Episode · Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin · 2026-09-30
Frank Miller on Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin: every book mentioned
Frank Miller is a comic book writer, artist, and filmmaker. He rose to prominence drawing Marvel’s Daredevil in 1979 and became its writer in 1981, introducing Elektra and turning the series into a major success.
Frank Miller discussed Frank Miller’s Sin City Volume 5: Family Values 3rd Edition by Frank Miller, Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson, Volume 2 by Frank Miller and others, The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man by Frank Miller, Lone Wolf by Edo van Belkom, The Cub Book by Boy Scouts of Canada. National Council, Fantastic Four by Stan Lee and others, Maus I: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman, Absolute Dark Knight by Frank Miller and others, Will Eisner's The Spirit Archives by Will Eisner, 300 by Frank Miller, Elektra Lives Again by Frank Miller, and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and criticized Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Frank Miller’s Sin City Volume 5: Family Values 3rd Edition
Discussed“Again, getting back to Sin City cuz it seems to be the best example. I knew for a fact that this brute who was such a loser and so filled with self-loathing would wake up next to this goddess”
Where to get it
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Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson, Volume 2
Discussed“Tell me about Daredevil. Daredevil was created in the early 1960s by Stanley and an old artist from way back named Bill Everett whose work goes back at least into the early 50s.”
Where to get it
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The Complete Frank Miller Spider-Man
Discussed“And one time I got to do the second string Spider-Man book, which the spectacular Spider-Man. And in the story, the story featured Daredevil as a guest star.”
Where to get it
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Lone Wolf
Discussed“She said, "Hey, there's a comic book from Japan and it was a little samurai comic called Lone Wolf and Cub." And I opened it up and I was immediately enraptured by it because the storytelling pace was completely different.”
Where to get it
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The Cub Book
Discussed“She said, "Hey, there's a comic book from Japan and it was a little samurai comic called Lone Wolf and Cub." And I opened it up and I was immediately enraptured by it because the storytelling pace was completely different.”
Where to get it
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Fantastic Four
Discussed“I was over at a friend's house and saw Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four. And all of a sudden, I realized comic books could explode and and that that that if somebody got angry, everything in the room could fly around.”
Where to get it
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Maus I: A Survivor's Tale
Discussed“I've got to mention Spiegelman's work for it for its Spiegelman had always been a figure who would bring a very compelling passion to his work and a highly intellectual content to everything he did. But with Miles, he took brutal family history and in a master stroke that only a thinking man's artist could do, he turned them into”
Where to get it
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Absolute Dark Knight
Discussed“Had that ever happened before in comics where a really loved character came back in a totally new light? I don't think it had happened before that I can recall after that it started happening all the time. But based on the success of the Dark Knight”
Where to get it
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Will Eisner's The Spirit Archives
Discussed“I looked around for who to steal from and I looked to an idol and mentor of mine, Will Eisner, and his master work, The Spirit. And perhaps my favorite story in it, which was one called Sans Serif, which was about the spirit's first girlfriend”
Where to get it
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Seduction of the Innocent
Critiqued“And all of this was generated by a pop psychologist looking to make a name for himself named Frederick Woreram who wrote a truly execable book called Seduction of the Innocent about how comic books were poisoning and perverting the minds of children in America.”
Where to get it
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300
Discussed“Tell me the story of 300. It's as simple as this. I was a very very young boy and my father took me and my older brother Steve to the movies on a Saturday at the Capitol Theater in Montpielia, Vermont”
Where to get it
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Elektra Lives Again
Discussed“I was partly because I was working along on the book and I kind of missed her and the book was really not getting fun to do anymore and I thought, well, I'll try this and it maybe it'll be really cool. And so once I realized that error, it being comic books where you can do anything, I did”
Where to get it
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A Tale of Two Cities
Discussed“If you do something topical based on what's going on in the world today, does that make it too disposable? A tale of Two Cities is topical. Heroditus is topical. If you do a story about something that's going on right around you, you're still doing a story about people facing conflict”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Passing Superboy
“Well, when I was a child, it was when I'd been growing up reading Super Boy and Legion of Superheroes and I was over at a friend's house and saw Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four.”
Passing Legion of Super-heroes
“Well, when I was a child, it was when I'd been growing up reading Super Boy and Legion of Superheroes and I was over at a friend's house and saw Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four.”
Plugged Push the Wall
“What does push the wall mean? Those have multiple meanings but it essentially means to test boundaries of the medium itself and to defy and trample traditions. I would have never understood that if you didn't tell me that.”
Plugged Push the Wall
“Tell me about writing the book. Thawn and try. Did you remember a lot of the things in it or did things come to you as you were writing that you didn't remember that you remembered? Yeah. A lot of it also came from because this book was often often done in the form of a dialogue”