they want to stop the tens of thousands of Persian army that has come to conquer Greece. During the evening camp, Dilios tells the story of a young Spartan who met a huge wolf on a cold winter night and, despite his weakness and inferiority, was able to kill it with a trick and a lot of courage. This boy was King Leonidas I , who now leads his men with a passion for battle.
The king recalls: A year earlier, an envoy from the Persian god-king Xerxes had come to Sparta to demand the submission of the proud city. Leonidas not only refused, but also killed the envoy and his entire bodyguard. Months later he visited the Ephors , the isolated Spartan priestly caste, to ask for support in an attack against the Persians. The corrupt priests refused, however, as another Persian envoy had bribed them. So the king had no choice but to go out with three hundred bodyguards. He left his beloved wife, who knew very well that she would not see him again alive, without a word of tenderness, for in Sparta there is no place for feelings and weakness.
After uniting with a much larger, but not nearly as well-trained army of the Arcadians , the Spartians move on. Again an emissary from the Persians stands in their way, but he pays for this encounter with the loss of an arm. Then Ephialtes appears , a crippled and outcast son of Sparta, who asks Leonidas to be allowed to fight in the ranks of the Spartians in exchange for important information over a side pass in the mountains. Leonidas acknowledges his courage, but explains to him that because of his deformity he could never raise his shield high enough to be part of a Spartan phalanx . Ephialtes bitterly throws his shield off a cliff.
Shortly afterwards, the first major attack by the Persians begins, which the Spartians can fend off with courage and superior martial arts. Leonidas is then asked to an audience with King Xerxes, who tries to persuade him to give up the fight with arguments of reason. Leonidas refuses and can also repel the next wave of attacks, this time by Xerxes' bodyguard. One after another wave of Persian attacks is crushed by the Spartians. Ephialtes, eaten away by hatred, leads the Persians over the hidden mountain ridge in order to bypass the Spartan defensive barrier. Leonidas, enclosed on all sides, sends his bard Dilios to report to all the Greeks what happened that day. He himself remains behind with his men, who follow their king into a bloody sacrificial death.
A year later, Dilios, meanwhile captain of an army of 40,000 Greeks, reports on the battle in Thermopylae and how Xerxes' fleet was destroyed a little later at Salamis . Now Greece is united in the battle of Plataiai , driven and encouraged by the memory of Leonidas and his three hundred.
Creation and conception
Author Frank Miller attributes his enthusiasm for the subject to the 1962 feature film “ The Lion of Sparta ”, which he saw in the cinema as a child, which “made a lasting impression” on him and led to a “lifelong fascination with ancient Greece”. In Chapter 5 of The Big Fat Kill , the third volume of the award-winning comic book Sin City , which was filmed in 2005 , Miller incorporated parts of the 300 theme to "make sure no one else takes on the subject." The planning for 300 was already in full swing. In 300 he was less interested in historical reality than in the representation of the magic of a moment in which the future of the world was decided.
While Miller characterizes his Spartans as barbaric and repulsive and emphasizes his distance from their martial culture, for the story of the comic he chose the perspective of a narrator integrated into the dynamics of the Spartans (Dilios), who unconditionally shares the approach and belief of his brothers in arms. On the one hand, this perspective awakens what Zack Snyder calls a “curiosity that pushes boundaries” and a dark, fascinating, ambivalent appeal. Above all, however, this perspective is an excellent basis for Miller's penchant for visual ambiguity. Miller strongly believes that in a world full of superstition and chaos, the historical Spartans fought for reason and freedom in a way.
Publications and continuation
The mini-series was published in 1998 by Dark Horse Comics (USA), in German-speaking countries the series was first published in 1999 by Schreiber & Leser and was reissued in June 2006 by Cross-Cult-Verlag .
The second volume, Xerxes (2018) by the same artist, depicts the entire period from the Persian Wars to the fall of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great and appeared for the first time in German-speaking countries in 2019 (Cross Cult).
Film adaptations
The comic was filmed by Warner Bros. and directed by Zack Snyder . King Leonidas is portrayed in the film adaptation by Gerard Butler . In order to faithfully reproduce the mood that Miller creates in his comic, all recordings were shot in the studio, the backdrop was only inserted digitally. The film was released in Germany on April 5, 2007.
In spring 2014, 300: Rise of an Empire, the sequel to the first film, was released in cinemas. It deals with various sea battles of the Persian Wars , in particular the battle of Artemision .
reception
The story received various prizes, including the 1999 Eisner Award for “Best Mini-Series”, “Best Draftsman”, “Best Copywriter” and “Best Coloring”. The series also received the Harvey Award for “Best Miniseries” and “Best Coloring”.
In 1001 Comics , Nicolas Finet describes the comic as “a single brilliant battle painting”, the pictures of which could unfold their graphic force through the landscape format.
literature
- Frank Miller , Lynn Varley : 300 , Cross Cult , Ludwigsburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-936480-30-6 (translation: Paul Scholz and Matthias Wieland)
- Tara Bennett : 300 - The Art of the Film , Cross Cult, Ludwigsburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-936480-29-0
- Frank Miller: Xerxes , Cross Cult, Ludwigsburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-95981-699-1 (translation: Michael Schuster)
Web links
- 300 by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley , review by Christian Endres on www.fantasyguide.de
- Stories_Frank Miller - 300: March and Die on www.evolver.at
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b www.darkhorse.com (English).
- ↑ a b Interview with Frank Miller about the film 300 ( Memento from June 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Paul Gravett (eds.) And Andreas C. Knigge (transl.): 1001 comics that you should read before life is over . Edition Olms, Zurich 2012, p. 678.