That Yellow Bastard
Encyclopedia
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 late in the story.
It is one of the comics adapted into the Sin City film
.
on his final mission before his forced retirement (he suffers from severe angina
). Roark Junior, son of one of the most powerful and corrupt
officials in Basin City, is indulging his penchant for raping
and murdering pre-pubescent
girls. It is Hartigan's mission to rescue Junior's latest quarry, an 11-year-old named Nancy Callahan
.
Hartigan succeeds in rescuing Nancy by disabling Junior's getaway car, which was being guarded by Burt Schlubb and Douglas Klump, two guns-for-hire with "delusions of eloquence". Hartigan knocks them out and kills the twin guards Benny and Lenny. He chases the escaping Junior to the pier and then proceeds to use his revolver to surgically shoot off Junior's left ear, right hand, and genitals. Before he can finish Junior off, Hartigan's corrupt partner Bob, who fears angering Senator Roark, shoots Hartigan several times. Hartigan then stalls Bob for as long as he can to save Nancy when backup arrives, going so far as to pull a spare gun and have Bob unload his gun on him. Bob leaves the fallen Hartigan, who passes out with Nancy in his arms.
Roark Jr. lapses into a coma
from his injuries, and Senator Roark takes issue with the abuse of his son. Hartigan survives and recovers thanks to the senator, who wants Hartigan to suffer for the rest of his life. He is framed for raping
Nancy, branded as a pedophile
and sentenced to a lengthy prison term amid a public outcry that brands him one of Sin City's most hated citizens. He remains silent about his pain, knowing that Senator Roark would execute anyone who ever found out the truth. The only one to whom Hartigan speaks in the hospital is Nancy, who sneaks out against her parents' wishes to see the man who saved her. Hartigan tells her to stay away from him, so Nancy tells Hartigan she will write him letters instead. She will sign her name as "Cordelia" to hide her identity. Before leaving, Nancy tells Hartigan she loves him.
After his stint in the hospital, Hartigan is seen tied to a chair, cuffed and being beaten by Det. Liebowitz in order to force him to sign a false confession. Amid the hours of repeated punching and being tempted by prison luxuries and even sex with an Old Town prostitute, Hartigan doesn't crack under the pressure, although he hallucinates that he is granted the strength of Hercules
, breaks from his cuffs and kills Liebowitz by exploding his head.
Afterwards, alone in prison and abandoned by his wife Eileen (who remarries and finally has children) and his friends, he finds solace in the carefully disguised weekly letters he receives from Nancy. Hartigan quickly develops a paternal love for young Nancy, and sees her as the daughter he never had. For eight years, he drags himself through his jail time, his only respite the letters his young admirer sends him, until finally the letters stop coming. Although he initially believes Nancy has merely outgrown her childhood hero, Hartigan soon becomes increasingly worried that Senator Roark has finally found her. His fears are confirmed when a deformed, hairless visitor with sickly yellow skin who smells distinctly like garbage arrives at his prison cell and punches him out. Hartigan awakens and discovers the same type of envelope Nancy always uses containing an index finger from the right hand of a 19-year-old girl.
Believing Nancy to be in imminent danger, Hartigan decides to find some way out, and contacts his lawyer, Lucille (the lesbian
parole officer from The Hard Goodbye). Much to her surprise and disgust, Hartigan decides to claim responsibility to the crimes of which he was accused. At his parole hearing, he is humiliated again when Senator Roark piously offers to forgive him. Hartigan knows it's a ruse to insult him, but asks Senator Roark for forgiveness in order to win parole. Hartigan is finally released, apparently due to Senator Roark's satisfaction over his confession and submission.
Back on the streets, the now 60-year-old Hartigan sets off to find Nancy. He goes to her apartment, but finds it empty and in disarray. The only clue to her whereabouts is a pack of matches from Kadie's bar. Following the lead, Hartigan discovers that she is now a woman who works in the club as an exotic dancer - and is unharmed. The envelope containing the finger was merely a ploy to lead Roark to Nancy. Hartigan smells a set-up, and something far worse: the distinct odor of rotting garbage. "That Yellow Bastard", the man who arrived at the cell with the envelope, has followed him and found Nancy.
Nancy recognizes Hartigan and jumps into his arms, kissing him. They leave Kadie's and get into her car. There is a high-speed pursuit, with the "Bastard" close on their tail, Hartigan uses Nancy's revolver to fire a precise shot that hits the "Bastard" in the neck. Hartigan insists on stopping to confirm the kill; accompanied by Nancy, he discovers the "Bastard's" foul-smelling blood everywhere, but no body. Eventually, he and Nancy hide out in a motel. There, they share a kiss, where Nancy reveals she is in love with him; but Hartigan refuses to move any further because of his age and the paternalistic nature of his relationship to Nancy. Unknown to them, the "Bastard" has hidden in the backseat of Nancy's car, and emerges while they talk.
Hartigan, in the shower, is ambushed once again by "That Yellow Bastard", who reveals himself to be none other than Roark Junior. Senator Roark used his vast financial resources to resurrect his son using new medical techniques to re-grow his severed body parts. As a result, Junior lives, but with some "side-effects". Junior knocks Hartigan down, lynches him naked with a noose, and boasts of raping and killing dozens of girls over the past eight years. He then taunts Hartigan with the promise that Nancy will suffer the same fate. Roark Jr. kicks the desk out from under Hartigan and escapes with Nancy.
At first, Hartigan resigns himself to death but, in a sudden bout of determination, he revives himself through sheer will, breaks a window and cuts his hands free with a glass shard. Schlubb and Klump arrive to dispose of Hartigan's body, but Hartigan subdues them and forces them to reveal Junior and Nancy's whereabouts. He learns that Junior has fled to the Roark Family Farm (described as "a place where bad things happen").
Racing to the Farm, Hartigan suffers a severe angina attack, but soldiers through the pain. Meanwhile, Nancy is being flogged by Junior but, like Hartigan, resists the urge to scream in order to deny her torturer the satisfaction; she then realizes that Junior is impotent unless he hears his victims scream. Hartigan takes down a four other corrupt police officers guarding the Farm and confronts Junior, who by that time has Nancy at knife point. Hartigan fakes a heart attack to catch Junior off guard. He stabs Junior, castrates
him (this time with his bare hands), and beats him to death. Nancy and Hartigan share another, more passionate, kiss, and Hartigan tells Nancy to flee, assuring to her that he will call up some old police friends of his to clean up the scene of the crime.
After Nancy leaves, Hartigan narrates that he had to lie to her in order to protect her; Senator Roark will want to punish Hartigan for killing his son, and would not hesitate to use Nancy in order to do so. Knowing full well that no sane attorney would try to prosecute Senator Roark, Hartigan realizes that there is only one way to end the entire ordeal. In an act of pure love and sacrifice, Hartigan shoots himself in the head to save Nancy and end Roark's vendetta.
in July 1997 (ISBN 1-56971-225-5) which was republished in 2005 (ISBN 1593072961). In 1997 Titan Books
released a hardcover edition (ISBN 1569711925). Noticeably, it is the first Sin City trade paperback to include color in the story.
stars as Hartigan, Jessica Alba
as Nancy, Nick Stahl
as the Yellow Bastard/Junior, Powers Boothe
as Senator Roark and Michael Madsen
as Hartigan's partner, Bob. There are only a few notable differences in the film version: Mort is replaced by Bob when Hartigan is released from prison, and an appearance by Carla Gugino
as Lucille is omitted (but reinstated in the extended version released to DVD).
In the DVD commentary, Frank Miller indicated that he was initially motivated to write That Yellow Bastard after his disappointment with The Dead Pool
, the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry
series. Nancy — who prior to this story had no last name — was named "Callahan", a name shared with Clint Eastwood
's character, Harry Callahan.
Comic book
A 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...
limited series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
, and the sixth in the Sin City
Sin City
Sin City is the title for a series of neo-noir comics by Frank Miller. The first story originally appeared in "Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special" , and continued in Dark Horse Presents #51–62 from May 1991 to June 1992, under the title of Sin City, serialized in thirteen parts. Several...
series. It was published by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
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 late in the story.
It is one of the comics adapted into the Sin City film
Sin City (film)
Sin 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...
.
Plot
The story begins more than eight years before any other Sin City book takes place, with policeman John HartiganJohn 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...
on his final mission before his forced retirement (he suffers from severe angina
Angina
Angina pectoris, commonly known as angina, is chest pain due to ischemia of the heart muscle, generally due to obstruction or spasm of the coronary arteries . Coronary artery disease, the main cause of angina, is due to atherosclerosis of the cardiac arteries...
). Roark Junior, son of one of the most powerful and corrupt
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
officials in Basin City, is indulging his penchant for raping
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
and murdering pre-pubescent
Puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...
girls. It is Hartigan's mission to rescue Junior's latest quarry, an 11-year-old named Nancy Callahan
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....
.
Hartigan succeeds in rescuing Nancy by disabling Junior's getaway car, which was being guarded by Burt Schlubb and Douglas Klump, two guns-for-hire with "delusions of eloquence". Hartigan knocks them out and kills the twin guards Benny and Lenny. He chases the escaping Junior to the pier and then proceeds to use his revolver to surgically shoot off Junior's left ear, right hand, and genitals. Before he can finish Junior off, Hartigan's corrupt partner Bob, who fears angering Senator Roark, shoots Hartigan several times. Hartigan then stalls Bob for as long as he can to save Nancy when backup arrives, going so far as to pull a spare gun and have Bob unload his gun on him. Bob leaves the fallen Hartigan, who passes out with Nancy in his arms.
Roark Jr. lapses into a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
from his injuries, and Senator Roark takes issue with the abuse of his son. Hartigan survives and recovers thanks to the senator, who wants Hartigan to suffer for the rest of his life. He is framed for raping
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
Nancy, branded as a pedophile
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
and sentenced to a lengthy prison term amid a public outcry that brands him one of Sin City's most hated citizens. He remains silent about his pain, knowing that Senator Roark would execute anyone who ever found out the truth. The only one to whom Hartigan speaks in the hospital is Nancy, who sneaks out against her parents' wishes to see the man who saved her. Hartigan tells her to stay away from him, so Nancy tells Hartigan she will write him letters instead. She will sign her name as "Cordelia" to hide her identity. Before leaving, Nancy tells Hartigan she loves him.
After his stint in the hospital, Hartigan is seen tied to a chair, cuffed and being beaten by Det. Liebowitz in order to force him to sign a false confession. Amid the hours of repeated punching and being tempted by prison luxuries and even sex with an Old Town prostitute, Hartigan doesn't crack under the pressure, although he hallucinates that he is granted the strength of Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
, breaks from his cuffs and kills Liebowitz by exploding his head.
Afterwards, alone in prison and abandoned by his wife Eileen (who remarries and finally has children) and his friends, he finds solace in the carefully disguised weekly letters he receives from Nancy. Hartigan quickly develops a paternal love for young Nancy, and sees her as the daughter he never had. For eight years, he drags himself through his jail time, his only respite the letters his young admirer sends him, until finally the letters stop coming. Although he initially believes Nancy has merely outgrown her childhood hero, Hartigan soon becomes increasingly worried that Senator Roark has finally found her. His fears are confirmed when a deformed, hairless visitor with sickly yellow skin who smells distinctly like garbage arrives at his prison cell and punches him out. Hartigan awakens and discovers the same type of envelope Nancy always uses containing an index finger from the right hand of a 19-year-old girl.
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
parole officer from The Hard Goodbye). Much to her surprise and disgust, Hartigan decides to claim responsibility to the crimes of which he was accused. At his parole hearing, he is humiliated again when Senator Roark piously offers to forgive him. Hartigan knows it's a ruse to insult him, but asks Senator Roark for forgiveness in order to win parole. Hartigan is finally released, apparently due to Senator Roark's satisfaction over his confession and submission.
Back on the streets, the now 60-year-old Hartigan sets off to find Nancy. He goes to her apartment, but finds it empty and in disarray. The only clue to her whereabouts is a pack of matches from Kadie's bar. Following the lead, Hartigan discovers that she is now a woman who works in the club as an exotic dancer - and is unharmed. The envelope containing the finger was merely a ploy to lead Roark to Nancy. Hartigan smells a set-up, and something far worse: the distinct odor of rotting garbage. "That Yellow Bastard", the man who arrived at the cell with the envelope, has followed him and found Nancy.
Nancy recognizes Hartigan and jumps into his arms, kissing him. They leave Kadie's and get into her car. There is a high-speed pursuit, with the "Bastard" close on their tail, Hartigan uses Nancy's revolver to fire a precise shot that hits the "Bastard" in the neck. Hartigan insists on stopping to confirm the kill; accompanied by Nancy, he discovers the "Bastard's" foul-smelling blood everywhere, but no body. Eventually, he and Nancy hide out in a motel. There, they share a kiss, where Nancy reveals she is in love with him; but Hartigan refuses to move any further because of his age and the paternalistic nature of his relationship to Nancy. Unknown to them, the "Bastard" has hidden in the backseat of Nancy's car, and emerges while they talk.
Hartigan, in the shower, is ambushed once again by "That Yellow Bastard", who reveals himself to be none other than Roark Junior. Senator Roark used his vast financial resources to resurrect his son using new medical techniques to re-grow his severed body parts. As a result, Junior lives, but with some "side-effects". Junior knocks Hartigan down, lynches him naked with a noose, and boasts of raping and killing dozens of girls over the past eight years. He then taunts Hartigan with the promise that Nancy will suffer the same fate. Roark Jr. kicks the desk out from under Hartigan and escapes with Nancy.
Racing to the Farm, Hartigan suffers a severe angina attack, but soldiers through the pain. Meanwhile, Nancy is being flogged by Junior but, like Hartigan, resists the urge to scream in order to deny her torturer the satisfaction; she then realizes that Junior is impotent unless he hears his victims scream. Hartigan takes down a four other corrupt police officers guarding the Farm and confronts Junior, who by that time has Nancy at knife point. Hartigan fakes a heart attack to catch Junior off guard. He stabs Junior, castrates
Castration
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.-Humans:...
him (this time with his bare hands), and beats him to death. Nancy and Hartigan share another, more passionate, kiss, and Hartigan tells Nancy to flee, assuring to her that he will call up some old police friends of his to clean up the scene of the crime.
After Nancy leaves, Hartigan narrates that he had to lie to her in order to protect her; Senator Roark will want to punish Hartigan for killing his son, and would not hesitate to use Nancy in order to do so. Knowing full well that no sane attorney would try to prosecute Senator Roark, Hartigan realizes that there is only one way to end the entire ordeal. In an act of pure love and sacrifice, Hartigan shoots himself in the head to save Nancy and end Roark's vendetta.
Collected editions
It was first collected as a trade paperbackTrade paperback (comics)
In 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...
in July 1997 (ISBN 1-56971-225-5) which was republished in 2005 (ISBN 1593072961). In 1997 Titan Books
Titan Books
Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
released a hardcover edition (ISBN 1569711925). Noticeably, it is the first Sin City trade paperback to include color in the story.
Film adaptation
In Rodriguez's adaptation, Bruce WillisBruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
stars as Hartigan, Jessica Alba
Jessica Alba
Jessica Marie Alba is an American television and film actress. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack . Alba rose to prominence as the lead actress in the television series Dark Angel...
as Nancy, Nick Stahl
Nick Stahl
Nicolas Kent "Nick" Stahl is an American actor. Starting out as a child actor, he gained recognition for his performance in the 1993 film The Man Without a Face and then embarked on a successful career as a child actor...
as the Yellow Bastard/Junior, Powers Boothe
Powers Boothe
Powers Allen Boothe is an American television and film actor. Some of his most notable roles include his Emmy-winning 1980 portrayal of Jim Jones and his turn as Cy Tolliver on Deadwood, as well as Vice-President Noah Daniels on 24....
as Senator Roark and Michael Madsen
Michael Madsen
Michael Søren Madsen is an American actor, poet, and photographer. He has appeared in more than 150 films, most of them small independent films, though he has starred in central roles in such films as Reservoir Dogs, Free Willy, Donnie Brasco, and Kill Bill, in addition to a supporting role in Sin...
as Hartigan's partner, Bob. There are only a few notable differences in the film version: Mort is replaced by Bob when Hartigan is released from prison, and an appearance by Carla Gugino
Carla Gugino
Carla Gugino is an American actress known for her roles of Sally Jupiter in Watchmen, Dr. Vera Gorski in Sucker Punch, Lucille in Sin City, Amanda Daniels in seasons 3, 5 and 7 of Entourage, Ingrid Cortez in the Spy Kids film trilogy, and as the lead characters of the television series Karen Sisco...
as Lucille is omitted (but reinstated in the extended version released to DVD).
In the DVD commentary, Frank Miller indicated that he was initially motivated to write That Yellow Bastard after his disappointment with The Dead Pool
The Dead Pool
The Dead Pool is a 1988 American action thriller film about the manipulation of a "dead pool" game by a serial killer, whose efforts are foiled by a hardened detective. It is the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry series, set in San Francisco, California and starring Clint Eastwood as...
, the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry (film series)
Dirty Harry is the name of a series of films and novels starring fictional San Francisco Police Department Homicide Division Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan, portrayed by Clint Eastwood...
series. Nancy — who prior to this story had no last name — was named "Callahan", a name shared with Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
's character, Harry Callahan.