Written and illustrated by Frank Miller; colored by Lynn Varley
Dark Horse Comics: $30

With the blatant success of the Sin City movie, Hollywood has even more reason to mine through the backlogs of Frank Miller, as the movie adaptation of 300 illustrates. The 88-page hardcover volume (with beautiful, widespread 10-by-13-inch pages) tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE where 5,000 Greeks in general, and 300 Spartans in particular, stood tall against a Persian army of 300,000.

Miller’s illustration and Varley’s expressive coloring invoke a sense of myth and Spartan isolationism on almost every page. Leonidas’ beard looks like it was pulled straight off of an urn, and the Persian mass is one of the most terrifying armies I’ve seen depicted in a comic. Even though anyone versed in Grecian history knows what’s going to happen, it’s a hell of a ride to go on.