Professor Vincent Tomasso (Classics, Ripon) will give a lecture entitled "Frank Miller's Thermopylaes." The description is as follows: 

Comic book artist Frank Miller (1957-) was obsessed with the narrative of the 480 B.C. battle of Thermopylae from his earliest years. His engagement with the infamous battle between Greeks and Persians and the ideas that it represented began in the early years of his career in the 1980s and continues into the present. This paper will compare two major versions of the battle that occurred several years apart (Sin City: The Big Fat Kill [1993/4] and 300 [1998]) as well as numerous allusions to the battle in Miller's other works, including his forays into film. The aim is to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how the superhero genre of comics mediates classical antiquity and how Miller as an individual conceptualizes the battle's meaning in the ever-shifting terrain of American history.

This event is free and open to the campus and community.