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Feb 06, 2012

Stephen rated it:

RESOLVED: The Sin City movie was superior to the graphic novel*.

*Note: This debate covers only the first 45 Minutes of the Sin City movie which encompassed the adaptation of this graphic novel.

BASIC ASSUMPTIONS NOT IN DISPUTE:

Assumption 1: Sin City: the Hard Goodbye was a ground-breaking graphic novel and worthy of its critical and commercial success.

Assumption 2: Sin City: the Hard Goodbye should be read by fans of the graphic novel More...

34 comments like (61 people liked it)

May 17, 2008

Hannah rated it:

If only boobs really looked like Frank Miller thinks they do . . . I would love boobs SO MUCH.

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Apr 12, 2008

Trebro rated it:

About ten pages into this, I commented to Erica that "I forgot Frank Miller used to know how to draw." That's my first and most lasting impression of this trade, the fact that before he lost his anatomy books and gave way to caricatures-as-commentary, Miller was a damned good writer and artist of comic books that were dark without being oppressive.

Sin City is a really bad place, filled with really bad characters that do really bad things. And yet, none of it--save perhaps t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 11, 2010

Lindsay rated it:

"Sin City" is over-the-top, but not in a good way. I like the art style, but that was about it.
Now, I know that the town is called "Sin City" for a reason, but come on, no place is that crummy. The villain is a pedophile whose father is a public official, which makes him automatically immune to any sort of law enforcement or punishment. Look, if it's one thing the world unanimously hates, it's pedophiles. It doesn't matter whose son you are, if you molest a little More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 17, 2010

Chase rated it:

First and foremost, a thank you to Douger for letting me read Watchmen and wetting (oh behave!) my appetite for the graphic novel genre.

Second, thank you Mickey Rourke. You my friend made Marv come alive.

Third, you've been replaced Jessica. We had a good run and I don't want this to break up to be ugly. I carried you around for two years in the Philipinnes and you warmed my heart on those cold rainy nights. This is awkward, I know. I mean, you're not bad, you wer More...

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Jun 10, 2010

Max rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Oct 15, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

Eh. I really wanted to like this one, since it's Frank Miller and Sin City and all, but I didn't, really. I will admit that I found the art stunning. The black and white was gorgeous, and the fact that the movie version followed the visuals of the graphic novel so closely is probably why I found the movie intriguing. I do also like the idea Sin City, of a place that merely exists and prospers due to it's prostitution trade, which has interesting effects, such as the paradox of a town with a More...

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Apr 17, 2009

Gaelan rated it:

I'm coming at this as an avid fan of the movie. As the movie apperas hyper-faithful, I have no complaints and feel justified in my appreciation for the series in two mediums. If you like/hate one, you'll like/hate the other.

As to my interest in Feminist criticisms of Frank Miller ... yeah, it's pretty machismo. It's no more offensive thus far than most film noirs, barring one rape/violent-sex metaphor which was uncomfortable. Even then, this is an ugly city with Marv being the good g More...

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Oct 26, 2009

Abraham rated it:

I thought the Sin City movie was great, when I watched it on DVD in 2007... Since then, the wait for Sin City 2 has been a bit of a pain. (OK, I don't agonise about it every second, but it would be nice to see.) I've flirted with reading the graphic novels on several occasions, until I finally got a hold of the first in the series. I'm going to take a leap here and call it the best.

As has been said, the story in this graphic novel was one of three plotlines in the movie. As has not More...

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Sep 05, 2011

Ron rated it:

First of all, SIN CITY: THE HARD GOODBYE should have two scores. I loved the text, which maybe could have scored five stars, but hated Miller's murky artwork, in which the action was not always clear. Four stars is my average score.

THE HARD GOODBYE is a classic noir tragedy. Marv, the giant, disfigured man of simple mind and clarity of vision (when it comes to retribution), pledges to find the killer(s) of Goldie, a prostitute who was nice to him. A simple, straightforward text tha More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 01, 2012

Alicia rated it:

I have finally taken the time to start reading _Sin City_! This volume follows Marv as he struggles to uncover the mystery of his lover Goldie's death, a murder that he is framed for. Though Goldie had not met Marv until the night of her murder, Marv still takes it upon himself to find her killer. He sees it as finally finding his own purpose in life and he doesn't care about the consequences. By searching for the people who set him up, Marv gets dragged further into the secrets of Sin City and More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 07, 2011

Benjamin rated it:

Quickest reading I think I've ever done of a book. Less than 2 days. I feel bad for having seen the film first, which is pretty much exactly the same as this graphic novel but with less nudity. The Hard Goodbye is as pulpy as it gets, at some points a little melodramatic. Frank Miller's drawing is amazing, each frame feels like it could be one of those cool little lino cut they use for printing presses. I especially loved the sections set in the rain...those illustrations were breathtaking.
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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 04, 2011

Amber rated it:

I've heard a lot of things about Frank Miller's Sin City. It's a dark, gritty graphic novel that doesn't pull any punches. It had been on me To Read list for awhile, but passively rather than aggressively. So when I saw the first volume in the library, I knew the time was right for me to read it. I wasn't 100% sure what to expect, but it wasn't what I got.

What I got blew me away. The artwork is purely black and white, but very intricately drawn. The contrasts that Miller shows be More...

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Jan 19, 2011

Peter rated it:

Troubling, brilliant. Very vindictive, brutally harsh. I agree with others that Miller may be a closet (an open?) fascist. His view of violence as a means to redemption, as the only adequate language of human experience is both engrossing and disturbing at the same time. Primal.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 21, 2009

Teresa rated it:

I don't know what it is about this story, but it's my favorite so far. The author managed to make me feel so bad for Marv, it might be because of the simplistic way he refers to his mental disorder ex. "i get confused" or the fact that he really isn't a bad guy just a little off. Who knows, maybe it's because i'm a romantic and the idea of a guy tracking down his girls murderer and killing anyone involved is...kinda romantic to me. Don't let that scare you away though, the book is a b More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 29, 2010

Kate rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Sep 13, 2010

abatage rated it:

Sin City is awesome - there's not much else to it. I really dig the over-the-top/gratuitous nature of the thick trench-coat-noir style, campy dialogue and all. The artwork makes it and there are some panels that I'd put on my wall. Often I caught myself gazing at a panel, just to find the intricate details that aren't always there at a first glance. It's a thrill to see someone do so much with the simple standard of black and white (no grey) juxtaposition of space. It's the twist and turn of how More...

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Oct 28, 2010

Bryce rated it:

This is an amalgam of contradictory themes, but they meld so well together. Lust, love, violence, self-hatred, redemption...all in one chapbook of a graphic novel (it's roughly 200 pages...you'll chop through it in an hour, no more). The overwhelming violence and abundance of beautifully-rendered naked women borders on hilarity at times, and yet the story is pretty compact and takes a muted but still constantly serious tone. If you're like me, you saw the movie "Sin City" first, and More...

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Oct 08, 2010

Ken-ichi rated it:

This was another one of those formative, mind-blowing comics I read as a kid. I distinctly remember the guy at Sarge's Comics in Guilford, CT eyeing me suspiciously and then warning me it was pretty adult stuff for 14-year-old (or whatever I was at the time). And yeah, there's all sorts of sex and blood and guts (often in the same scenes!), which is fun in a lurid way, but as with the rest of Miller's work, what's really amazing is the artwork, and this first volume of Sin City represents Mill More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 11, 2010

Angel rated it:

This was one that once I started it, I could not put it down until the very end. The art on this is definitely gritty and well suited to the noir story of revenge that Miller presents. I can certainly see why this work was such a breakthrough in its time. It is fast paced, and it grabs you from the start. If you like hard-boiled works like Hammett, Spillane, so on, you should read this even if you are not a fan of graphic novels. This is one that will stay with me for a while. And, after seeing More...

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Oct 26, 2010

Tom rated it:

In commemoration of the US invading Grenada 27 years before, I read this.

The black and white art, in a chiaroscuro style, can be really amazing. The plot can be a bit silly. This is sort of noir on steroids, or noir through the mind of an adolescent boy. This certainly isn't high brow, and sometimes the writer can go a bit overboard with the violence and gratuitous nudity, but that's part and parcel of the genre, for better or worse.

A fun read though, worth the hour it'l More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 03, 2007

Wealhtheow rated it:

http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20060207.ht...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2011

Skipper rated it:

Huh. I liked the movie, and I dig noir, so I expected to really like the book, but nope. The story didn't grab, and neither did the characters. There was a tiny gurgle of affection that would bubble up for Marv once in a while, but other than that it left me high and dry. No stranger to shocking violence in comic form (I adore Transmetropolitan and Preacher, among others), I'm not sure why I didn't connect with this, but having tried Frank Miller once before with Daredevil, I have to conclude th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Travis rated it:

Back when this came out, not a lot of comic writers were doing noir and gritty realism had not choked the industry, so it was cool and different.

Now, it tends to get lost in the flood and in the fact that this is the only work Miller seems capable of doing anymore.

Knee breaker and possible psychotic, Marv falls in love with a girl named Goldie. When she is murdered and he's framed for the crime, Marv decides to play PI and catch the real killer.

Unfortunately, Marv i More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 24, 2011

Tabitha rated it:

The SinCity series helped introduce me to the idea of a graphic novel as something that could convey an interesting and multi-layered story.
Marv is my favorite character by far, so 'Hard Goodbye' automatically holds a special place with me. He's a guy that just wants to do right, through all his ordeals. Sadly his view of right and the rest of the world don't always match up so well. The graphic novel takes you through hand in hand with Marv, guiding you until you understand his personal co More...

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Aug 22, 2008

Caroline rated it:

Viewers of the Sin City movie will recognize almost every bit of this graphic novel (myself included, of course). I'd been meaning to pick this up for a while because I absolutely loved the movie for it's wonderful noir and style, and I definitely wasn't disappointed in reading the graphic novel.

Frank Miller's art is fascinating. He does everything in pure blacks and whites, none of the normal grey shading or color that most comic book artists use. It works great for the story
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Jul 24, 2008

Monk rated it:

Everyone needs a good pulp novel every once in a while. This book is a great scratch for that itch. Sin City is a dark and harrowing trip through Basin City - a metropolis replete with pimps, corrupt cops, murderers, psychos, sociopaths, liars, killers, thieves, deception, and even a few actual heroes (though most of them are pretty rough around the edges if not a little nuts).

This chapter covers the life of Big Marv. Marv is about the worst kind of roughneck you could imagine. Cover More...

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Jul 30, 2007

Joe rated it:

Apparently after seeing his writing get twisted and abused on the unfortunate Robocop films, Frank Miller swore off Hollywood and decided to devote himself back to what he did best - his comics. It was in this angry fugue that Miller created two works so bloody and violent he felt safe knowing they would never be adapted to film. These works were Sin City and 300.

In this first volume of Sin City, readers are introduced to Marv, the brutal, dull-minded antihero who continues to appe More...

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Jul 09, 2007

Alien rated it:

Okay, I had to read this since everyone seemed to be raving about/have it at the top of their list of graphic novels to read. However, I had mixed feelings about it myself. First of all, I have to say...I am not a huge huge crime novel fan. That genre is not something I run to...though Walter Moseley is damn good. This PTSD suffering ex-soldier criminal is extremely disturbing, as is his world. The art and story all work together to create that awful feeling in the reader, not unlike the co More...

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Feb 27, 2010

Ben rated it:

One of my all time favorite graphic novels. Marv, as unpleasant and psychopathic as he is, always brings a smile to my face. That probably doesn't say anything good about me.

Frank Miller is at the top of his game, both in terms of story-telling and artwork. The black and white images are crisp and descriptive, fitting in perfectly with the dark world he created. The story, which is just a reworking of the classic revenge story, is simple and uncomplicated, yet engrossing and fast-p

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