What Ever Happened to…Frank Miller Presents

[Comics companies come, and comics companies go. In this occasional series we’ll look at those who have gone the distance and those who seem to have made a pit stop.]

Frank Miller Presents launched back in 2022 as a collaboration between comics legend Frank Miller and publisher Dan DiDio. Projects included follow-ups to some of Miller’s best known work – Ronin 2 and Sin City – as well as some DiDio interests, such as Svengoolie. There was Also Pandora, a fantasy collab between Miller and Emma Kubert and Ancient Enemies, a SF tale by DiDio.

Miller and DiDio barnstormed around the circuit for a while, and Ronin 2 came out as Ronin Rising, with art by Phillip Tan and Daniel Henriques, in periodical format, but then things just…quieted down. Until last week, when it was announced that FMP would be partnering with Abrams for collected editions, as announced at THR. The line launches this fall with collections of Pandora and Ronin Rising. The latter will have both a collector’s edition and a manga edition from the also recently announced Kana imprint.

Abrams will produce the books in a deluxe format, with Ronin Rising getting a forward by Jim Lee, a horizontal format, a new cover by Miller and lots and lots of bonus material.

It appears that Abrams will also be the home of future Miller material, including a new Sin City tale with a Western milieu and art by Italian master Milo Manara. Mama mia! THR reports it may come out next year.

And what of DiDio? I’m told he’s helping the books transition to their new home, teaching at the Kubert School, and working on a second novel, after last year’s Hide OR Seek. And according to his FB page, right now he’s tooling around South Africa.

So what happened here? Well, just me speculating but….publishing books is hard. Even with one of the biggest names in comics, a small line of periodical comics is a tricky financial proposition in today’s weird market. And putting out deluxe hardcovers is probably an easier task for a publisher with the resources of an Abrams, where they will also reach the bookstore market.

When FMP launched I probably made a joke about two crazy kids trying to make comics together….and they did. For a while. In the meantime, the books from Abrams will be very pretty.