I wanted to read this story because I had heard it dealt with Wolverine's background, involving his samurai training. Well, the story didn't disappoint, as it dealt with not only that aspect but the romantic side of the character as well. Before Claremont and Miller got their hands on the fan-favourite character, Wolverine used to be a one dimensional violent character. Through the talents of the two brilliant writers, Wolverine know has a more noble side to him, and it comes through in the story. For on of the better Wolverine books, pick this one up.

But what else could it be with two of the greatest comic book professionals ever teaming up to add much needed dimension to a character that was at the time a little flat. The fact that this story idea was created and plotted as Claremont and Miller were driving back from the San Diego comic book convention probably helped fuel some of the angst that the poured into revamping Logan's character.

This story cements Wolverine as a Ronin, a Samurai without a master, and shows him one of his greatest loves, the tragic Mariko Yashida, who is still one of my favorites out of Logan's vast bevy of beauties.

Whether you're a long time Wolverine/X-Men reader and somehow managed to skip over this one, or a fan of the movies and looking for a place to start, I highly recommend this graphic novel.

Just a note, if you are just beginning, please check out the Essential Wolverine volumes 1-3. For the money you get a lot a great reading and even more insight into this enigmatic mutant.

First off, I must disagree with Zsinj16 whom does not like the art. The artwork in this series (made into a single edition) is awesome. Nowadays Wolverine, who is a little guy, is drawn like he is juiced up on steroids and growth horomone. In this graphic novel, like the early X-Men comic books he was a part of, he is drawn like an athletic man. Logan is a warrior, but does not have "Super" strength. In short, I love the art, it's realistic, colorful, and shows the movements of battle, a long lost aspect of super-hero comics.

This tale is how Logan wins the hand of his lover, who belongs to a crime syndicate family in Japan. It also has great characters, such as Asano, that have history with Wolverine. It is a "must read".

Forget the animated series. It's heart is in the right place.

But this came before the series; it's the real deal.

An applecheeked, Bob's Big Boy-lookin' android teams up with a gigantic, old-school meca-robot to fight evil and save the world.

MEANWHILE: the dry, tongue-in-cheek humor and ultra-violence of Frank Miller teams up with the painstaking, intricate artwork of Geof Darrow to create a buddy comedy of epic proportions.

What's it like?

It's a little like if "Tintin" author/artist Herge read a bunch of old Marvel comics and decided to do a "Godzilla" story.

It's a little like Mutt and Jeff if they were nuclear powered crimefighters up against a bad guy from an anime adventure.

But mostly it's like covering your old model airplanes with rubber cement and torching it good. Then doing the same thing to your H.O. scale train set and your Tyco racetrack. (which nobody should ever do -- read the book, it's better and safer)

The first thing you'll notice is Geoff Darrow's knotty tight sublime hyper-etched artwork, lines running like veins into the architecture and broken glass that is Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot. This is not the Miller of Sin City or DK Returns et cetera,,,,watch him rip away the Chandler influence and dive into Japanese toy culture via Godzilla gggrraaaaaauu. This won't give you a typical Milleresque vision, whatever that means, but it's a cool trip through a world owned by toys and monsters. Great book for kids. Bedtime story and such.

I saw the cartoon version of this on the telly the other day, and it dawned on me that I have the originals in my basement. I though I was going to strike it rich for sure, by selling them on Ebay, but no dice. There was another guy selling them, and it looked like he was only going to get about five bucks for them. This made me real sad for the other guy, so I bid a million dollars. I hoped this would make the market catch fire, like my aunts house did when I tried to fix her toaster. Someone told me later that you should always unplug a toaster when you try to fix it with a butter knife. They also told me that the toast is supposed to come out only a little, and not shoot across the room like in the cartoons where one guy shoots toast at another guy like it was a cannon or something.

Okokok, so I found this comic book in my basement, but I don't think anyone would want it anyway, because my basement is really smelly and stuff, and nobody likes a thing that is really smelly, do they? Maybe a dog would. I don't like dogs much.

Buy my comic book, your dog will love it!

Frank Miller has done a wonderful job reviewing each verb and how to use them in sentences. The structure of the book first shows how the verb is used and then give the student a chance to use the verb in Russian. The book cover approximately 140 different verbs. I would recomend this book to students at any level of study in Russian.

This is the best Russian grammar book I have ever bought. It explains how Russians really use verbs and does not just give you a dirrect translation. It will help you speak Russian how Russians speak it. It is a must for anyone studing Russian in college, and it is escenial for anyone who has to write papers or stories in Russian.

This book was an easier read than many hypnosis books on the market. There are also many relaxation scripts to help get beginners started. I have been exposed to many types of hypnosis practices and I must say that I like self-hypnosis the best, but I do feel that some exposure to a professional can be very beneficial. I have been using this book as an aid for about 4 months and I must say the changes are indescribable. I have lost weight (a lot!), become more disciplined in my studies and have a more rewarding relationship with my boyfriend of 4 years. Also, since the suggestions are my own that I am giving, then I am not as prone to accept suggestions from others and as result, I am more aware of negative energy amongst other people and don't take it on. This is a great book and in conjuction with other tools such as relaxation, some exposure to personal therapy, it can/will have amazing effects and the that is the truth!

If you care about yourself and well being, this book is for you! The book is easy to read and enjoyable. You can apply self-hypnosis to almost anything in your daily life. There's no magic in hypnosis, it's all about the positive attitude and response. The book in general has very good tips on how to relax and have a better way to live.

Frank Miller has always been skeptical about paternalistic ideologies of left and right and shows it again in this graphic novel. Martha Washington is forced to confront a virtually human super computer which simply wants to perfect what it perceives to be a flaw humanity. Its utopia would,of course, reduce people into soulless robots who have no free will and Martha, long an independently minded sort, leads the fight. It is quality entertainment from Miller and Gibbons.

Mr Miller at his best, this is one of the best comics i ever read. Ok, get a copy, and you would think just like me.

Plenty of facts, photos, technical information and trivia. A good book for someone looking for a beginner's-guide to building a film collection. And, great fun to read for us classic film fans!

An overview of the author's "100 Collectible Classics"--and it is very informative, with notes on production, trivia, and much more. There is always going to be a debate over what should be on any "best of" or "collectible" list, but these films are a good cross-section of the best there is in movie history.

This graphic novel by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz is one heck of a story. The graphic art complements this story as you are moved by the images. The story is compelling as it pschological moves you to uderstand each character. The art work is splended as you are fed with the right amount of colors, with th eright kind of colors depending on the situation.

This is a pschological drama and therefore, action is noticably missing. Don't misuderstand me, there are a couple of scenes, but the hero is not well represented in this area. This I think is to a fault. After all, one does expect certian things from certian charaters. With Daredevil, you expect a human drama with some action.

All in all, however, that may be more a matter of taste then principle and it should not stop any collector from getting this book. The story represents the mind as well as the soul of humans: good vs evil. An old story, but done with originality.

A must read for those who love his art!

Comics/Graphic novels are for me a unique form of storytelling. Combining image with text in a controlled format. As a filmmaker I strive to blend dialogue and image to tell a story. In the study of improvisation there is a saying "Show; don't tell." and of course we all know the "a picture is worth a thousand words". In comics the artists have an opportunity to do this with every frame - a still frame that lets us use our imagination to provide motion and rhythm and sound. Although I have many favorite books - Dark Night Returns, Kingdom Come, The Killing Joke, Marvels - by far Love and War is the peak of storytelling for me. Frank Miller is an excellent storyteller, not only because of his original concepts and details but also because he is a master revisionist. The ability to take a character we already know and love and to get us to learn more about them and love them even more is remarkable. In Love and War Mr. Miller tackles the Kingpin, giving us insight into his personal makeup, letting us see why he is so cold and calculating and in a small way, accepting him as a person. It is devestating to understand and accept the "bad guy" and makes us realize the difficulty in being a true hero all the more. It is in Love and War that Mr. Miller manages to transcend Good vs. Evil and show us how things just are. Bill Sienkiewicz is the perfect artist for this story. His images are just as graceful, violent, distorted and colorful as the world can be. I can spend quite some time on each frame of this book noting details, following the motion of his brush stroke and deciphering the thousand words implied in each picture. He shows what Miller doesn't tell. All in all they combine to excute a fantastic story brilliantly told.

Frank Miller used to be one of the comic creators I admired most but then the satisfactory, but somewhat less than impressive Sin City happened and I was turned off him a little bit. Don't get me wrong, Sin City was good, but it was standard fare, nothing to write home about. I just got the impression that Miller, like John Byrne, Chris Claremont, Chuck Dixon and others, was just past his prime. It was with this in mind that I sat down to read Ronin for the first time recently and I didn't have high hopes. I had forgotten that this was the Miller of old I was reading and as the story progressed I got the same enjoyment I got when I read some of Miller's masterpieces like Dark Knight, Year One, Daredevil and so on. Its such a fast paced story that you can barely put it down even to get a drink of water. So many twists and you can never guess what is going to happen in the end. Great dialogue, characters you really want to see again and an excellent apacalyptic theme. I really love the way that Miller mixed Samurai legend with futuristic technology. These two themes shouldn't work because they are too different, but somehow they do here.
I haven't read any of his recent stuff, including DK2 but
eading this has made me interested in checking Miller out again.

I recently reread this dark and brutal story. I'd forgotten how good it was; Miller's world and characters are highly developed, morally ambiguous and socially mature. The story is classic hard- core science-fiction and the art work is amazing. A must read for any Frank Miller or science- fiction fan.

If you like science fiction and suspence all in the same book along with japanese characters then you have got to read Ronin. Like Millers other masterpiece "Batman:The Dark Knight Returns" it has the same artwork and depth. Even though Mr. Millers artwork doesn't come close to that of someone like Chaep Yaep, the story more than makes up for it. In the tradition of "Akira" it combines Japanese cultue with a futuristic prescence. If you liked "Dark Knight" you'll love Frank Millers' "Ronin".

It has be my first Frank MIller's book, so I feel strange in writing about it now.
There was no internet at home when Iì've bought it at the newsstand on the road, so I just listended my eyes :))
It's a great and sad story, really over exposed, but you have to read till the end and read it again.
Great, really great!

Ok, so the story is nothing new for anyone familiar with frank Miller. But it's alright. better than Sin City, anyway. But all of that is beside the point. Get HARD BOILED for Darrow's artwork! Seriously, this guy's stuff should be hanging in the art museums instead of a bunch of dead French guys and the occasional Italian. For get the classics, Darrow is where it's at.

Oh, don't buy this for your kids. it's for adults. This is over the top powerviolence not for the weak-hearted. this is beautiful and fun. To the person who said it's dangerous and would inspire kids to go on killing sprees, please, for the love of God, stop thinking in PC terms and form rational opinions of your own! This IS art! it has merit and is truly breathtaking.

Frank Darrow's artwork is worth the total price alone!! Frank Millers story is mind-boggeling, and deffinately not for children. I rate this book more that 5 stars easy!!!! If you are open minded with things of an adult nature and crave the ultra-violence, your bookshelf is not complete with out Frank Miller and Geof Darrow's graphic novel....."Hard Boiled"

An artist/mysteryman named Wallace meets and falls in love with a mysterywoman named Esther. When she turns up missing, he goes into and through Hell to find her.

I am a big fan of Frank Miller's work. I am a big fan of his Sin City work. That being said, this collection just seemed to be missing something for me, and I cannot figure out what it is. The art is stellar, the story is engrossing, and the characters are interesting. This is still better than 95% of the other graphic novels that I have read in my life, but there is just something missing that prevents me from giving it a perfect score.

If you like Frank Miller's work, then pick it up. If you like love stories with a film-noir feel, then definitely get it. If you are looking for the very best of Frank Miller's noirish love stories, then get A Dame To Kill For, then after you get one come back for this and maybe you can tell me what this one is missing.

Set in Frank Miller's dark world of "Sin City", his latest epic, Hell And Back, is to graphic novels what film noire is to the cinema. The dialogue is terse, the artwork is as powerful as it is gritty, the story is of an ex-soldier who aspires to be an artist becoming tangled up in the nightmare of a beautiful woman he saves from suicide only to discover that she is the target of an immense, powerful, and corruptive conspiracy populated by a pantheon of memorable (and sometimes surprising) villains. Forcefully illustrated in black and white, Hell And Back, is enhanced by a vividly colored segment totally appropriate to the story line involving a drug induced hallucination. Of special interest at the end of this outstanding, highly recommended graphic novel dedicated is a gallery of Frank Miller's work inspired by this particular story, and a second gallery showcasing the art of a number of artists inspired by, and in tribute to, Miller's "Sin City" world of death and desire, the horrific and the heroic.

This is the latest Sin City title from Frank Miller. Although I personally don't think he's topped himself as far as the story since the first one, his art has gotten more and more polished in each title. The story here is pretty standard Frank Miller fare: dangerous, unhappy loner meets the woman of his dreams, complications arise, he kills lots and lots of underworld types to save her. This story ties in to several of the earlier Sin City tales with peripheral characters: Delia, Colonel, and Manute all appear in other tales. Like the other tales of Sin City, this is done in black and white; like some of the later ones, color is used sparingly to great effect. The use of color is more extensive here, but is very effective when used, always intentionally to call attention to a character or scene. If you've never read anything by Frank Miller, do yourself a favor and buy any and all of the Sin City titles, as well as Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

PS Several of the earlier reviews aren't talking about this story. Any references to "Marv" or "the handcuff scene" are talking about the original Sin City book, which I also highly reccomend.