Frank Miller: It’s even funnier than that actually, because the original ending for Dark Knight Returns was that he died in a hail of police gunfire. I had arguments with Dick Giordano, who was my editor, about that. And we went on and on and back and forth about whether that should be the ending or not, because his gut told him it was the wrong ending. But I stuck to my guns, and as I got closer and closer to writing the ending, at one point, I just called him and I said, “Dick, you were right. I just can’t pull the trigger on this. That’s not the ending.”

So you never got around to scripting that scene, or doing layouts or anything like that?

Oh, I plotted it all out, but I didn’t draw anything, no. But I still have it in my office, the document, where I wrote it out with that ending. So everything that’s followed Dark Knight Returns can be chalked up to Dick Giordano’s good instincts and my eventually coming to realize he was right, but it was a creative journey I had to go through. It’s the only time I’ve ever really gone against my original intention for an ending.

When you came up with the actual ending for Dark Knight Returns, was there ever any inkling in your mind that you would continue that story beyond that, or were just happy to leave it on that hopeful note?

I told myself … “When I’ve got a good enough idea to come back, I’ll come back to this.” Because I’ve fallen in love with so much of it, and I knew that Carrie Kelley would bring me back.