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26th out of 1,498 books
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3,017 voters
300
300 is a story of war and defiance as only Frank Miller can tell. Featuring the watercolor talents of painter Lynn Varley, 300 marks the first collaboration for these two creators since 1990's Elektra Lives Again. The five-part series is collected into a beautiful, 88-page hardcover volume, with each two-page spread from the comic presented as it was originally intended -...more
Hardcover, 88 pages
Published
January 10th 2000
by Dark Horse Comics
(first published 1998)
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Christ. This is crazy. Sparta's described as having this nightmarish culture where children are left out to die of exposure, men are ritually abused by each other to demonstrate toughness, the disabled are rejected in spite of their potential skills because they fail to fit into the military system, and international law is null and void (this is madness! No one kills a messenger! This is Sparta!).
And yet Frank Miller would have us believe they're better than the cultured Athenians (who're habit...more
And yet Frank Miller would have us believe they're better than the cultured Athenians (who're habit...more
300 was alright, I suppose. I definitely came in with negative preconceptions after reading quite a few criticisms of the movie. In the end, though, the book was just a highly stylized telling of a fable. The story was more important than the characters, and it was interesting for the 20 minutes it took me to read it.
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Much like the movie, the graphic novel from which it was inspired has very little character development. The only character you get to know at all, in fact, is Leonidas. But though it does make it slightly less interesting, I can forgive that seeing as how this is more a parable about freedom and honor than an actual novel. But as a parable, it works pretty well.
Much like The Fountainhead, if you saw the movie, you don't really need to read the book. The only difference between movie and book i...more
Much like The Fountainhead, if you saw the movie, you don't really need to read the book. The only difference between movie and book i...more
Fun and exciting. A worthwhile story to be told, though the omission of the Thespians and other abuses of artistic license mark the fault of Miller's sensationalism. Like the four-color comics before him, Miller takes archetypes and symbols and drives them full throttle to the epic, gun-blazing climax. Unfortunately, character and emotion suffer. This is not quite the liability that it could have been, as the Epic tradition is often purposefully guilty of the same and 300 fits into this traditio...more
Wow. Frank Miller, where have you been all my life?!
This story is dark and devastating, with just enough sarcastic humor to make it bearable. The artwork is incredible. In fact, I just happened to go to an art exhibit with tons of Greek urns and sculpture from The British Museum, and I'd say these pictures could be on an amphora. Simple, striking, minimal,and yet there is minute attention to detail.
King Leonidas and his doomed troop of Spartan warriors will haunt me for a very long time. (It do...more
This story is dark and devastating, with just enough sarcastic humor to make it bearable. The artwork is incredible. In fact, I just happened to go to an art exhibit with tons of Greek urns and sculpture from The British Museum, and I'd say these pictures could be on an amphora. Simple, striking, minimal,and yet there is minute attention to detail.
King Leonidas and his doomed troop of Spartan warriors will haunt me for a very long time. (It do...more
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Animalistic (yes, I was a dork and used a "New Moon" word. Guess they are trying to be fancy now). 
Rendered beautifully, but not really appropriate for those tenderhooks.
I am not easily persuaded to "waste" my time with comic books as I have been so taught. But there is much to distinguish between it being a time waster, and a glut feast for the mind's eye. It is not going to be made stronger by flipping billboards.
Processing billboards as art might take some practice. Of patience.
Rendered beautifully, but not really appropriate for those tenderhooks.
I am not easily persuaded to "waste" my time with comic books as I have been so taught. But there is much to distinguish between it being a time waster, and a glut feast for the mind's eye. It is not going to be made stronger by flipping billboards.
Processing billboards as art might take some practice. Of patience.
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As a person who appreciates historical accuracy in media of any form, 300 had a strong chance of rubbing me the wrong way. Fortunately, I was able to put all notions of verisimilitude aside, and just enjoy the fantastic artwork and outrageous exaggerations of adventure. I recommend watching the film "The 300 Spartans" and then read the book, since it is the film that inspired Miller to draw the comic. Then go see the new film 300. [return][return]Despite the fact the half of the plot devices and...more
i saw the movie first and absolutely loved it, and after seeing it, i really wanted to read this. there's no real contrast between the two--they're virtually identical. but if you like graphic novels at all, this is a must-have. i have to say, rarely have i seen a graphic novel where the art takes center stage. sure there are comics with good art interspersed within the pages, but the art in this is just other-worldly. it's simply beautiful.
some of the complaints i've seen about this is that it...more
some of the complaints i've seen about this is that it...more
I really liked Miller's art combined with Varley's colors--they played well off each other's strengths. Dark, gritty, sarcastic. All the things I love about Frank Miller. Leonidas is portrayed as a sympathetic hero. Not for the faint of heart, yet what Miller work is? I read this both before and after the movie came out (years apart, in both cases). I think the movie is an excellent adaptation, but I really appreciated the portrayal of Ephialtes in the graphic novel, the little nuances that make...more
Beeindruckend
Visuell ungemein beeindruckend. Brilliante Bleistift- und Tuscharbeit, vereint mit einer der besten Kolorierungen, die ich je gesehen habe. Der Dialog ist spartanisch (pun intended...), trifft den Grundton der Erzählung sehr gut. Sogar die Übersetzung ins Deutsche ist stimmig und lenkt nicht ab, wie dies bei Comics leider häufig der Fall ist.
Ich verstehe Leute nicht, die sich beschweren, wenn sie ein Stück Literatur kaufen, dass es "historisch nicht akkurat" ist. Es ist eben der Un...more
Visuell ungemein beeindruckend. Brilliante Bleistift- und Tuscharbeit, vereint mit einer der besten Kolorierungen, die ich je gesehen habe. Der Dialog ist spartanisch (pun intended...), trifft den Grundton der Erzählung sehr gut. Sogar die Übersetzung ins Deutsche ist stimmig und lenkt nicht ab, wie dies bei Comics leider häufig der Fall ist.
Ich verstehe Leute nicht, die sich beschweren, wenn sie ein Stück Literatur kaufen, dass es "historisch nicht akkurat" ist. Es ist eben der Un...more
I had the feeling this was going to be a lot more graphic and grotesque than it turned out to be, which was a pleasant sort of surprise (though the casual nakededity was surprising and not my favorite part of the series). Miller does a good job capturing the potential mind of Leonidas - who knows what Leonidas was really like. As a Spartan king who managed to live so long, it's credible he was both toughened by his years of Spartan life and weary of such a lifestyle. The criticisms of some of it...more
Miller è un genio (del male). È uno straordinario regista e montatore di fumetti. Credo che Miller, con questa graphic novel abbia raggiunto l'apice dell'arte fumettistica di tutti i tempi.
Non fosse per i contenuti.
Miller ci rifila una storia che esalta i valori dei veri uomini. Come sempre.
Le storie di Miller sono sempre quelle:
uno o più veri uomini, più o meno intelligenti/ottusi ma sicuramente RUDI e FORTI, si scontrano contro uno o più uomini per lo più FURBI, VIGLIACCHI e più o meno OMOSESS...more
Collected thoughts, in no order of import:
Another instance of being glad I saw the movie first because reading it prior to watching the movie would have probably just been frustrating. Unnecessary additions in the adaptation, especially the whole sexual assault business.
Miller's art is solid. Varney, though, makes it all sing. Really stellar color work.
I wonder if critics would have been less whiney about the movie if there were half as many dangling genitals in the film as the book.
Wha...more
Another instance of being glad I saw the movie first because reading it prior to watching the movie would have probably just been frustrating. Unnecessary additions in the adaptation, especially the whole sexual assault business.
Miller's art is solid. Varney, though, makes it all sing. Really stellar color work.
I wonder if critics would have been less whiney about the movie if there were half as many dangling genitals in the film as the book.
Wha...more
I ended up liking this more than I thought I would. It turns out a lot of the stupidity that bothered me about the movie (Leonidas explaining the importance of soldiers maintaining strict ranks to protect each other, only to have them break ranks and engage in undisciplined swordfighting for the sake of looking cool) wasn't in the book. So that was nice.
Still, there's the problem of Miller's inconsistent portrayal of the Spartans. They engage in some monstrous, fascist acts, but are also the def...more
Still, there's the problem of Miller's inconsistent portrayal of the Spartans. They engage in some monstrous, fascist acts, but are also the def...more
Если бы на исходе “холодной войны” Cоветы все же покорил Штаты, создатель комиксов Фрэнк Миллер стал бы одним из первых, кто смог бы найти себе место при новом режиме, не жертвуя ни граммом собственной оригинальности. Из линейки “Sin City” он наверняка бы сделал истории про большевиков-подпольщиков и их борьбу с царской охранкой. Из “Электры” – гимн пионерам-героям с Зоей Космодемьянской во главе. В романе “300” ему бы не пришлось менять даже строчки, культ парней из Лаконики был в этой стране д...more
Please don't ask me how I missed the fact that last year's big movie was based on a book by Frank Miller. Let's say I'm out of the loop and leave it at that, 'kay? If you completely missed the advertisements for 300, it's a story regarding the king of Sparta, three hundred men and how they go to fight Persia to keep Persia from invading Greece, or at least Sparta.
The story is pretty simple - Persia sends warning, Sparta, in the form of its king, Leonidas, reacts in a rather cavalier way to show...more
The story is pretty simple - Persia sends warning, Sparta, in the form of its king, Leonidas, reacts in a rather cavalier way to show...more
I'm a huge fan of Frank Miller as an artist and as a writer. But not everything he does is gold like most people will have you believe. 300 isn't perfect by any stretch and to me isn't one of my favorites from Miller. It's the story of how 300 Spartans withstood a Persian army of thousands upon thousands at the Battle of Thermopylae. I won't delve into the historical inaccuracy of the comic and will focus on the art and writing instead.
I love the artwork, both Millers drawings and Lynn Varley's...more
I love the artwork, both Millers drawings and Lynn Varley's...more
Madness? This is SPARTA!!!
King Leonidas leads his 300 troops to face an oncoming force the size of which they have never seen. The God-King Xerxes advances, threatening to destroy Greece, and enslave its people. Can the Spartans defend their land and sacrifice their lives for something greater or will Xerxes crush them and control the world?
This is one of the greatest graphic novels ever produced. It tells the story of the 300 Spartans that stood up to the invading Persian force. Greatly outnu...more
King Leonidas leads his 300 troops to face an oncoming force the size of which they have never seen. The God-King Xerxes advances, threatening to destroy Greece, and enslave its people. Can the Spartans defend their land and sacrifice their lives for something greater or will Xerxes crush them and control the world?
This is one of the greatest graphic novels ever produced. It tells the story of the 300 Spartans that stood up to the invading Persian force. Greatly outnu...more
Ok. A "Graphic novel...in this case I say it's a hard back comic book addaption of a movie. The artist gets to cut loose here on lots of action sequences and that's I suppose what will sell this book.
Don't go here for history. the Spartans were a militaristic austere culture. But....there are big differsnces. The most glaring I suppose would be that the actual 300 (there were other Greeks there by the way the 300 were more like the special forces or Delya Force. They were the last along with a s...more
Don't go here for history. the Spartans were a militaristic austere culture. But....there are big differsnces. The most glaring I suppose would be that the actual 300 (there were other Greeks there by the way the 300 were more like the special forces or Delya Force. They were the last along with a s...more
300 is the graphic novel telling of King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans going to battle against the Persians. It is extremely simliar to the movie of the same title, though I am not sure which came first.
I don't really know what to say about the graphic novel, as I think I am a bit biased in my opinion. I have read a few in my lifetime, and each time has just reaffirmed in my mind that I do not care for them very much. I much prefer having a novel primarily with words. Though I do like the occas...more
I don't really know what to say about the graphic novel, as I think I am a bit biased in my opinion. I have read a few in my lifetime, and each time has just reaffirmed in my mind that I do not care for them very much. I much prefer having a novel primarily with words. Though I do like the occas...more
Dec 17, 2011
Phillip Goodman
added it
Poetic, far better and more subtle than the movie, all in all an interesting and beautiful examination of how myths and legends are born, crafted, created, repeated, an examination that connects very easily to our modern political hype machines, ironic as the book has been decried as a neo-conservative propaganda piece, when actually it simply shows how real life events became propaganda in the first place, and how the warriors of an almost proto-fascist diarchy (Sparta was ruled by two kings) b...more
Around this time period Frank Miller went off the deep end. His lines became increasingly loose and abstract and his odd views on politics and masculinity seemed to overwhelm any sort of nuance his works had previously contained. 300 is quite likely the last thing he wrote with any measure of sanity but you can see the cracks in storytelling everywhere. If you can't, it's because you're taken in by the beauty of the images, probably the most breathtaking he's ever done (I'm not certainly not cri...more
Es ist schwer, für diesen Graphic Novel die geeigneten Worte zu finden. Die Geschichte der 300 Spartaner, die tapfer gegen den erbarmungslosen König Xerxes antreten, um ihr Heimatland Sparta zu verteidigen, wurde hier zeichnerisch umgesetzt, welche höchste Qualität vorweist. Das Cover ist ziemlich beeindruckend, auch wenn es "nur" einen spartanischen Helm zeigt - so ahnt man dennoch, wer darunter steckt: möglicherweise der heldenhafte König Leonidas selbst! Mir gefällt die Aufmachung des Comics...more
This is an incredible work, but our literalist culture has failed to acknowledge its complexity. Modern critics read this book (or see the film) and sneer because it does not match the historical narrative we have constructed for ourselves and passed off as "fact".
Yet Miller's narrative was never intended to be historically accurate or realistic -- even within the work, it's framed as PROPAGANDA recounted by a survivor of the battle and meant to stir his fellow Greeks to arms against the empire...more
Yet Miller's narrative was never intended to be historically accurate or realistic -- even within the work, it's framed as PROPAGANDA recounted by a survivor of the battle and meant to stir his fellow Greeks to arms against the empire...more
I read the book long after watching the movie and was delighted to find that the two were practically one in the same (however, you could read the book in less time than it takes to watch the movie).
Historians often balk at the story for historical inaccuracies. I agree that the Persians were overly vilified, but,hey, it is a fictional account of a historical battle. While most credit for staving Persian advances in the book is given to the Spartans, more of the credit should have actually gone...more
Historians often balk at the story for historical inaccuracies. I agree that the Persians were overly vilified, but,hey, it is a fictional account of a historical battle. While most credit for staving Persian advances in the book is given to the Spartans, more of the credit should have actually gone...more
This is SPARTA! Let me start off by saying this is not historically accurate it is an action/thriller for your mind not a history lesson for your brain. In saying that:
Immediately you realize this comic is based entirely off its images having little to no words on some of the pages. This gives you time to focus on each of the pictures individually and truly take in what you are seeing. Drawing your mind into each new page is the watercolor artwork of Lynn Varley which is absolutely amazing! Thro...more
Immediately you realize this comic is based entirely off its images having little to no words on some of the pages. This gives you time to focus on each of the pictures individually and truly take in what you are seeing. Drawing your mind into each new page is the watercolor artwork of Lynn Varley which is absolutely amazing! Thro...more
Published in 1999 by Dark Horse
The Battle of Thermopylae is one of my favorite things to teach about in my world history class so this graphic novel was of particular interest to me.
Miller takes some liberties with history in this book, such as the homophobia of the Spartans and the ethnicity of the Persian emperor. But, he gets the heart of the story correctly. Thermopylae was one of those "turning points in history" battles - not for the events of the 3 days of the battle itself but rather for...more
The Battle of Thermopylae is one of my favorite things to teach about in my world history class so this graphic novel was of particular interest to me.
Miller takes some liberties with history in this book, such as the homophobia of the Spartans and the ethnicity of the Persian emperor. But, he gets the heart of the story correctly. Thermopylae was one of those "turning points in history" battles - not for the events of the 3 days of the battle itself but rather for...more
I have always wanted to read this graphic novel. I remember picking it up at Borders and thumbing through the pages years ago, and telling myself that I would read it one of these days. Well, I finally did read it. I don't know how many times I've seen the movie (it's one of my favorites), and every time I watch it, it makes my blood boil. Maybe the man in me wants a part of that glory and honor portrayed in the story. It's not too prevalent in American culture nowadays. The graphic novel is a l...more
First, let's start with the visual element. The visual element in this graphic novel is excellent. Great art and color. You can see why this work won the awards it did. The book is a nice, large, oversized book. The story? Well, Frank Miller does take some artistic liberties here and there, but it is still a compelling story. If you are reading this after seeing the movie, you will notice that they added a lot to the movie. The whole plot of Leonidas' wife in the town and the back plotting of th...more
Nov 14, 2011
Kathleen
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
all who like graphic novels, action, comics, and "smart" graphic novels
Shelves:
comics-sequential-art
Read it all in one sitting in the library and it is amazing. Huge gnarly illustrations, brutal subject matter, and lots of naked guys. I was thinking while reading, that the book seems to reveal a fascination with Sparta and what it represents to the author: an extremely more brutal and difficult world & society than our own. After reading this, I couldn't help but feel, for a little while, that I'm living in a comparatively wimpy society and that we have comparatively easy lives, compared w...more
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Frank Miller is an American writer, artist and film director best known for his film noir-style comic book stories. He is one of the most widely-recognized and popular creators in comics, and is one of the most influential comics creators of his generation. His most notable works include Sin City, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman Year One and 300.
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“Spartans... tonight we dine in Hell!”
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