Sin City is the title for a
series of
neo-noirNeo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...
comicsA comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
by
Frank MillerFrank Miller is an American comic book artist, writer and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300...
. The first story originally appeared in "Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special" (April, 1991), and continued in
Dark Horse PresentsDark Horse Presents was the first comic book published by Dark Horse Comics in 1986 and was their flagship title until its September 2000 cancellation. The second incarnation was published on MySpace, running from July 2007 until August 2010...
#51–62 from May 1991 to June 1992, under the title of
Sin City, serialized in thirteen parts. Several other stories of variable lengths have followed. All stories take place in Basin City, with frequent recurring characters and intertwining stories.
A
movie adaptationSin City, also known as Frank Miller's Sin City, is a 2005 crime thriller film written, produced and directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez...
of
Sin City,
co-directedA film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by
Robert RodriguezRobert Anthony Rodríguez is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet...
and
Frank MillerFrank Miller is an American comic book artist, writer and film director best known for his dark, film noir-style comic book stories and graphic novels Ronin, Daredevil: Born Again, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300...
with "special guest director"
Quentin TarantinoQuentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
, was released on April 1, 2005. A planned sequel was announced soon after, but has since been delayed indefinitely.
Setting
Basin City, almost universally referred to by the nickname
Sin City, is a fictional town in the American west. The climate is hot and arid, although Sacred Oaks is characterized as being heavily wooded. A major river runs through the city, which has an extensive waterfront. Usually twice a year, a major downpour comes, and (in
That Yellow Bastard) the city gets heavy snowfall in the winter. In the comics, Basin City has a
surrealSurrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, Pan-American feel. Desert lizards and palm trees are common, while tar pits, desert areas, mountain ranges and flat farmland make up the landscape around the city.
The Basin City Police are more or less along the lines of paramilitary or
SWATA SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
, as they have to deal with incredibly high crime rates among criminals and civilians alike, which is why they have access to what most would consider "heavy weaponry" and full body armor. Those who make up the force have been described as commonly being lazy, cowardly and/or corrupt. Only a handful of the cops are honest, though frequently the wealthy of the city bribe the corrupt members of the police into performing their duty (usually as a result of some crime being committed (or threatened) against a member of their family).
During the
California Gold RushThe California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
, the
Roark familyThe Roark family is a fictional dynasty from Frank Miller's graphic novel series Sin City.The family is made up of corrupt officials and landowners of Irish descent, who hold absolute power in Basin City. They are the main antagonists in the series, and are frequent catalysts to various plots and...
"imported" a large number of attractive women to keep the miners happy, making a fortune and turning a struggling mining camp into a thriving, bustling city. Over the years, as the Roark family migrated into other areas of business and power, these women ended up forming the district of Old Town, the prostitute quarter of the city where they rule with absolute authority. In addition, the people charged with governing the city, most of them from the Roark line, remained in power for generations, running it as they saw fit.
As the various yarns progress, the audience gradually becomes familiar with key locations in and around Basin City.
- The Projects, the run-down and poor side of Sin City, is a tangle of high-rise apartments where crime runs rampant. Its inhabitants have apparently evolved their own independent society with almost no legal contact with the outside world. Marv was born in the Projects and they make Dwight sick.
- The Docks, a collection of wharfs and warehouses that are local to the Projects. Hartigan and Roark Junior have their first confrontation here in That Yellow Bastard, and Marv drives a stolen police car off one of the piers at the beginning of The Hard Goodbye.
- Kadie's Club Pecos, a strip club/bar where Nancy Callahan and Shellie work, and Dwight McCarthy and Marv hang out. Though filled almost solely with drunk and violent men, Kadie's bar is one of the safest areas in Sin City. Marv, who possesses an extraordinarily high sense of chivalry, protects the female employees of Kadie's from any violence that makes its way inside.
- Roark Family Farm (a.k.a. "The Farm") is located at North Cross and Lennox and shows up in several stories, including The Hard Goodbye, That Yellow Bastard, The Babe Wore Red and Hell and Back. It was also home to Kevin, a serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
with ties to the Roark family. Marv burns down one of the buildings, and the Farm is abandoned sometime after the initial Sin City storyline.
- Old Town is the red-light district
A red-light district is a part of an urban area where there is a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, adult theaters, etc...
and is off limits to the police, unless they're 'shopping'. This is where the city's population of prostitutes reside; it recently came under the control of the twins Goldie and Wendy. Though perfectly willing to engage in almost any sexual act for the right price, the women of Old Town show no mercy to those who "break the rules" and back up their independence with lethal force. The mob and pimps were thrown out after a period of fighting.
- Sacred Oaks, home to the rich and powerful of Basin City. This suburb lies beyond the city proper, a half an hour drive uphill. A university of some sort is also located there, and the entire area is patrolled by armed employees of its wealthy inhabitants.
- Basin City Central Train Station, which has a direct connection to Phoenix
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
.
- The Santa Yolanda Tar Pits, an abandoned amusement park of sorts outside the city, where several tar pits are located and dinosaur bones were excavated at some time. After a 'big-budget dinosaur movie' (presumably a reference to Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Martin Ferrero, and Bob Peck...
) caused a sensation, the county put up concrete statues of dinosaurs there to draw crowds. However, after an old lady fell through a railing into one of the pits and had a heart attack, the place was shut down indefinitely. They are frequently used as a place to dump things that people don't want found; high-schoolers also tend to sneak in there a lot. This is where Delia tells Phil to drive in Wrong Turn and where Dwight takes the corpses of Jackie Boy and his friends in The Big Fat Kill. Frank Miller has admitted the main reason the Tar Pits exist is as an excuse to draw the dinosaur statues.
Individuals
- Marv
- Dwight McCarthy
Dwight McCarthy is a main protagonist in Frank Miller's Sin City universe. He appears in A Dame to Kill For, The Big Fat Kill, Family Values, The Babe Wore Red and That Yellow Bastard. In the 2005 film adaptation, he was portrayed by Clive Owen.-Appearance:In Dwight's first appearance in A Dame To...
- Nancy Callahan
Nancy Callahan is a fictional character from the graphic novel series Sin City, created by Frank Miller. She first appeared in The Hard Goodbye before becoming a more prominent character in later stories, most notably That Yellow Bastard....
- Gail
- Miho
is a character in Frank Miller's Sin City graphic novel series. In the film adaptation of Sin City, she is portrayed by Devon Aoki.-Character:...
- John Hartigan
Detective John Hartigan is a major protagonist in the Sin City series of graphic novels, written by Frank Miller. He is the central character in That Yellow Bastard, and has a small cameo in Just Another Saturday Night...
- Wallace
Wallace is the protagonist of Hell and Back, the longest of the Sin City yarns written by Frank Miller.Wallace starts off as an ex-military civilian...
- Roark Junior (aka. The Yellow Bastard)
Organizations
Because a large majority of the residents of Basin City are criminals, there are several organizations and cartels central to the stories who are vying for monopoly over the various criminal enterprises in the city. Listed below are crime syndicates, gangs and other low-lifes who figure heavily in the Sin City mythos.
The Basin City Police Department: So deep do corruption and criminality run in Basin City that even their police officers qualify as a gang of paid thugs, turning a blind eye to the affairs of those too poor to pay them off. Few among them are considered incorruptible; even the honest officers are unable (or unwilling) to curtail the criminal actions of the dishonest ones. Notable characters in the series who are police include
DetectiveA detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
John HartiganDetective John Hartigan is a major protagonist in the Sin City series of graphic novels, written by Frank Miller. He is the central character in That Yellow Bastard, and has a small cameo in Just Another Saturday Night...
, his partner Bob,
LieutenantA lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
s
Jack RaffertyJack Rafferty is a fictional character in Frank Miller's Sin City, and a main antagonist of The Big Fat Kill. He is mainly referred to by his nickname Jackie Boy...
and Mort,
CommissionerCommissioner is in principle the title given to a member of a commission or to an individual who has been given a commission ....
Liebowitz, and
OfficerA police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
s Manson and Bundy from
Hell and Back.
The Roark familyThe Roark family is a fictional dynasty from Frank Miller's graphic novel series Sin City.The family is made up of corrupt officials and landowners of Irish descent, who hold absolute power in Basin City. They are the main antagonists in the series, and are frequent catalysts to various plots and...
: A dynasty of corrupt landowners and politicians whose influence over Basin City has stretched as far back as the days of the Old West. Famous Roarks of this generation include a senator, a cardinal, an attorney general, and Roark Junior, 'That Yellow Bastard'.
The Girls of Old TownThe Girls of Old Town are a group of self-governing prostitutes in the fictional universe of Frank Miller's Sin City.During the days of the Gold Rush, when the town of Basin City had just been settled, the Roark family "imported" a large number of women from across the globe into the open and...
: Populating the region of Basin City known as Old Town are a group of women in
the world's oldest professionProstitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
, having made a truce with the cops to allow them to govern and police themselves. As of
A Dame To Kill For, they were led by the twins, Goldie and Wendy.
Wallenquist OrganizationThe Wallenquist Organization is a criminal organization in the fictional universe of Frank Miller's Sin City. It is led by Herr Wallenquist, a German-American mobster shrouded in mystery...
: A powerful crime syndicate led by Herr Wallenquist, a mysterious crime lord with a broad range of criminal enterprises to his name. Interestingly, though one of the city's two "normal" criminal organizations, the Wallenquist management seems to be the most peaceful and forgiving of the various leaders.
The Magliozzi Crime FamilyThe fictional Magliozzi Crime Family control the Cosa Nostra in the comic book series Sin City. Led by Don Giacco Magliozzi and based at the Magliozzi Mansion , they were wiped out in Family Values.- Known members :...
: The undisputed heads of the local Cosa Nostra, the Magliozzi family seems to be the purest example of "true"
MafiaThe Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
lifestyle. While they appear in only one story, it is hinted that the Mafia influence in Basin City's underworld is a lot larger than just their family.
Other groups that have been seen or mentioned in the comics include:
Tong gangsters: Mentioned, but not seen as of
A Dame To Kill For. Miho's life was saved by Dwight when he secretly protected her during a fight with several Tong gangsters in a dark alleyway.
White slavers: Mentioned, but not seen as of
A Dame To Kill For. Led by a man named Manuel, whose brothers were also involved. Were "taken care of" by Dwight prior to the events of
A Dame To Kill For.
Irish mercenaries: Seen during
The Big Fat Kill, most of them are evidently former
I.R.A.The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
members, as implied by one of the mercenaries referring to his glee at blowing up a
public houseA public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
(
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
pubs were targeted by the I.R.A.). All are killed by Dwight and Miho.
Sin City yarns
These are the individual stories, usually referred to as "yarns," set in Frank Miller's Sin City universe.
For more info see List of Sin City yarns.
Collected editions
The stories have been collected into
trade paperbacksIn comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
and hardcover "Library Editions". The hardcovers include two releases, which include Volume 1 (Books 1-4) and 2 (Books 5-7 and "The Art of").
TPB
| Name |
Contents |
ISBN |
The Hard Goodbye"The Hard Goodbye" is the first Sin City story. It was serialised, as "Sin City," in the comics anthology Dark Horse Presents by Dark Horse Comics and named "The Hard Goodbye" in the trade paperbacks...
|
Episodes #1–13 of 13 from Dark Horse 5th Anniversary Special and Dark Horse Presents Dark Horse Presents was the first comic book published by Dark Horse Comics in 1986 and was their flagship title until its September 2000 cancellation. The second incarnation was published on MySpace, running from July 2007 until August 2010...
issues #51-62 |
ISBN 1593072937 |
A Dame to Kill ForA Dame to Kill For is a comic book limited series first published by Dark Horse Comics in 1993. It is the second story in Frank Miller's Sin City series, and the first to be published in miniseries format. It was written and drawn entirely by Frank Miller...
|
Issues #1–6 of 6 |
ISBN 1593072945 |
The Big Fat KillThe Big Fat Kill is a five-issue comic book limited series published by Dark Horse Comics in November 1994–March 1995.-Plot:The story opens in Shellie's apartment, where a drunken former fling is furiously rapping on her door, demanding to be let in. Shellie is obviously scared, but is...
|
Issues #1–5 of 5 |
ISBN 1593072953 |
That Yellow BastardThat Yellow Bastard is a six-issue comic book limited series, and the sixth in the Sin City series. It was published by Dark Horse Comics in February–July 1996, It follows the usual black and white noir style artistry of previous Sin City novels, with the exception of yellow on Roark Junior...
|
Issues #1–6 of 6 |
ISBN 1593072961 |
| Family Values |
128-page original graphic novelA graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
|
ISBN 159307297X |
| Booze, Broads, & Bullets |
A number of one-shots |
ISBN 1593072988 |
| Hell and Back Hell and Back is a nine-issue comic book limited series, first published by Dark Horse Comics in July 1999–April 2000.-Plot:...
|
Issues #1–9 of 9 |
ISBN 1593072996 |
There is also a collection of art,
The Art of Sin City.
Chronology
While it was the first story written,
The Hard Goodbye was not the first story chronologically, with the first section of
That Yellow Bastard as the first. The Dwight-related stories fall in between these, with the short stories fleshing out the time between the main stories. Here is a rough chronology of the "Yarns":
- The first section of That Yellow Bastard, wherein Detective John Hartigan rescues Nancy Callahan from Roark Jr., resulting in Hartigan and Junior winding up in the hospital, occurs at least twelve years before the events of The Hard Goodbye. After being gunned down by his partner, Bob, Hartigan is framed as a child molester and charged with raping Nancy Callahan. He is placed into solitary confinement for eight years. Liebowitz beats Hartigan, trying to gain a confession. Mort is seen briefly in the hospital, where he tries to convince Hartigan to defend himself.
- Ava leaves Dwight and marries Damien Lord some time during this, referred to in A Dame To Kill For.
- Hartigan is put on parole, meeting up with Mort. finds the nineteen-year-old Nancy Callahan when he is out on parole. It is also on this night that Dwight goes home with Shellie, and sleeps with her (he is seen whining to Shellie when Hartigan enters ‘Kadie’s’). Marv witnesses the reunion of Nancy and Hartigan, as shown in the beginning of Just Another Saturday Night.
- The remaining events of That Yellow Bastard play out within the next few hours or so.
- About a year later, Dwight secretly saves Miho from Tong gangsters; revealing this saves him during A Dame to Kill For.
- Three years later, the twins, Goldie and Wendy, take over Old Town. A few weeks later, Ava Lord contacts Dwight and asks to meet him. Ava mentions that it has been about four years since they last saw each other and Dwight agrees. Manute interrupts their meeting. Fearing for her safety, Dwight goes to ‘Kadie’s’ and recruits the help of Marv. Shellie lectures Dwight at having not seen nor heard from him in six months.
- Marv and Dwight attack the home of Damien and Ava Lord. Marv fights Manute, and Manute loses his eye in the process. After Damien is killed, Dwight is taken to Old Town by Marv, badly wounded. Dwight begins to be rehabilitated at this point.
- Gail, Dwight, Miho and Shellie develop a plan to get revenge on Ava Lord. Gail and the others tell Shellie that Dwight is still alive, and brief her on what she should tell the cops. On this same night, Delia (A.K.A. Blue Eyes) is inducted into the service of Wallenquist, placing her in league with the Colonel. Marv is at the bar when Delia sweeps off with her prey, happily resuming his nocturnal drinking habits. Manute is also briefly seen interacting with the Colonel, sporting a neck-brace.
- One night, possibly the same one as Blue Eyes, Marv meets Goldie at Kadie's. The Hard Goodbye begins with Marv waking and finding Goldie dead.
- In the beginning of Marv’s rampage, he goes to “Kadie’s” to try and draw attention to himself. On the same night, Mort and Bob arrive at 'Kadie’s' (mere seconds after Marv’s arrival) and interview Shellie about Dwight's location following the murder of Damien Lord. She tells them all that briefed her on in Blue Eyes and sends them on their way.
- A few days into Marv’s rampage, Bob (Hartigan's former partner in That Yellow Bastard) is shot dead by his partner Mort, who takes his own life (A Dame to Kill For).
- Less than three months later, Ava and Wallenquist unite their criminal empires. Dwight McCarthy (with a new face), Miho, and Gail raid Ava Lord’s estate, with Manute being gravely injured by both Miho and Dwight. Dwight kills Ava.
- The Babe Wore Red occurs, and in the story, Dwight states that Marv is currently on death row, framed for the deaths of Goldie and several others from The Hard Goodbye.
- Fat Man and Little Boy occurs, if we assume the witness they failed to silence is Mary, and that the two are concurrent.
- Eighteen months after the beginning of The Hard Goodbye, Wendy visits Marv on death row. A day later, he is executed by electric chair, dying on the second attempt as those "pansies" (as he insults them) didn't have enough juice on the first go.
- Wrong Turn occurs and Delia kills the wrong target. Delia, the Colonel and Gordo dispose of the dead men. Wrong Turn features the first mention of Mariah, who makes her first appearance in Hell and Back.
- Wrong Track occurs shortly after Wrong Turn, as Delia tries to kill the real target (on his way back from a delivery).
- The Big Fat Kill occurs. On a hot summer night, shortly before a major thunderstorm, Miho slaughters Jackie Boy and his friends. Dwight, in an attempt to prevent a mob war, tries to dispose of Jackie Boy. The Old Town girl
The Girls of Old Town are a group of self-governing prostitutes in the fictional universe of Frank Miller's Sin City.During the days of the Gold Rush, when the town of Basin City had just been settled, the Roark family "imported" a large number of women from across the globe into the open and...
known as Becky betrays them to the mob (Wallenquist, represented through Manute) in an attempt to make money and get out of the prostitution game. Manute, embittered by the death of Ava Lord, captures Gail and encourages a trade: Jackie Boy’s head for Gail. Dwight and Miho arrange the trade, but the Old Town girls kill Becky and all of the other mob men. Manute is finally killed during a shoot-out. Wendy is also notably absent from this story, implying she was either still in hiding or otherwise preoccupied at the time, forcing Gail to take command of the girls.
- Family Values takes place in winter after The Big Fat Kill, indicated by Dwight making reference to Miho’s previous killing of a cop (“The Big Fat Kill”), as well as his acknowledgement of Fat Man and Little Boy, who he says he shot in the legs last time he saw them (The Babe Wore Red).
- Behind Door Number Three... occurs at some point after Marv's capture, most likely after he was visited in prison by Wendy on the night of his execution; this is suggested by the fact she is seen wearing either Marv's crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
neck-lace or one very similar, perhaps as a gift from him or as a way of honoring his sacrifice.
- Wrong Turn and Wrong Track occur immediately after each other, because Delia is still after the same target.
The short stories
Rats,
The Customer is Always Right,
Daddy's Little Girl, and
Silent Night are the hardest to place in the chronology, as some of them do not contain any of the series' regular characters, are not connected to the other stories, or do not give an idea of when the stories occur.
Silent Night takes place sometime before
The Hard Goodbye during the winter, as Marv is still quite alive and seen lumbering through one of Basin City's rare snow-storms. Robert Rodriguez stated that
The Customer is Always Right occurs in between "That Yellow Bastard" and "The Hard Goodbye" on the
Sin City: Recut and Extended DVD Edition.
Silent Night also portrays Marv shooting a woman, suggesting that the story takes place before his vow not to fight women mentioned in
A Dame to Kill For and
The Hard Goodbye.
Hell and Back does not fit into any particular time period. Manute is seen, alive with his false eye, suggesting that the events take place between
A Dame to Kill For and
The Big Fat Kill however, it is established that
Hell and Back takes place over several cool nights in September;
The Big Fat Kill took place on a hot summer night during a thunderstorm. Also, Dwight McCarthy is briefly shown driving the Cadillac he acquires in the winter following the conclusion of
Family Values, which suggests that
Hell and Back is the final major yarn in the Sin City Universe.
Awards
Sin City: The Big Fat Kill won the
Comics Buyer's GuideComics Buyer's Guide , established in 1971, is the longest-running English-language periodical reporting on the American comic book industry...
Fan Award for Favorite Limited Series for 1996.
Sin City: Family Values won the 1997
EisnerThe Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
Awards.
- 1993:
- The Hard Goodbye
"The Hard Goodbye" is the first Sin City story. It was serialised, as "Sin City," in the comics anthology Dark Horse Presents by Dark Horse Comics and named "The Hard Goodbye" in the trade paperbacks...
won the "Best Graphic Album: Reprint (Modern Material)" Eisner AwardThe Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, and sometimes referred to as the Oscar Awards of the Comics Industry, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books. The Eisner Awards were first conferred in 1988, created in response to the...
- Frank Miller won the "Best Penciller/Inker, Black & White Publication" Eisner Award, for The Hard Goodbye
- Frank Miller won the "Best Writer/Artist" Eisner Award, for The Hard Goodbye
- 1995:
- A Dame to Kill For
A Dame to Kill For is a comic book limited series first published by Dark Horse Comics in 1993. It is the second story in Frank Miller's Sin City series, and the first to be published in miniseries format. It was written and drawn entirely by Frank Miller...
won "Best Limited Series" Eisner Award
- "The Babe Wore Red," won "Best Short Story" Eisner Award
- 1996:
- The Big Fat Kill
The Big Fat Kill is a five-issue comic book limited series published by Dark Horse Comics in November 1994–March 1995.-Plot:The story opens in Shellie's apartment, where a drunken former fling is furiously rapping on her door, demanding to be let in. Shellie is obviously scared, but is...
won the "Best Limited Series" Eisner Award
- Sin City won the "Best Continuing or Limited Series" Harvey Award
The Harvey Awards, named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman and founded by Gary Groth, President of the publisher Fantagraphics, are given for achievement in comic books. The Harveys were created as part of a successor to the Kirby Awards which were discontinued after 1987.The Harvey Awards are...
- 1998:
- That Yellow Bastard
That Yellow Bastard is a six-issue comic book limited series, and the sixth in the Sin City series. It was published by Dark Horse Comics in February–July 1996, It follows the usual black and white noir style artistry of previous Sin City novels, with the exception of yellow on Roark Junior...
won the "Best Graphic Album-Reprint" Eisner Award
- Family Values won the "Best Graphic Album of Original Work" Harvey Award
- 2008:
- Sin City won the "Best Black & White Title" Project Fanboy Award
Style
Sin City is famous for its artwork, which draws heavily from
film noirFilm noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
, including its use of shadow and stark backgrounds. Black and white are the sole colors most of the time with exception of red, yellow, blue, and pink in some stories. Partial color usage is designed to draw attention to a certain character in the story.
The writing style also draws heavily on detective and crime
pulp fictionPulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
. Strange metaphors and similes are often used. This gives the narration a very "pulpy" feel.
External links
- Sin City at Dark Horse Comics
- Frank Miller`s Sin City & 300 & Spirit - Database articles, images and other files about Frank Millers and his comics.
- Sin City Introduction - Fan site containing detailed information about characters and locations
- Sin City Timeline, from the personal website of a Hero System
The Hero System is a generic role-playing game system that developed from the superhero RPG Champions. It is used as the underlying mechanics of other Hero Games role-playing games such as Dark Champions, Fantasy Hero, Star Hero, and Pulp Hero...
game player
- Sin City, from an ad-supported website "devoted to the sophisticated study of comic books"
- Frank Miller: The Complete Works, The most comprehensive listing of all of Frank Miller's works. Includes very detailed information on each book as well as a discussion forum.
- IFILM explore Rats: A Sin City Yarn, The Short Story out of Lost, Lonely, & Lethal.
- SuperheroHype! Sin City Messageboard, Forums dedicated to both the comics and film.
- Sin City Effect Tutorial Achieve the "Sin City Look" in your videos with Sony Vegas (Video Tutorial).