I can't wait to watch 300 — unfortunately, the movie hasn't been released in theatres in Chennai yet.  It is already out in other cities in India, and my brother's seen it.  Anyway, I definitely wanted to read the book before watching the movie, and I did that today.

300 is a graphic novel published by Dark Horse Comics, written by Frank Miller, with art by Frank Miller and colours by Lynn Varley.  The book is set in 480 BC, where the Persians (led by their King Xerxes) are an unstoppable force, invading all of Greece.  However, Sparta refuses to yield, and King Leonidas leads his men into battle against the Persians.  This historical confrontation will take place at Thermopylae (the "Hot Gates"), a pass in the mountains where Leonidas's men would be able to push back the invaders.  But will 300 Spartans be able to win over the "hundred nations" of the Persians?

This book is a stunning work — originally published as a 5-part comic book series, it has since been collected into graphic novel format.  The book is entirely composed of double-page spreads, and has magnificent artwork by Miller.  Striking visuals of the both armies, locales from ancient Greece, shots of the characters are all beautifully presented, everything is well laid out and wonderfully paced.  The artwork is further enhanced by the gorgeous paint work by colourist Lynn Varley, who adds depth and atmosphere to every scene in the book.  The battle scenes are breathtaking and bloody, as they should be.

The visuals are not the only exceptional aspect of the book — the storytelling is also masterful.  The book does not have much dialogue or plot and exposition, but Miller manages to develop characters strongly, and convey lots of emotion and drama.  This is a story about heroes, honour, sacrifice and bloody combat, and is guaranteed to have you applauding by the time it ends.

Miller was supposedly inspired by the 1962 film The 300 Spartans to create this work.  I am not sure how historically accurate this book is, but I read that Miller did take some liberties with the way certain things are presented.  This book was adapted into the 2007 film 300, directed by Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead [2004 Remake]), and I am eagerly looking forward to watching it.  Like the film adaptation of Miller's Sin City stories, 300 was created using the "digital backlot" technique (filming actors against a green or blue screen, and adding all backgrounds digitally).  While everything I've seen about the movie so far indicates that justice has been done to the visuals and the battle sequences, I am anxious to see how they fleshed out Miller's story and characters into a two-hour screenplay.  Looks like I'll have to wait for some more time, though!

As an additional note to this, Zack Snyder is going to adapt the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons comic book Watchmen (a project which was once under development by The Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass).  Sometime back, AICN ran this very interesting article, which talked about a test image of Rorschach hidden in one of the trailers of 300!  I wasn't able to spot the image in the YouTube clip, fortunately, the article also has a high-resolution version put up.  Have a look!