Sin City

Sin City (1991-2000)
By Frank Miller
I spent the month of April reading all of Frank Miller's Sin City trade collections, and I must say, these books are about as pulpy as you can get.

I've never really been a fan of Miller's artwork, but I do like his post-modern spin in The Dark Knight Returns and appreciate his artful depiction of violence. If you're into graphic novels, I'm sure you've read several if not all of the Sin City books. But, just in case, Sin City is a string of noir tales set in the fictional Basin City featuring insane amounts of murder, blood, guts, nudity, and sexual encounters. The series is pure offensive pulp.

The pulp factor is not a major turnoff to me by any means, as I am a fan of violence and overall messed up-ness in graphic novels. In fact, it is my favorite thing about the series. I surely am not enamored with the books' emotionless and repetitive narration and hit-or-miss minor characters. The main protagonists are solid for the most part, and the heavy hitting villains are usually excellent.

I know I stated earlier that I didn't really like the style of Miller's artwork, however, I do enjoy it in Sin City. The blatant ugliness of some of the protagonists is an interesting move, and the detail and overall style is superior to Miller's visual work with Batman. The lack of color actually makes things look quite stunning, and the subtle inclusion of color later in the series, namely in That Yellow Bastard and Hell and Back, is an awesome touch.

There are most definitely low points in the Sin City story, but they are outweighed by the brilliant moments, and as a whole, it is a high quality comic book series that is equally disturbing and fun.