1. The Dark Knight Returns
8th Grade Sample Project

2. The Context
Pubication Date – February 1986 Writer – Frank Miller Penciller – Frank Miller Inker – Klaus Janson Letterer – John Costanza Colorist – Lynn Varley

3. The Dark Knight Returns
This is a DC super hero comic that is considered by many to be the big return of Batman and a classic in the genre. Here Bruce Wayne returns to being Batman after many years and takes on a new Robin sidekick who is a girl, Carrie Kelly. Together they fight Batman’s many of Batman’s traditional enemies, including Harvey Dent.

4. The Format The Dark Knight Returns includes Onomatopoeia
The Splash pages show big action moments.
It has a lot of small panels with white gutters separating them, but sometimes the panels have no gutters
I could not find motion lines.

5. Balloons
The Dark Knight has word balloons for dialogue, but the chartacters’ thoughts are not in a balloon, they are in a text so it reads more like a novel.

6. The Art
The Dark Knight is very ‘dark’ because the story is complex and scary.
The colors are greys, blacks, and blues to give a cold and sombre tone.
There are a lot of shadows.
The characters have the same colors except for Robin and the Joker’s hair and mouth. This makes them a contrast.
The heroes and villains look the same because sometimes the reader should wonder who is the good guy.

7. The Literary Devices
Theme – good versus evil is confused because the hero is not always good.
Plot – there are many plot lines and subplots in the narrative.
Nemesis – Batman confronts both the Joker and Harvey Dent.
Flashback – there are many moments when we see what happened in the past of the story.

8. The Question You will have to give your own answer for this one.
You can consider comics and graphic novels in general and not only the specific one you read for class.

9. Remember the vocabulary
Onomatopoeia is a sound effect word
A splash page is a whole page illustration
Motion lines show movement