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Frank Miller would like comics colorists to stop burning his eyeballs
“Color is powerful,” said Miller, and as is true in any artform, but ESPECIALLY comics, with great power comes great responsibility
NewsbyGrant DeArmitt, Staff Writer
Published on Thu Aug 27 2026
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Frank Miller isn’t done making comics, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have thoughts on how modern comics are made. Specifically, Miller thinks that there’s one area of improvement that comic creators could stand to look into today: that is, how they color their work.
Miller’s thoughts come from his recent appearance on the Word Balloon Podcast with John Siuntres. In a wide-ranging conversation covering Miller’s decades-long career, host Siuntres asked The Dark Knight Returns creator how he felt about color in the medium today, and Miller expressed that he felt there was room to grow.
“Color is extremely powerful,” Miller said, “If properly used. What I worry about most is the absolute saturation of color that we’re seeing. I always feel like I’m riding through Times Square or Las Vegas when I’m looking at comics, because I’m being hit with every single color, very bright, all the time.”
“I’d like to see people make more use of the actual potency of color,” he continued, “And learn when to hold it back. I think we all have more exploring to do with this medium because, ever since the paper got whiter, all of these colors all of a sudden are screaming at us.”
Miller recalled how, at one point in his career, the conversation around color was entirely different – because of the paper on which comics were printed.
“It used to be the paper was that gray newsprint,” he concluded. “On very absorbent paper. They had to color things very bright so you’d see any color at all. I think that we’ve got a lot to learn, especially from the Europeans, on how to color this stuff to make it more effective and not quite so eyeball-burning.”
Another aspect to this is that, for nearly two decades, Miller worked almost exclusively with Lynn Varley from 1982’s Wolverine #4 through to 2005, with one of their last collaborations being her working on the backgrounds to the 2006 movie adaptation of their comic series 300. The two, who were married for much of that time, divorced in 2005.
Since 2005, Miller has worked with several colorists, however primarily with Alex Sinclair.
Interested? Here’s where to find your closest local comic store, courtesy of Sweet, and here’s a guide to how (and where) to read comics online. If you’re looking for the best comics in recent memory, check out the Eisner Awards winners and the Harvey Awards nominees. And if you like free comics, here’s everything we know about Free Comic Book Day 2027.
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Grant DeArmitt: Grant DeArmitt (he/him) likes horror, comics, and the unholy union of the two. In the past, and despite their better judgment, he has written for Nightmare on Film Street and Newsarama. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Kingsley, and corgi, Legs.
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