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Sin City, Vol. 1: The Hard Goodbye

(Sin City #1)

Frank Miller

4.15 · Rating details · 51,448 ratings · 975 reviews

Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

The first volume of the crime-comic megahit that introduced the now-infamous character Marv and spawned a blockbuster film returns in a newly redesigned edition, with a brand-new cover by Frank Miller - some of his first comics art in years! It's a lousy room in a lousy part of a lousy town. But Marv doesn't care. There's an ...more

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Paperback, Third Edition, 208 pages

Published October 20th 2010 by Dark Horse (first published 1991)

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Start your review of Sin City, Vol. 1: The Hard Goodbye (Sin City, #1)

Jul 19, 2010 Stephen rated it liked it

Shelves: 2000-2005, comics-graphic-novels

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 format and those interested in a grittier, edgier read.

...more

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Mar 07, 2017 Matthew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: action-thriller, graphic-novel, hoopla, revenge, series, 2017

I am so glad that I am finally reading this. I saw the movie years ago and loved it! This first volume was fantastic and almost every frame of it is included in the movie as is! I love it when they don't mess with the story.

The black and white art is great. It had to be more difficult to do a simple face using only the negative space through the rain or in the shadows than a complex picture with all of the colors you want.

If I could give it more than 5 stars I would! It is creative, raw, dark, ...more

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May 17, 2008 Hannah Garden rated it it was amazing

Ok I am tired of people liking this dumb review so I'm erasing it.

Jesus.

And while we're here, fuck Trump.

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Aug 06, 2015 Ivan rated it did not like it

Shelves: graphic-novels

DNF.Again.

This is my second attempt to get into Sin city but I simply can't.Problem isn't the writing, I think that Miller is great writer(two of my favorite Batman comics are his work) and there is good story in here too.Problem are illustrations, I loathed them from the start and I couldn't enjoy the story properly.

I couldn't enjoy it but I don't think this is bad graphic novel, as I said above there is good story in there and if illustrations don't bother you than I would actually recommend ...more

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Nov 04, 2018 Tina Haigler rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novel

I don't normally enjoy murder sprees that don't have a deeper reason but this was an exception. Honestly I love Marv. He is a badass but he's not a generic badass. He is vulnerable mentally but he's hard as hell to kill. The other characters were just kind of there. The villains were overly strange and had no depth. The art was really good but I have to admit there was a panel or two that looked like Rorschach tests to me. The story was good as well but it wasn't quite fleshed out enough. More ...more

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Mar 24, 2014 Lono rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Miller’s “The Hard Goodbye” is a noir masterpiece that would’ve given the great Jim Thompson a legendary hard-on. This was so obviously a labor of love for Frank. He was really at the peak of his career when he put pen to paper with this one. The descriptions and dialogue were hard-edged and to straight to the razor-sharp point, just like good noir should be. And because of it, this book might not be for the easily offended. Frank doesn’t pussy around with what he wants to say and words like “ ...more

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Jun 08, 2015 Algernon (Darth Anyan) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015, comics

There's no settling down. It's going to be blood for blood and by the gallons. It's the old days. The bad days. The all-or-nothing days. They're back. There's no choice left and I'm ready for war.

Marv is taking medications to keep his anger and his killing impulses under control, but his efforts to become a better person are sabotaged when he wakes up from a drunken stupor to find Goldie, his gorgeous one-night-stand, dead beside him. He is not anybody's idea of a knight in shiny armor - a
There's no settling down. It's going to be blood for blood and by the gallons. It's the old days. The bad days. The all-or-nothing days. They're back. There's no choice left and I'm ready for war.

Marv is taking medications to keep his anger and his killing impulses under control, but his efforts to become a better person are sabotaged when he wakes up from a drunken stupor to find Goldie, his gorgeous one-night-stand, dead beside him. He is not anybody's idea of a knight in shiny armor - a hulking brute, ugly as sin and with a temper to match. But he has his own code of honor, and nobody is messing with his women. A bloody chase starts seconds after Marv wakes up, and continues relentlessly for the rest of this first Sin City episode.

Marv

I have grown weary of excessive violence in novels, comics and movies, especially the Quentin Tarantino brand of smug infatuation with killers, yet there is a gut wrenching rawness of despair and rage in the story offered by Frank Miller that puts it in a class of its own. Marv is not a suave psychopat with sarcastic wit, dancing along to the tune of cool retro tracks. He is a desperate man pushed over the edge by a world gone mad in its thirst for power. He is a creature of the night, a walking nightmare that laughs at goons threatening him with firearms while he tears their limbs off with his bare hands. Yes, the level of explicit violence and gore and cussing is over the top, but in the context of the story penned by Frank Miller, it doesn't feel out of place. His Basin City gathers in one fictional location all the criminal underlife of the American noir canon: serial killers, vilent thugs, drug lords, snitches, corrupt police officers, venal politicians, debauched clergymen, rundown neighborhoods where even the SWAT teams fear to enter, sleazy strip bars where the gangs meet to settle their affairs, derelict tenements where poverty rules supreme. Marv is one of the top predators of this dark world, his murderous obsession in chasing a mystery killer the product and the mirror of the larger sickness that envelops a town governed by Sin.

The air cools. The sounds change. The suits and the briefcases scurry to their fortresses and bolt their doors and balance their checkbooks and ignore the screams and try not to think about who really owns Sin City,

Sin

The blending of Miller's razor sharp writing, delivered in tense, minimalist sentences with the power of a machine gun burst, with the jagged-edge, monochromatic artwork results here in one of the most memorable and disturbing adult themed comic albums I have ever read. It pays homage to the classics of the 1940's and 1950's with the interplay between light and darkness in the construction of the panels, with the unusual camera angles and with the twisted threads of the plotline. It takes the game to a new, up-to-date level of cynicism and despair. The only minor complaint is surprisingly not with the explicit violence and language, but with the portrayal of women, strong in characterization but with a marked preference for nudity. I know most of these Miller girls are supposed to be hookers, but the author walks here a too fine line between eye-candy and gritty pulp fiction.

I have been so caught up in the atmospheric drama of Marv, the killer with a keen sense of street justice, and in the poster-like quality of the graphic art, that I have already finished the second Sin City album before I even tried to write down my impressions of the first. I am now trying to slow down, to take it easy and spread the next installments out, so I don't get mixed up in the storylines.

Final note: Initially I had reservations about the movie versions for these first two Sin City albums, but now I realize they are quite good and mostly faithful to the source material. Mickey Rourke is a great choice for Marv, and Nancy Callahan in the drawings looks like the twin of Jessica Alba in the movie. I would leave my opinions about Eva Green pending for the next review (I had enough excitement already for today).

recommended for readers not easily offended by explicit violence or nudity, fans of noir literature and of finely drawn artwork.
...more

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Aug 29, 2014 Carmen rated it really liked it

Recommended to Carmen by: Book Store

Shelves: traditionally-published, he-says, graphic-novel, fiction

THINGS I LIKED:

The writing. It was excellent.

The drawings.

Marv's distinctive dialogue. I've read enough Miller to know that he doesn't make all his main characters the same. This is much to his credit. Examples:

By way of a for instance...

...I probably would have had to paste you one...

Just give with the scoop.

The fact that Marv is almost impossible to kill.

Marv sleeps during the day and hates the sun. Like a vampire.

Lucille is a lesbian. She is strong physically and mentally but is not a ...more

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Aug 21, 2014 Luís C. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: us-canada-author, reading-the-world, 20th-century, comics, favourites, on-the-pc, devir

To all those who consider comics as a minor art, I say stop to fire, the balls are hollow ...Miller is a great, a huge draughtsman with a more than obvious sense of storytelling. I want to prove these different cinematographic adaptations more or less convincing.

Besides the fact that his comics rocked my adolescence, we must recognize a style of his own and immediately recognizable paw that is the prerogative of the great! A two-tone universe that immediately sets the tone ... Sin City is not a ...more

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Jul 08, 2013 Stuart rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-noir, favorites, dark-fantasy-gothic, graphic-novels

Sin City (The Hard Goodbye): A hard-boiled noir tale of revenge
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Frank Miller’s SIN CITY hit the comic scene back in the early 1990s like multiple shots to the head and body. Readers were blown away with this hard-boiled story and its stark, iconic black-and-white artwork. In fact, Miller does all the writing, artwork and lettering for SIN CITY, which is pretty damn impressive. The stories tapped into that rich vein of crime noir pioneered by writers like Sin City (The Hard Goodbye): A hard-boiled noir tale of revenge
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Frank Miller’s SIN CITY hit the comic scene back in the early 1990s like multiple shots to the head and body. Readers were blown away with this hard-boiled story and its stark, iconic black-and-white artwork. In fact, Miller does all the writing, artwork and lettering for SIN CITY, which is pretty damn impressive. The stories tapped into that rich vein of crime noir pioneered by writers like Dashiell Hamett, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Cornell Woolrich, Jim Thompson, etc, filled with down-on-their luck gumshoes, seductive dames with dark secrets, vicious hoodlums, corrupt politicians and cops, and powerful criminal masterminds lurking in the shadows. The archetypes are so ingrained in our consciousness that we don’t even think about them when we watch a dark crime drama or detective procedural. The lone private eye sitting in his empty office, with street light shining through the blinds as he smokes a lazy cigarette, until a gorgeous femme fatale shows up, on the run from dangerous enemies and concealing secrets that will make our hero regret ever taking the case.

So what was so special about SIN CITY ? Well, clearly the amazing artwork had something to do with it. And the unabashedly over-the-top characters. Not to mention the hard-boiled narration and dialogue – so many classic lines. And the brutal violence of the action sequences. Especially since the movie version came out in 2005, with three parts directed by Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, and Quentin Tarantino, there were many complaints that the story glorifies violence and objectifies women. Well, it’s pretty hard to deny those accusations. So if you prefer a more nuanced, high-browed crime story, you’d best look elsewhere! But that’s not to say the story is not intelligently written – it just exults in its own excesses, so you either go along for the ride and enjoy it, or not. I can enjoy a wide range of genre fiction, so I don’t really care as long as the story, characters, and world-building grab me.

SinCity_HG_2-2

There are seven collected volumes of the SIN CITY comic, and the original 2005 film focuses on the first, third and fourth volumes, with the 2014 sequel A Dame to Kill For based on volume two. The first volume is called The Hard Goodbye , and it's the story of a hulking lug named Marv, a likeable but down-and-out guy with massive muscles, a hideously deformed face, a penchant for violence, and his own code of justice. One night a beautiful woman named Goldie approaches him in a sleazy saloon. As Marv later narrates, “I’m staring at a goddess. She’s telling me she wants me. She sounds like she means it. I’m not going to waste one more second wondering how it is I’ve gotten so lucky. She smells like angels ought to smell.” The next morning, Marv wakes up with Goldie dead beside him, not a mark on her body. Before Marv has time to think, he hears the sirens of cop cars approaching, and realizes he’s been set up. He quickly decides on a course of action: "No reason at all to play it quiet. No reason to play it any way but my way. Whoever killed you is going to pay, Goldie…” The rest of the story speaks for itself.

SinCity_HG_3-2

Marv is played extremely well by Mickey Rourke in the film. It’s a brilliant performance, with the help of some facial prosthetics. He IS Marv, and his gravelly voice, distorted face, and powerful frame are perfect. In many ways, the movie version is a perfect rendition of Frank Miller’s vision, which is hardly a surprise since he co-directed it. It must have been quite an experience to be actively involved in directing his own creation. The result is visually one of the most striking and original renditions of a comic ever to hit the big screen, and a hell of a lot of fun to watch. I’m planning to watch it again now that I’ve read the comic. I would recommend reading the comic first and then seeing the film, but you can enjoy both independently. What are you waiting for? ...more

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Jan 11, 2018 James DeSantis rated it liked it

So I never had much interest in Sin City. I saw parts of the movie and the style never stuck with me. So with the graphic novel I never really wanted to dive in because Frank Miller, while I respect, usually isn't my style of comics. Yet, I'm kind of glad I picked this up, because it was pretty fun ride.

Marv is a old asshole ready to fuck some shit up after he wakes up to a dead girl on his best. After making love and waking up and seeing her dead he flips out. He goes on a hunt to find out who ...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Melki rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime-fiction, graphic-novel, noir

This is technically a 3.5. The story merits a 4. The art only 3.
I know Miller's style is supposed to convey a frenetic edginess, and yeah, the boobs are all nice and round and gravity-defying...
But, I grew up on Vampirella, Eerie and Creepy. To me, the artwork just looks sloppy.

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Sep 20, 2016 Mike rated it it was ok

Shelves: creator-owned, more-miserable-than-i-forgot-it-was, re-read, unintentionally-hilarious

Thematic BuddyRead with that gang we shouldn’t even be admitting to belonging to (but somehow proudly emblazon it wherever we go), the Shallow Comic Readers.

Criteria: An embarrassing amount of jugs on display

Yes, Miller had a real talent for drawing...

[Composition]

[it's almost balletic]

...even if he spent a remarkable amount of time focusing on the female nipple...

[I mean, seriously Frank. Porn wasn't *that* hard to acquire in the 80's...]

And no, I can't approve of the ...more

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Apr 12, 2008 Rob McMonigal rated it it was amazing

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 the jarring 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 the jarring disfigurement that occurs here and there--feels like it doesn't belong. These are people living in a hell hole and they act accordingly to survive, doing what they must to get through the day. Savage beatings, corrupt cops, and prostitution are just part of the daily grind in this town, and anyone who acted differently would be completely out of place.

A collection of short pieces that form a whole from Dark Horse Presents, this story was supposed to be 48 pages, according to Miller but went much longer as Marv and what he was doing took off from the pages. He has one brief night of happiness, that leads to an unending string of murder, beatings, and mystery, rolled into a black and white world where everything and nothing lies in the shadows.

And before I say anything else, those shadows are #$%^$# gorgeous. This may be the best use of black and while I've ever seen in a comic. There's no hint of gray anywhere here--it's either black, white, or non-existent. I had to stop and just stare at the amazing drawings Miller did at times, and that's rare for me in a comic book--I tend to go "nice art" but rarely if ever do I linger at the drawing style the way I did frequently in this book.

Marv, the main character, looks a bit like Miller's Batman in places but I can forgive it. This does, however make me wish that Miller would do a serious Batman story in this style. I think it would work amazingly well.

The writing of the story fits the tone, though I do need to give it my patently "gratuitous harm to women" speech for the fact that the females in the story tend to just be body parts, often nude body parts. In the context of the story, however, I can understand some of it, though I still wish comic writers would stop the annoying (lack of proper) use of women. However, that's probably a false hope. There are some particularly good scenes in here, such as when an S&M practitioner is saddened by Marv's ability to get free of her ropes. Miller gives a few nice humour touches to keep the story from going so dark as to be unbearable.

Assuming you don't have a problem with extreme violence in your panels, I can recommend this without a single hesitation. It's great stuff, I hope the rest is even close to being this good. ...more

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Jan 30, 2018 Dave rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: graphic-novels

The Sin City franchise is typified by stark black and white ink, far more verbiage than in many other graphic novels, and it feasts on the back alleys, strip clubs, and forsaken wastelands of a dark city where daylight never shines. It contains numerous noir themes such as waking up to a corpse in bed with you, being framed for a murder you didn't commit, and stalking serial killers. If noir-infused graphic novels are all about feel, look, attitude, it's here.

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May 19, 2019 L. McCoy rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Fans of gritty crime drama.

Shelves: creator-owned, dark-horse, borrowed, action, crime, comics-and-graphic-novels, reviewed

So I wasn’t sure what I was gonna think of this one. I hear some say Sin City is a masterpiece in comics and others say it’s just edgy trash. I think it’s good though I don’t agree with saying it’s a masterpiece.

What’s it about?
Marv (our main character) is aggressive, mean and fugly. However without even thinking he agrees to sleeping with and having sex with a very attractive woman named Goldie. She’s pretty much irresistible (at least her looks are) and why in the hell would such a beautiful So I wasn’t sure what I was gonna think of this one. I hear some say Sin City is a masterpiece in comics and others say it’s just edgy trash. I think it’s good though I don’t agree with saying it’s a masterpiece.

What’s it about?
Marv (our main character) is aggressive, mean and fugly. However without even thinking he agrees to sleeping with and having sex with a very attractive woman named Goldie. She’s pretty much irresistible (at least her looks are) and why in the hell would such a beautiful woman want to bang a dude like Marv? Well, Marv wakes up to see she’s dead. Time for answers and revenge!

Pros:
The story is pretty interesting. I like the gritty noir revenge tone, it works very well.
There are a lot of gritty action scenes. I really like that!
There’s a lot of suspense and some fantastic twists, I always love that, especially since a large part of this book is Marv’s search for answers.
The narrative is great and well written. It works great for the tone and storytelling.

Cons:
The artwork... not a fan. I get what Miller’s going for and there are even a couple of elements I like but overall it often looks messy, ugly and/or confusing.
Marv is kind of a dumb ass with a shitty attitude (as well as being sorta sexist, possibly homophobic). He’s not even an interesting or easy to feel sorry for/understand character with a mean personality, he’s just a general asshole.
I didn’t care for the ending.

Overall:
A good book for crime fans who don’t mind a lot of mature content (violence, sex and political incorrectness but it all makes sense in context) and definitely the best Frank Miller book I’ve read (of course there’s only 2 others I’ve read so far, 300 and Batman Year One). It’s a solid read and I recommend it but only to fans of crime stories and gritty action scenes. If not then there isn’t much here for you.
I however enjoyed this as a fan of crime stories and gritty action so yeah. I like this one and will add the next volume to my reading list.

4/5 ...more

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Aug 21, 2015 Donovan rated it really liked it

This blew my brains out. The book is so much better than the movie for Marv's narration alone. Who's Marv? Marv is a killer, hardcore ex-felon, pill-popping alcoholic, sadistic, homophobic, womanizing hateful fuck. He's kind of a bastard. But I love how extreme and uncompromising he is, even if he is mostly evil. Marv is the anti-hero. Does anyone else think Marv looks and acts like a more extreme version of The Dark Knight? That was my thought when reading this.

The women in this book, though, ...more

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Apr 13, 2019 Ayman Gomaa rated it liked it

Shelves: comics

" Walk Down The Right Back Alley In Sin City And You Can Find Anything "

One of the most known Comic\Movie , not only coz of it dark action story but also coz of it's drawings \ it drawings was unique and different from any other comics and it made it one of it kind.

Volume 1 was all about Marv Story :

Begins when Marv wake up and found Goldie the only girl who was nice to him and treated him good no matter his awful looking is dead and someone set him up and made him the criminal of killing ...more

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Jan 15, 2016 Asghar Abbas rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Five stars for the artwork, narrative, the movie and the timeline of 2005 2006 when I was heavily into this.

And absolutely zero stars for Frank Miller's rabid personality , xenophobia, and general pigheadedness.

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Oct 12, 2016 Marnie Krüger rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, crime-fiction, sequential-art, comics

I am absolutely crazy for this art!
It is BRILLIANT!

description

I've never seen the movie, and I believe it or not, this is my first ever Frank Miller read.
It's dark and sinister. It is treacherous and hankering.
I don't think this comic would have succeed if it was in color, the black and white gives you the dark mysterious feel that makes the whole thing work.

I'm definitely getting myself the rest of the Sin City series.

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Aug 25, 2012 David Schaafsma rated it really liked it

Shelves: gn-crime

I read this first a couple years ago, and reread it because of the second Sin City movie, to see if my initial ideas about it held true. When I first read it, I think I knew some people hated Miller, though knew his Sin City/Batman/ Daredevil work made him one of the very top most influential writers in comic history.

Based on the range of his work, there is a lot of bitterness and anger in it. Rage. Maybe this is true. It seems to be. Also, many people seem him as sexist, racist, and there may I read this first a couple years ago, and reread it because of the second Sin City movie, to see if my initial ideas about it held true. When I first read it, I think I knew some people hated Miller, though knew his Sin City/Batman/ Daredevil work made him one of the very top most influential writers in comic history.

Based on the range of his work, there is a lot of bitterness and anger in it. Rage. Maybe this is true. It seems to be. Also, many people seem him as sexist, racist, and there may be some evidence for that. In this work, however, he is at this best (or as good as the darkest Batman work he has done, which is damned good); he takes noir crime fiction and both strips it down visually to its bare bones, black and white images, silhouettes of a genre, and also ramps up aspects of it such as the testosterone, the Hulk rage, the steroid beefy muscular guys beyond real and the curvy busty women beyond real.

Visually it's attractive and interesting. The story and dialogue he does really well, especially in this first one. And Marv, the ex-pug goodhearted and easily manipulated loser, needing medication (for his rage? or his hallucinations?) isn't real, he's a caricature as all the other men and women you meet in this fictional Vegas, but he's so interesting and as you turn the pages, you care about these people even IF they are manifestations of hyper-masculinist, over-sexuaized ideas, with huge doses of rage. That's what is kind of remarkable here, that you care about Marv and most of the people you meet!

What I don't particularly like is some aspects of the torture porn dimension of the revenge. And some aspects of the caricatures, though in this world, sexism and racism seem to be requirements of the world. There's a three women ninja fighting group that comes to Marv's defense, that's an interesting move on the part of goodness and feminism that Miller includes. You will like these ass-kicking women a lot.

Overall, I think it's pretty impressive. I am less interested as the stories move along, for some reason, in this first volume, but (having now read all of them), this creation of this world is one of the great accomplishments of comics. ...more

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Oct 15, 2009 Jennifer rated it it was ok

Shelves: comics-manga-graphic-novels

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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Feb 24, 2009 Teresa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: graphic-novels, to-buy

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 bunch of ...more

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Jun 21, 2017 Katherine rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: those who like darkness, tough love and underdogs

Shelves: cant-put-down, epic-love, epic, fantasy, i-died-and-went-to-book-heaven, murder-mystery-crime, tough-stuff

I Loved Every Page.

Marv is such a good character. So dark, mysterious, violent and yet honors a type of moral code fit for a priest.

He is vengeful, hard and unyielding. A true survivor. He loves like no one I've ever seen and I felt a special kind of romance ouze from him in every move as he tries to avenge his lover - angel as he calls her, "she smells like angels ought to smell" sttaaaaaahhhhppp.

The villains of the story were immaculate. Evil down to the bone and made the fight sooooo ...more

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Mar 28, 2016 RJ rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-graphic-novels

Dead prostitute, ugly thug, silent killer, corrupt police, fallen clergy, and cold, messy revenge. Just another night in Frank Miller's Sin City.

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Jul 06, 2016 Rebecca McNutt rated it really liked it

Shelves: comics-graphic-novels, fiction, mystery, crime

Brilliantly artistic and an intense story shrouded in mystery and crime, Sin City (Volume 1) is a book that any graphic novel fan should read.

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Apr 02, 2019 André rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: comics, fiction, graphic-novels

Utterly violent, this graphic novel is set in a highly dysfunctional city. A city dominated by the wickedest crimes, depravity and all levels of corruption. In spite of being consumed by a shade that surrounds all its residents, Sin City is the tainted town that so many seek.

description

In this first volume of a metaseries created by Frank Miller, "The Hard Goodbye" presents a dark chapter of this rotten town.
The story begins with Mark, the protagonist, in his room with his dear Goldie, a prostitute he Utterly violent, this graphic novel is set in a highly dysfunctional city. A city dominated by the wickedest crimes, depravity and all levels of corruption. In spite of being consumed by a shade that surrounds all its residents, Sin City is the tainted town that so many seek.

description

In this first volume of a metaseries created by Frank Miller, "The Hard Goodbye" presents a dark chapter of this rotten town.
The story begins with Mark, the protagonist, in his room with his dear Goldie, a prostitute he met in a bar. Both Marv and Goldie got drunk, enjoyed a rough night of sex, and fell asleep together. Some hours later, Marv wakes up only to find out that Goldie is dead. The Protagonist crashes himself into a bottomless pit of questions, wondering why she would agree to sleep with him, and realizing why such perfect goddess (at his own eyes) would enter in his life in a personal level.
Marv will do everything to find out who killed her and why. A dame worth killing for (reference intended) with catastrophic consequences. Amen.

description

This tale is not beautiful in a romantic sense. Marv is a tough, lone ranger of the night whose expertise is killing. His temporary carnal pleasures with Goldie turned into an eternal obsession that will cost him everything, but he has nothing to lose. In Sin City, wickedness is the natural soul of every single inhabitant and the Protagonist is no different. He's crude, coarse and not afraid of using raw violence to attain his ultimate goals. At the same time, his awareness of his numb soul is quite lucid.
The story is somewhat impressively raw to the core, in terms of violence, and plotline. The characters of this short tale are all utterly dark, where good doesn't exist in such corrupted town.
The artwork reminisces a noir thriller movie from the 40's/50's in order to highlight the darkness of the novel.
The black and white drawings provide an elementary sense of soreness and boldness throughout the novel.
Insanely crude with its own perception of beauty, Miller's graphic novel takes urban violence into a whole new level. A level that signed his own artistic style.

description

Rating: 4.5/5 stars ...more

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Oct 31, 2010 ΞιsNιnΞ rated it it was amazing

After long years spent locked down, sick and ailing -- an invalid by law, unable to go anywhere or say anything, he was finally free and healthy.

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Frank Miller had suddenly kicked down the door, pulled Comics Noir roughly out of bed, tossed him a new suit, and slapped him hard when he started to whine. When Miller and Noir were back on the street, as the sickly man breathed in the cold night air, and examined the long shadows being cast by the streetlights, he began to look and feel younger, ...more

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Sep 04, 2015 Jedhua rated it really liked it

Shelves: feels-realistic-or-credible, reviewed, grim, mature, hell-of-a-ride, bold-or-unapologetic, monumental-payoff, likable-or-deep-characters, suspenseful-or-engaging, badass-to-the-extreme

Story Synopsis: (view spoiler) ...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Jake rated it really liked it

Shelves: series, adapted, graphic-novel, noir

Noir isn't for everyone, I've learned over the years. Not everyone gets as excited as I do about gritty stories about those who slip through the shadows of the city, the ones that humanity supposedly forgot about. People think it's cheap for violence, punny narrative, old slang and standard mystery skeletons all mixing about on the streets of a dark city where no one seems happy.

But I love that shit.

I seriously do.

And the opening installment had all that: lone anti-hero on a war path to the top ...more

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About Frank Miller

Frank Miller

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Frank Miller is an American writer, artist and film director best known for his film noir-style comic book stories. He is one of the most widely-recognized and popular creators in comics, and is one of the most influential comics creators of his generation. His most notable works include Sin City, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman Year One and 300.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the ...more