Frank Miller is Anti-Occupy

Rock on, Frank Miller

This really isn't a well-written criticism of OWS (although, lol at the people that think that this is just "faux-news spin").  That being said, who cares?  You can enjoy his books based on their merit.  Don't let the politics of the artist get in the way of enjoying the art.  You'll quickly find yourself a very bored person.

Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns, 300) apparently doesn't think too highly of the Occupy movement

 

That is because Miller's opinion is informed by reason, not emotion, and because he rocks hard. Now I believe he rocks even harder. I will have to re-read 300 tonight in his honor.

Rock on Frank, hope your example lets others more timid than you speak up about these layabouts, freeloaders and criminals!

I love the variety of opinions on this.

His Islamophobia is so outright it's hilarious and he's had pretty blatant racist undertones in his stuff for a damn long time. He clearly has different political views than a lot of his audience. Big deal, it happens. If you find it that bad, don't read his stuff anymore. But my suggestion would be to stop reading his stuff because he hasn't done anything worth reading in a hell of a long time, not just because he doesn't agree with a protest.

He must be the 1%. I like Alan Moore better anyway.

Last night on the Daily Show, Leymah Gbowee talked about protesting for real.  After hearing her, I think I have to read her book.  The extended interview is available on the Daily Show site.  It was some good stuff.

HAHAHA Dave McKean just got into this on his Twitter

@davemckean Same theme-not surprised by Frank Miller's silly anti-Occupy outburst.Never been convinced by his nitwit politics, any more than his drawing

Miller's racial prejudices are fairly easy to see, but if you strip away his xenophobia and chest-thumping he's pretty spot-on. The Occupy "Movement" is a jumbled mismash of fractured pseudo-political ideologies, spear-headed by a cross section of young, spoiled upper-middle class white suburbanites and equally spoiled intellectuals. 

What irritates people like Miller - and people like me - isn't necessary a differing political ideology, but rather that the Occupy movement skirts the law at the expense of those of working our 9-to-5s. Do I think that CEOs getting golden parachutes is fair? No. But I also don't think its fair that I - and other working citizens - have to foot the extra bill for police presence and protection of protesters that are using and abusing freedoms of speech and free assembly while snarkily thumbing their nose at the very people that have afforded them those freedoms.

The second one of these Occupy groups files for a legitimate permit and starts paying the overtime bills for police instead of shifting that burden on to me I'll take them seriously. Until then: they're criminals (loitering, littering, and unlawful assembly) and should be arrested/dispersed. 

He has good timing considering he recently published the worst comic that has ever been created: Holy Terror. Just another reason never to read or watch anything he does ever again. Previous to Holy Terror, his last few projects have been "so bad they're good" and I enjoyed them because of that. But Holy Terror is too dull to be worth reading and his art is a mess.

I love how people can paint an entire population of people who have popped up all across the country as layabouts, criminals, etc. Rapists? Jesus. I don't know if this is Frank Miller or Herman Cain. Whether you are out there on the street or not, most people agree with the sentiment behind the movement; that the economic table is titled toward the owners of the largest corporations because they write the legislation and the tax code. All anyone is looking for is a little more fairness, and more opportunity to actually climb the ladder in this country. Without a working class there is no one to hold the ladder, and without the middle class, there is no ladder. In my opinion, the lazy layabouts are the ones who whole-heartedly agree with the sentiment but won't get off their ass to show solidarity (for whatever reason). Frank Miller is just a cartoonist who doodles his pictures. He is absolutely indebted to the people who buy his stuff and while I am not educated enough about FM to know who he is, he seems to be apathetic to people who are not as lucky as him. I mean, his career could have easily have gone the other way. Art is fickle like that.

All I am saying is that before anyone should generalize about a whole population, they might want to find a different perspective, think beyond themselves, and really delve into the issue. To say people would rather sit in poverty in a park in the winter than work a job is ignorant. People want to work, they just don't want for wages to continue their slide until they are just credit slaves. Workers use to have rights, they use to be able to prevent their jobs from being moved overseas too. There are solutions, but if you are totally ambivalent to the problem, you are a part of the problem.

They are protesting that even though they go to college, they will spend years and years paying off a college loan that didn't help them get a job that pays enough to support them or their eventual family

 

Then they should have gotten a degree in which the skill set is transferrable to getting a decent job, or gone to trade school. The world always needs skilled tradespeople. I do not feel sorry for the guy I read about who quit his well paying job as a teacher in the NYC school system to pursue his desire to get a Masters in theater specializing in puppetry; shockingly, he did not find it a livable skill and had to take a job as a substitute teacher, making half his regular pay and having no benefits.

I feel no pity for someone who puts himself in that situation and then blames others.

What *I* see in that crowd is the fruits of the "self-esteem" method of pedagogy in which "We are all winners! Yay!" "I can't give Johnny a D, he will feel bad! He tried so I will give him an unearned B." There is a sense among them from the many signs I see, the interviews with people in the protest (which would be amusing if their ignorance was not so sad, even ignorance of why they are there) I see a group of people who want education handed to them on a platter of silver, and a job handed to them on a platter of gold.

You have what you work for. They have not worked, but instead have been coddled and cosseted by schools and parents who spoiled them instead of being involved with them. They are reaping the fruits of their labors, and since they did not labor or prepare to labor in many cases (gender studies? And they think that is a useful degree in the world?)  they can reap little or nothing.

Is there a need for some regulation? Yes, some. Commerce Bank execs and board members should not be sitting on the board of investment banks and vice versa. Anyone who has worked in a governmental regulatory capacity must be barred from taking jobs in the field they regulated. The system of lobbying needs reformed

What we do not need is more and more regulation restricting the market; what I see at the core of this "movement" among the protestors is spite and envy.

Well, Puppeteer, it is never too late to find a good job in teaching and play with your puppets in your own time; the world owes you nothing because the world owes all of us nothing.

 

For a guy who spent most of his career telling stories about individuals who fight against corruption and apathy... hell, I saw him give a speech at a Harvey Awards where he tore up a Diamond Distributor catalog, saying it was the source of all evil in the comic book industry (the monopoly of comic book distributors at the time, in bed with the big companies like DC and Marvel), reducing the medium to recycled crap and marketing gimmicks (I'm paraphrasing here). 

Maybe his "successes" as a "director" have tainted his perspective a little, and maybe his corporate overlords have brainwashed him... dunno. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. I just happen to not agree with his. 

On a personal note, I met the man twice, and he was always gracious and kind. He was earthy and funny and took the time to talk to this star-struck fanboy. 

I thought 'The Spirit' was an embarrassment. Maybe he's slipping into crotchety cluelessness. 

Note to self: don't talk politics with Frank Miller.