Daredevil 233, Pages 03 and 04

Here's a great sequence from possibly the best Daredevil story ever written - Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Born Again (originally published in Daredevil 226-233). This was a favorite of mine from back in the 80's, and still holds up very well all these years later. I've owned page 4 for years, and knew the whereabouts of page 3 for almost as long. I don't know why I put off obtaining it for so long. I'm glad it was still available once I finally decided to do something about it. I always enjoy having pairs of pages since comics are a sequential medium and it really helps relay the impact of the story. (click for larger image)

Daredevil 217 Splash - 1985

UPDATE: SOLD IN 2010!

If it wasn't for David Mazzucchelli, I may have never discovered Frank Miller. Back in the 1980's, when I started reading comics full-time, I almost always made buying decisions based on the artist of the book. Coming in at issue 216 (I think), I'd completely missed out on Miller's original run on Daredevil. For me, Daredevil was defined by Denny O'Neil scripts and Mazzucchelli art. The stories were dark and moody, and Mazzucchelli's art was the perfect fit. Miller would be back on the book with issue 227 - the first of a seven issue story arc, later collected in a trade edition entitled "Born Again" (now a classic - see the other Mazzucchelli pages from this saga in this blog). But prior to Miller's return, there was some great stuff being done on this title. I recently re-read most of these stories, and they really hold up well. I was happy to pick up this splash, penciled and inked by Mazzucchelli himself (click for larger image).

Daredevil Born Again II

This was the second Daredevil page from Frank Miller's "Born Again" series that I purchased. The scene depicted on this page, featuring Nuke, Captain America, and Daredevil, is what is depicted on the cover of this issue. (Pencils and inks by David Mazzucchelli. Click for larger image.)

Daredevil Born Again

One of the stories that always makes my top five favorites list is Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Born Again saga in which Daredevil is nearly destroyed (and then put back together by Miller). Unlike Miller's earlier Daredevil work, which I find a bit juvenile and dated, this one holds up remarkably well these twenty-odd years later. Half the genius of this story is David Mazzucchelli's art. He's easily one of my favorite comic book artists and really makes this story come to life. It's too bad he didn't do more mainstream comic book work. (Pencils and inks by David Mazzucchelli. Click for larger view.)