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The Dark Knight Returns - The Illustrated Book

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In 1986, Frank Miller released the illustrated book, "The Dark Knight Returns." Frank Miller’s eyes for dramatic lines, Klaus Janson’s inking and Lynn Varley’s coloring lift this literature up to the top of mainstream comics. In "The Dark Knight Returns," the pictures successfully symbolize the underlying meanings and create intensive atmosphere. Minds and ideas are imbedded in the graph in such a way that graph becomes the continuum for the meaning. On page twenty-six, Frank Miller focuses on the ideological struggle between Bruce Wayne and Batman. Bruce Wayne tries hard to keep Batman from free despite his relentless struggles to break the chains. Frank Miller uses dramatic lines and shadows to evoke the imagery of captivity and innermost entanglements deep inside Bruce Wayne. The windows are represented by the cell bars, which metaphorically emphasize the point that Bruce Wayne is struggling to repress Batman’s escape. The prison view is painted with limited color, rendering bleak and harsh image and depicting drastic and furious floundering. Besides, the use of shadows creates a nightmarish atmosphere. In the eighth and eleventh panel, the window frames are cast on the face of Bruce Wayne, which generates an illusion that these shadows resemble scars. It is this misconception that escalates the tension of innermost struggling of Bruce Wayne. Furthermore, the comparison of color is surprisingly strong in this page. From the fifth panel to the twelfth panel, there exists a pattern in which similar images are expressed in both bright and dark tinges. Throughout these panels, Bruce Wayne, who are devoid of color, and Batman, who are lurking in the dark, engage in a drastic combat. In the final panel of the page, an enormous flying bat with flaming jaws crashes through the window symbolized by cell bars. The deliberate extension of this panel and the element of flame give us the impression that after enduring all the endlessly

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