Hard Boiled (comic)
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Hard Boiled is a comic book written by Frank Miller and drawn by Geof Darrow, and first published in three issues by Dark Horse Comics in 1990. In 1993 Dark Horse compiled and released the series in a 128-page trade paperback (ISBN 1-878574-58-2). At the time of its publication it was generally regarded as the most violent comic book series ever written.
[edit] About the book
The book is Miller's very loose interpretation of Philip K. Dick's The Electric Ant, but tinged with Miller's brand of satire and violence. The somewhat minimal plot revolves round a tax collector who discovers he is a robot and sets out to find answers. This story essentially provides a showcase for Darrow's incredibly intricate artwork. Miller's usual trademark of dark, emotionally complex characters in pathos is still slightly present but takes a back seat to the gory splash pages. One of the series' oddest aspects is that nearly all blood is inked in black, perhaps to reduce the shock of the violence.
Initially intended to be released in bi-monthly installments, Darrow's slow and detailed pace mean that it took nearly three years for the series to be completed. This is something about which Darrow made a joke on the cover of Hard Boiled #3. Following its completion, the series was collected into a single edition.
One possible interpretation of Hard Boiled's outrageous violence and lack of any real character development is that it is actually a thinly veiled commentary on, and mockery of, the type of stories written after Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, among others, that capitalized on the grittiness and violence of those stories while generally ignoring the deeper themes, characterizations or experimental storytelling styles of their predecessors.
Plans for a film adaptation starring Nicolas Cage were rumoured to be in the works, but this has yet to be confirmed.
In The Matrix Revisited, the Wachowski brothers cite Hard Boiled as an influence on the development of their Matrix series of films.
