Sin City's Frank Miller to headline first Paris Comic Con

Frank Miller, the graphic novelist and director behind "Sin City" and "300", will be guest of honour at the first Comic Con convention to be held in Paris, organisers announced Thursday.

The colourful pop culture event, which attracts droves of comics fans when it takes place in Vienna, New York and various venues in Asia, is expected to see at least 30,000 visitors attend for its first October 23-25 instalment in the French capital.

"When a Comic Con takes place in the United States, it's the most live-tweeted event in France," said Pierre-Yves Binctin, head of Comic Con Paris, adding that visitors from Belgium, Switzerland, Britain and Germany had already bought tickets to the event.

The most famous Comic Con takes place in San Diego every year, attracting huge stars, and various offshoots around the world see fans of all ages attend dressed as zombies, super- and antiheroes.

France already has its own Angouleme Festival every year -- one of the world's biggest comics events -- that attracts tens of thousands of people.

But French readers' appetite for comic books is boundless, with 35 million sold last year.

Miller, Paris's guest-of-honour, is a hero to many comics fans, having created popular graphic novels "Sin City" and "300", both of which have been turned into blockbuster films.

But it is his transformation of DC Comics' Batman from a clean-cut hero into a dark, troubled character -- most recently brought to life by actor Christian Bale -- that has earned him cult status.

The huge popularity of "The Dark Knight Returns", Miller's 1986 Batman mini-series, is seen as a watershed in comics, credited for starting the so-called dark age of comic books that created gritty, edgy characters and tormented superheroes.

Also present at Comic Con Paris will be Louis Leterrier, who has directed among other films Marvel Studios' "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Transporter."

As will Maisie Williams, otherwise known as Arya Stark in the hit TV series "Game of Thrones".