The Dark Knight of the Graphic Novel Returns : The artist-writer team of Frank Miller and Lynn Varley took their time with “Elektra Lives Again” because they wanted to break away from some comic book conventions

The last novel by the team of Frank Miller and Lynn Varley sold more than 1 million copies. Critics called it “revolutionary,” “groundbreaking” and “beautiful.”

But even if you are an avid bibliophile, there’s a good chance that you have never heard of them. Miller and Varley work in the genre known as the graphic novel, a grown-up term for the comic book. Their last book, the revisionist “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns,” was by far the best-selling graphic novel ever. It was an anomaly in a field where almost all sales are made in specialty comic book stores and even the most successful books rarely sell more than 200,000 copies.

“It’s not a mass audience, and it is probably better that way,” said Miller, who is the better-known half of the team. He creates the story lines and does the key drawings; Varley does backgrounds and color work. “If we were working in a mass media like film or television, we would probably not have the freedom to do things the way we want,” he continued.

“This new book--our first together since ‘Dark Knight’--is a very personal piece of work. For better or worse, it is exactly what we wanted to do.”

Their new book is “Elektra Lives Again,” the third volume featuring the Elektra character created by Miller in 1980. Published by Epic Comics, the book hit stores earlier this month in a hardcover edition costing $24.95. It’s in a larger format and on paper of far better quality than regular comics.

“It is the most lavishly produced graphic novel we have ever done,” said Carol Kalish, vice president of direct sales at Marvel Comics. Marvel puts out the Epic line, aimed at an audience much older than the traditional comics buyer. “The most expensive, too. We have used a luxurious paper, an odd size to accommodate the artwork best, expensive inks and a production process that was costly.”

The initial print run of about 75,000 was conservative, Kalish said, because of fears about the weakening economy. But “we have had an unbelievable advance reaction,” she said, noting that the book in hardcover will be sold in a handful of Waldenbooks outlets, in addition to the comics stores. Some retailers had so many advance orders that they were asking about a second printing even before the first was shipped.

Bill Liebowitz, owner of Golden Apple, a Melrose Avenue shop specializing in comics, said that two weeks before the book was scheduled to arrive, he already had orders for 300 copies. “We usually sell a total of only 50 or 100 copies of this kind of book,” Liebowitz said.

As he spoke, a clerk behind the main counter at Golden Apple was fielding one of the many calls that day asking when the book would be in. “Hey, Bill!” the clerk called out. “Can we mail-order to Australia?”

Miller, the object of all this cult attention, is a soft-spoken, slight, chain-smoking man with short-cropped hair who grew up in Montpelier, Vt. Except for a few art classes in high school, he is mostly self-taught.

Fourteen years ago, he arrived in New York determined to work in comic books.

“I had been reading, drawing and writing comic books as far back as I can remember,” said Miller, 33, sitting on the patio of the Hollywood Hills home to which he and Varley have just moved. “When I got to New York and started to do a little work, I just bugged successful cartoonists to look at my work and comment on it. One of them, Neil Adams, who was a really big name in the field, spent a lot of time with me.”

Miller got occasional work as an artist at some of the smaller comics houses, doing work on stories in the “super-hero” mold. “When I started, just about all anybody was doing was guys in tights,” he said with a laugh. The outlook for the business was not bright. “The common wisdom I must have heard 100 times was that comic books would be around only three or four more years,” he said. “Sales were dreadfully low.”

But the comic book business took an upturn, mostly, Miller believes, because it tossed off stringent censorship rules that had been instituted during the 1950s. In 1979, he got his first big job at Marvel Comics, writing and drawing stories for a series starring Daredevil, a super-hero who had been accidentally exposed to a big dose of radiation at a young age. The exposure blinded him, but it heightened his other senses to superhuman levels. (When in his super-hero mode, Daredevil wears red tights.)

It was Miller’s work on that series--in which he employed arresting graphics, an imaginative use of panels and story lines steeped in martial arts mysticism--that brought him to the attention of comic book aficionados.

Into that series he introduced Elektra, a beautiful Greek woman, as Daredevil’s lover. Their affair was broken off when Elektra, shaken by the murder of her father by terrorists, turns bad and joins a band of ninjas to become an assassin-for-hire.

The stories were collected in a paperback book, “The Elektra Saga.”

“I was influenced by samurai movies,” Miller said. “And Japanese comics.”

Those influences were even more apparent in “Ronin,” a series he created for DC Comics about a 13th-Century samurai who is reborn into the 21st Century. The series was not a big success, but it did mark his first teaming with Varley.

“We worked together before we were a couple,” said Varley, taking a break from staining some bookshelves for the living room. “I had worked with other writers, but I could never get as elaborate as I could with Frank.”

In 1985, Miller revived the Elektra character for a strange and dreamlike series. Illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz in a lurid and highly varied style that ranged from arch realism to sketchy drawings, these dense “Elektra Assassin” stories expressed an apocalyptic vision of a world contaminated by greed and corruption.

Almost as pessimistic but far more successful was his 1986 “Batman” series, illustrated by Varley and Klaus Janson. When collected and sold as a paperback, it became, by far, the most successful graphic novel of all time and one of the few to cross over into mainstream book chains. (Marvel hopes to ship “Elektra Lives Again” to book chains in volume when it goes into paperback, probably late next year.)

The stories feature a middle-aged, slightly gone-to-seed Batman who rallies for one more major battle against the forces of evil. Although Miller had no official connection with the 1989 “Batman” film, several critics suggested that the filmmakers had been influenced by his dark view of the super-hero.

“Batman” did, however, get Miller into the film business. The producer of “RoboCop 2,” who was a fan of “The Dark Knight,” hired him to write the movie. It got less than a welcome reception from critics, but Miller enjoyed the work and was hired to write a draft of “RoboCop 3,” which is scheduled to begin shooting in Los Angeles next month.

In 1987, word spread through the comic book world that Miller was resurrecting Elektra for another book. “If you know the comic book market,” Kalish said, “you know that from the day of the announcement on, fans started to go into comic book stores to ask when it would be coming out. The anticipation started to build. It was like ‘Star Wars’ fans waiting for the sequel.”

Miller and Varley took their time with “Elektra Lives Again.” They wanted to break away from some comic book conventions.

For example, Daredevil is a major character in the plot, but he is only shown as his mundane, everyday alter ego, Matt Murdock. “He never puts on the tights,” Miller said. “I only wanted one element in the book that was fantastic, and that was Elektra. She is the one who is colorful, an icon running all through the story.”

The plot was less rooted in martial arts lore and more driven by the emotional makeup of the characters. And the drawings, although vivid and complex, were more subtle, less flashy. One example is a full-page panel that shows, from above, Murdock rising from his bed and descending a long, winding staircase.

To show the passage of time, his image is repeated at several different points on the stairway. This also conveys a disturbing feeling that Murdock is descending ever closer to a fateful encounter with his archenemies.

“It took seven layers of drawings to get the right perspective,” Miller said.

But the biggest breakthrough came in the use of color. “By the time we did the book, Lynn and I had done about 600 pages together,” he said. “We knew each other so well that there was a trust and encouragement that gave her room to work in terms of the lighting, characters, flesh tones.”

Miller only did the line drawings of characters and settings. “When people see my drawings, they are surprised to see how little there is to them,” he said. “Lynn added everything else, and that changed the scenes in a major way, sometimes.”

“I’m not the storyteller, that’s his job,” said Varley, who did the book primarily in watercolors.

The colors are luminescent at times but not garish. And the overall look is clean, uncluttered.

“There were times when I would get caught up in the paintings and make them too complicated. It would get in the way of the story,” she said. “I would go back later and take some of the complications out.”

Varley, who is far less famous in comic book circles than Miller, is described by friends as being shy about her work. But as she put down her staining brush and looked at a galley copy of “Elektra Lives Again,” she obviously viewed it with pride.

“I don’t want to work with anyone else but Frank,” she said. “Maybe I’ll do some painting now, for myself. This gives me the confidence to go ahead and try.”

Miller goes to his drawing table, set up amid boxes in the dining room, where he has turned out the first two pages of their next graphic novel.

“It’s a film noir kind of story,” he said, “the kind I had always wanted to do. When I started in this business, it didn’t seem there would be a chance to do it. But things have opened up so much.”

The series, with its epic angles and strong cityscapes that are Miller trademarks, is called “Basin City.”

“Actually,” he said, “that is the name of a fictional city where it takes place. But when you see it on a sign, the ‘B’ and the ‘A’ will always be blocked out.”