Sin CityVol 1: The Hard Goodbye
By Frank Miller
1992
Available now from Islington Libraries
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Sin CityVol 2: A Dame to Kill For
By Frank Miller
1994
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Sin CityVol 3: The Big Fat Kill
By Frank Miller
1995
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Sin CityVol 4: That Yellow Bastard
By Frank Miller
1994
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Sin CityVol 5: Family Values
By Frank Miller
1997
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Sin CityVol 6: Booze, Broads & Bullets
By Frank Miller
1998
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Sin CityVol 7: Hell and Back
By Frank Miller
2000
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Apparently Frank Miller always wanted to write crime comics. Of course when he started the only option was superheroes - which is why he gravitated towards Daredevil and Batman - the most "crime-y" super-powered guys out there... But then: after the massive success of The Dark Knight Returns Frank found himself in the enviable position of being able to do whatever the hell he wanted - and it turned out that what he most wanted to do was: Sin City.
Looking back now it's very easy to overlook how jarring and unexpected and strange these books were when they were first released back in the early 1990s. There were other books around that dealt with more than just men in tights - but they were still playing familiar beats and using each frame and panel to advance the story in one way or another. Sin City on the other hand - and especially the first volume - glories and revels in images for their own sake: many of which balloon to fill the page - so while other comics would have a kiss last a small tucked away panel Frank likes to draw the moments out and let's them spill out full-size page after page after page. If you like operatic emotions played as loudly as possible then you will agree that this is a good thing. And then there's the explosive black and white artwork that maximizes the full effect of both. It's hard to tell if he poured the black ink on to white paper - or the other way around (mostly likely a bit of both I guess): but the effect is comparable to having knives poked all the way up to the tip of your eyeballs: it's stark, powerful and at all times utterly and totally melodramatic with all the characters flaunting themselves and their curves and bulges at every available opportunity.
The stories themselves are simple-seeming revenge/hero fantasies inflated to epic proportions that delight in taking unexpected twists and 360 degree turns ("neo-noir" is a good term - or even better: "super-noir"! noir stories souped up to superhuman scales). I say "simple-seeming" because although the plots seem to be lug-headed and brutish - steam-rolling from fight to fight: underneath the bang-bang there are mechanics and various small intricacies that would make a watchmaker jealous: it's not just the stories referencing each other: but the way that it refashions every single dog-eared cliché and worn-out trope to sting in strange new way - yeah - if they're making you feel sweaty and uncomfortable (That Yellow Bastard especially): then it's because that's what Frank wants you to.
Comprising seven volumes in total: that add up together - although they can be read in any order: it's a hefty collection but one that you can be happy swimming in and out of (it's such a bleak landscape that it could be dangerous reading them all one after another). Six of the volumes tell complete end-to-end stories - while Vol 6: Booze, Broads and Bullets (which in three words is pretty much the Modus operandi of the whole series): is a odds-and-ends collection of stories left over from elsewhere. My favourite is the first one (first published as just "Sin City" but then subsequently rebranded as "The Hard Goodbye" when things took off): whose always momentum-building ongoingingly-forward plot makes it feel both like the most stream-lined - and most epic. Although I'd also praise Hell and Back for it's virtuoso drug-filled middle section that is - simply put - freaking amazing.
Yes - it's all full of silhouetted babes with their clothes half-hanging off. Yes - it's full of macho-men being macho and doing tons of macho-kinda-stuff. And yes - it's it's all about as subtle as a swastika-shaped ninja star to the head: but (well): that's the point. It glorifies in the over-the-top scenarios and crazy juxtapositions with everyone pitched to absurdly heroic and grotesque proportions (and sometimes both at the same time) and uses them all to provoke all sorts of interesting reactions. Because - yeah - Frank Miller knows how to draw, and he knows how to write (even if it's just dumb-dumb stuff like: "There's nothing like a ravishingly beautiful nymphomaniac to distract a guy." - there's lots of better quotes I could pulled: but (sorry) that one's my favorite) and he knows how to pull plenty of your strings. The best description/explanation I've ever heard came from a Coen Brothers (see: here): "You have a scene in a movie when someone gets shot, right? ... And the squib goes off and the blood runs down and you get a reaction, right? It's movie fodder, you know what I mean? And in a really different way, a baby's face is movie fodder. You just wanna take elements that are good fodder and do something different with them." That's whats great about Sin City. It does something different. In a very cool way. Whilst purring in pure comics pleasure.
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Links: Comic Book Resources Review of the Entire Series, Bookslut Article: Sin City: The Adaptation, BLAM! The Literal Architecture of Sin City Article by Luke Arnott, Graphic Content Review of Vol 1 / Vol 2 / Vol 3 / Vol 4 / Vol 5 / Vol 6 / Vol 7.
Further reading: Criminal, Hard Boiled, 100 Bullets, Desolation Jones, Batman: Year One, Goldfish, Button Man, Richard Stark's Parker, Daredevil: Born Again.
Profiles: Frank Miller.
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