Impressive artwork and a succinct and thoroughly badass story. BUT I JUST WANT MORE. ( )

A lot of chest thumping dialogue and weirdly fetishistic art. I'd recommend it over the movie, but don't take that for a ringing endorsement. ( )

I was recommended this very short graphic novel in full colour describing the Thermopylae was in circa 500 BC between the Spartans and Persians. Not in depth, but informative and glad to have learned a little ancient Greek history through illustration and short narration. ( )

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/odkDrXfGzD8

Enjoy! ( )

Taking a well known sanguinary event from history, Miller succeeds in making it even more bloody and of gigantic proportions truly substantiating the premise of the original-a holocaustic clash of timeless civilizations with 300 men deciding the fates of the world after them. Yes, he takes creative liberties but these do not detract from the originality of history but rather augments the visceral gore expected of ancient battles. An amazing depiction of battlefield leadership, strategy, man's role in making history and the courage of a people confronting annihilation. ( )

Talk about feeling like a warrior! While I tend to not to read comics or lengthy and dialogue filled graphic novels, this story and depiction of King Leonidas and the few but mighty Spartan brothers had me feeling pride for a group of soldiers that sacrificed themselves in such a noble way. I was honestly saddened to read about Leonidas being defeated, but overtime could just sense the amount of devotion being poured onto this leader. History has taught me that Spartans were hardcore and trained as warriors for all their livers. To see even the women themselves, as with Leonida's wife holding back emotions and tears so as not to appear weak, Frank Miller does well to illustrate strength, power, and bravery. I felt deflated knowing the deformed Ephialtes would not be able to be of use to Leonidas, even horror stricken when learning that infants who showed deformities would not be kept alive, but as readers get to know and understand this leader and his reasoning behind every decision overall it is a wise decision for a king to make. Compared to the movie, the comic is by far superior! From the reading alone, even I would have followed King Leonidas to the end! ( )

First, let's start with the visual element. The visual element in this graphic novel is excellent. Great art and color. You can see why this work won the awards it did. The book is a nice, large, oversized book. The story? Well, Frank Miller does take some artistic liberties here and there, but it is still a compelling story. If you are reading this after seeing the movie, you will notice that they added a lot to the movie. The whole plot of Leonidas' wife in the town and the back plotting of the council while the king was at war is not found here. However, it is very clear the movie took the visuals of the book as much as possible. I also think it may encourage some readers to seek out histories of this battle. Overall, I think this is a good example of Miller's work and Varney's coloring adds nicely to the work. ( )

I decided that I needed to read this graphic novel after watching the movie again recently. While this was a good read and captured some very tough and manly themes nicely, I felt the movie actually had more to it. I know that sounds laughable, but that's the way I feel about this.

Either way this is a man book. Honour, courage, determination, pride, it makes you feel good to be a man! ( )

History for what it really is... exciting!!! ( )

If you've seen the movie than this book will feel differently to you. When I first read this book I read the main character as though he was Frank Millers Batman in ancient Greece. It's a good story but not so in your face as the movie is. The tone of the book is different from the movie. The lead character does not come across as an "in your face","ultra-macho", "don't my abs look great when I scream/talk" type of person. The tone of the book helps make for a more believable story. Remember this is an adaptation of real historical events for the most part. It's a fast read so read it twice to get the most out of it. ( )

A fictional retelling of the story of the Battle of Thermopylae and King Leonidas of Sparta and how he gathered 300 of his best men to stand up against the Persian army. This story ignores a lot of the actual history of this battle and the preparation beforehand, but it makes for an impressive tale (as well as for one very aesthetically appealing film). I'm not a huge fan of Miller's and get slightly irked by some of his more slapdash story choices (such as describing how Spartans fight and then ignore his own words when drawing the same), but I do enjoy this story as long as I remember it's in the action genre, not history. I have to admit I'm partial to the film, though, mainly because of its very striking post-production effects. The movie has a permanent place in my shelves, but the book will go in the donation-pile, unfortunately. ( )

300 was a pretty good book, it shows a lot of fighting and determination through out the situations of battling the Persians I feel it kind of told me in a way that will power is given to you, you have to create it for yourself. It really showed me that back then you have to push yourself no matter how bad it gets and in the end either it will all pay off or it may not go your way. Leonidas is a good leader and he shows alt of strength he has taught his team well and they are all strong. In the story it says that his wife says," A Spartan shows no emotion or any signs of weakness toward his lady or his team. A Spartan stays strong and shows his will power and strength through war and skills. My favorite part is when Leonidas turns down the offer of the Emperor and stays a strong man he will not give in to wealth or a life of luxury. ( )

I really loved the movie of this, but this book didn't quite fascinate me in the same way. Beautiful work though. ( )

Having seen the movie first, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. Very striking and bold art accompanied by Miller's typical hard-boiled aplomb, the movie was a quite direct translation of this story. Perhaps there's a little bit more levity in the dialog, but otherwise the two are nearly identical. King Leonidas is definitely one of literature's and history's biggest badasses. ( )

I really loved this story. I do think that I prefer the graphic novel to the movie. It may just be that the graphic novel is a format that reminds me of being a child and reading the dry mythologies/stories of ancient Greece. The books lacked the richness of storytelling that they deserved. This will give you a much greater appreciation of the histories. You will wonder again about those hidden stories no one tells. ( )

Six out of ten. The story of the Battle of Thermopolyae told in typical Frank Miller style. ( )

Frank Miller's retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae, 300 was originally published as a limited series and later collected as a graphic novel. I'm fairly sure without further research of my own that Miller was rather liberal in his retelling. The story is quickly paced, leading from the events that sparked the battle to the defeat of Leonidas by Xerxes which prompts the Spartans to take arms against Xerxes and the Persian Empire.

300 is illustrated in Frank Miller's typical, graphically strong style. Lynn Varley's colors help set off Miller's artwork appropriately, and overall the artwork compliments the story well.

This is a very quick read, and if your only experience with 300 is the film version, you may be disappointed in this original print version, but it is still worth reading if you are interested in the graphic novel. ( )

Re-telling of classic battle by comic master. Relatively short, so it's all action. The movie was dead on and really took the action to another level. ( )

Fun and exciting. A worthwhile story to be told, though the omission of the Thespians and other abuses of artistic license mark the fault of Miller's sensationalism. Like the four-color comics before him, Miller takes archetypes and symbols and drives them full throttle to the epic, gun-blazing climax. Unfortunately, character and emotion suffer. This is not quite the liability that it could have been, as the Epic tradition is often purposefully guilty of the same and 300 fits into this traditio...more Fun and exciting. A worthwhile story to be told, though the omission of the Thespians and other abuses of artistic license mark the fault of Miller's sensationalism. Like the four-color comics before him, Miller takes archetypes and symbols and drives them full throttle to the epic, gun-blazing climax. Unfortunately, character and emotion suffer. This is not quite the liability that it could have been, as the Epic tradition is often purposefully guilty of the same and 300 fits into this tradition (or the modern swords & sandals permutation).




However, when Miller is forced to give up some of his control, the improvement of realistic emotion shows how good his work can be. In The Dark Knight Returns, he had to keep much of the character's past and could not transform him entirely into an unfeeling, heroic killing machine. Likewise, in the film adaptation of 300, the actors and director helped to infuse the characters with more emotion and depth.





All in all, 300 isn't a long enough read for Miller's drawbacks to really hurt it, and he picked a fittingly manly story to showcase his histrionic machismo. ( )

Interesting art and story now known to almost everybody - brave stand of 300 Spartans (plus hoplites from some allied states) against overwhelming odds of Persian army.

Do not expect realistic drawings of Spartans and/or Persians because entire art feels like it comes from some dark fantasy universe.

Very Interesting work. ( )

Graphic novels are still very new to me and they have almost universally fallen short of what I've hoped for, this was no exception. ( )

have to grade on a graphic novel scale. great story, great illustrations. less homoerotic than the movie :) ( )

For fans of graphic novels or of classic Greece, this is a must. It is an exciting and beautifully illustrated tale of the 300 spartans and their allies who marched into the pass of Thermopylae against a force who would overwhelm and kill them. If you are a stickler for historical accuracy, hold your criticism long enough to consider the way stories were told in the time of Heroditus. The storyteller would have painted fantastic pictures of the heroes, villains, and events of the battle, not unlike those in this novel. With that in mind, I think this is an even more enjoyable yarn. Yeah, I said yarn. ( )

This is book was the basis for the new and popular movie 300. This is an amusing read. If you are a fan of the movie I would highly recommend the book. Its not entirely factual, but it is a graphic novel, not a history textbook. This happens to be one of my favorite stories and the book does a good job of immortalizing the Spartans. It follows the battle of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. Also, this graphic novel is not disturbing, it could easily be read to a child without causing nightmares due to violence, etc. EY

Gorgeous art. ( )