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Sin City

PatrickMM

21:39 / 14.05.04

After hearing about the upcoming movie, I picked up The Yellow Bastard from the library. I'm through four chapters of it, and am loving it. It's so brutal, and dark. Plus, the art really is dazzling.

So, I see that there's a bunch of other trades on Amazon, but I can't seem to find any information on the order of the books. So, anyone got a good reading order, or a particular volume they'd reccomend? Also, is he going to be doing any new miniseries, or is it done?

sleazenation

22:05 / 14.05.04

It all gets very samey quite quickly...

I read the original sin city and was blown away. A dame to kill for was also quite good - i was less impressed by the big fat kill and by the time that yellow bastard came around I felt like Miller was just goiing through the motions. That was my subjective opinion upon reading each of those - its not that the subequent series are significantly worse or anything its just that Sin City narratives a pretty formulaic. Even the beauty of the artwork receeded for me after a while. Stray Bullets offers similar hard boiled crime fiction with the addition of well rounded, full realised characters.

But outside of that rant - its gonna be well worth reading the original sin city just to see where it all came from...

Haus of Mystery

22:14 / 14.05.04

The first volume is beautiful contrasting black + white art to die for, but it definitely goes downhill. The silent christmas special is a treat too, but the whole thing gets macho and dull real fast. I for one am glad he's kinda got it out of his system - bring on more DK2 style joycore.

Krug

11:30 / 15.05.04

I too was stunned by the first Sin City and couldn't get through the rest of the books. It's all the same.

Forget Sin City go get the all the Stray Bullets collections.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

13:46 / 16.05.04

After the first pair fo stroies, the reason to read it for Miller's art. He is one of the few artists in comics who isn't afraid to try a completely new style and see hwo far he can go with it, and Sin City was incredible in how it was able to use shadow and light on a comics page.

Jim Lee liked it so much that he completely ripped off the style for the series "Deathblow", and it's funny to look at the work and see how he grabbed the flash of it, but just didn't comprehend the artistry behind it.

Horatio Hellpop

18:03 / 16.05.04

but he seems to basically have gone as far as he can go with it. while he is never less than a competent storyteller (and unarguably a master of the medium), the visual appeal of his work just goes down down down... hand in hand with the writing. it feels like he's just riffing himself now. even though his best work wore its influences very openly, his current work seems increasingly removed from any contact with the world outside of frank miller reality and becomes more and more reductive and formulaic--it doesn't matter if it's miller's own formula or not. the first volume is brilliant, the rest have moments (and i still love all the high contrast architecture) but are mostly an echo of the original, and in fact many of the best moments are in relation to the original whereas the original could exist completely on its own terms.)

eddie thirteen

19:26 / 16.05.04

If I remember right (exempting the short story collections, which are compilations of one-shots that were kinda published "whenever" anyway), the original publication order was (probably):

- Sin City

- A Dame to Kill For

- The Big Fat Kill

- That Yellow Bastard

- Family Values

- Hell and Back

I do agree that the first two books are the strongest in terms of story, but I really can't agree on that score with the art. Family Values is one of the most drool-worthy comics I own, in terms of sheer aesthetic value. The milieu is getting a little worn-out by Hell and Back, though, definitely.

Jack Denfeld

22:52 / 16.05.04

I really like That Yellow Bastard. That was my favorite.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:16 / 17.05.04

Mine too.

Hell and Back got largely slated on release, as I recall... but I loved that too.

Horatio Hellpop

12:14 / 17.05.04

in hell and back, it seems like he gave up on some of the stronger stylistic choices he'd made for the rest of the series and started using lots of scratchy lines. the already stylized women become more stylized but less sexy, so in that area, the cartooning takes away from the impact of the image. and the big hands and feet! what's up with that?

Horatio Hellpop

12:17 / 17.05.04

i love frank miller. i've bought all of these books and found them valuable enough to read a number of times (even though i've recently parted with all of the sin city comics except the first collection). his work can be really incredible and i can't help but be disappointed when it's only good.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:13 / 22.05.04

Ah, but Hell And Back had that great "Are you checking out my ass?" bit. Which made me laugh more than any noir fiction has the right to do.

I thought it was great.

Yeah, the quality varies, but I don't think any of them are not worth reading.

If anyone cares, my favourites are That Yellow Bastard, Sin City and A Dame To Kill For. (Although this thread's inspired me to read them all again, so this may change.)

D Terminator XXXIII

14:11 / 22.05.04

I don't understand how one can reduce the varying stylistic choices that Miller employed over the course of the minis, GN, and one-shots, as being samey.

I no longer own what I had collected, which was short of Hell & Back, but what I recall is how he'd one up the narrative into something wildly different from the previous Sin City yarn - the narration in Yellow Bastard is very different than the narrative of Big Fat Kill, for example - but of course, if you mean that the stories were similar, then I really can't fault you. But it is a misrepresentation to claim that the yarns are interchangeable.

Family Values is my fave.

Haus of Mystery

18:16 / 22.05.04

Troubled tough guy gets involved with femme fatale. violence follows. Women wear very little. I see your point.

dickens432

01:28 / 23.05.04

I've read Family Values, Hell and Back, A Dame to Kill For, and That Yellow Bastard. I love The Yellow Bastard the best because when I read it, I was shocked at every turn that the plot went through, even though when I think back on it, there is really no reason for me to be shocked. Family Values, however, has the blackest, funniest humour in the end of the book that I have ever read in any comic book, Garth Ennis's Punisher run included.

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