Frank Miller: American Genius

Frank Miller is regarded as one of the most influential and awarded creators in the entertainment industry today, known for his intense, hard-boiled storytelling and gritty noir aesthetic across comics, novels and film.

Miller made his feature film directorial debut in 2005 with Sin City, the adaptation of his graphic novel, which he co-directed with Robert Rodriguez. The critically acclaimed film was nominated for a Palme d’Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, won the Austin Film Critics Award and garnered a Czech Lion nomination. In 2015, Miller and Rodriguez returned as co-directors on a sequel with Sin City: A Dame to Kill For which reunited the duo with returning cast members as well as series newcomers Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Eva Green and Lady Gaga among others.

Miller became a professional comic book artist while in his teens, working on a variety of assignments for major publishers, including Gold Key, DC and Marvel. He first drew attention to his work on two issues of Marvel’s The Spectacular Spider-Man, in a story that teamed the ever-popular arachnid with another popular character, Daredevil. In the early 1980s, Miller attracted further attention as one of the first comic freelancers who braved the field outside the comfortable world of company-owned characters with the creation of Ronin, a futuristic high-tech samurai pop adventure. It was the first of several collaborations with Lynn Varley. Since then, Miller has added a number of notable projects to his repertoire, including Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, with Janson and Varley; Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, with Varley; Batman: Year One, illustrated by David Mazzuchelli and colored by Richmond Lewis; Elektra: Assassin, illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz; Elektra Lives Again, with Varley; the award-winning Martha Washington miniseries Give Me Liberty, illustrated by Dave Gibbons; and Hard Boiled, illustrated by Geof Darrow. More recently, Miller alongside Brian Azzarello completed DC’s best-selling Batman: The Dark Knight: Master Race, a nine-issue second sequel to The Dark Knight Returns.

Silenn Thomas is a film and television director and producer, and serves as CEO of Frank Miller Ink, the production company founded by the legendary comic creator. The documentary Frank Miller: American Genius marks her first directorial effort. Thomas first worked with Miller when she acted as an Associate Producer on the film adaptation of his signature work, 300. Her other credits include The Spiderwick Chronicles, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and Cursed. She has worked in various capacities with countless industry visionaries including Luc Besson, George A. Romero, Kathleen Kennedy, Marc Canton, Mike Figgis and Robert Rodriguez. Thomas is a graduate of the prestigious UCLA film school directing program.

Emma Kubert is a comic book creator, writer, artist, and teacher of the Joe Kubert School. After graduating from the Kubert School in 2018, Emma went on to work for many different companies including DC Entertainment, Marvel Comics, Image Comics, Tapas Entertainment, Dynamite Comics, and more! Starting her career as a layout artist for DC’s Teen Titans Raven graphic novel, she also served as an artist for Teen Titans Go!, DC Super Hero Girls, and Red Sonja. Emma created her first creator-owned projects Inkblot and Stoneheart, published by Image Comics, and she penciled and inked the Radiant Pink mini series of the Radiant Black universe. Emma is most known for her Grimm fairytale-like artwork on Frank Miller’s young adult fantasy series PANDORA. She loves every bit of her comic book life, even naming her orange cats Calvin and Hobbes, and revels in that joy with every project she creates.

Karen Green is Curator for Comics and Cartoons at Columbia University. Since 2005 she has been instrumental in building a collection and archive that now includes the original art and papers of Chris Claremont, Al Jaffee, Howard Cruse, Jerry Robinson, Mort Gerberg, Wendy and Richard Pini, Fly, and Kitchen Sink Press, among others. Karen is highly active and visible at comics conferences and conventions, has been a judge for the Eisner Awards, the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning, and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and co-produced the documentary “She Makes Comics” (2014). She has also organized and hosted numerous online and in-person conversations with comics artists. In 2017, Nick Sousanis created the online comic A Life in Comics: The Graphic Adventures of Karen Green for Columbia Magazine.