Sin City

Rating:
Summary: There is nothing not to like about this story.
Review: This story involves major character development. Marv is character you will get to know & understand. I think that is something not very well done with most main characters in stories. Marv reveals & deals with his personal problems throughout the story. You have to like Marv, he has his own morals and his own way to live his life. He does what he knows how to do. He uses what he can to get what has to get done, done. He's not the brightest brick on the wall but, he is harder than the rest. Willing to put it all on the line in the name of love and, finding out the sad truth about the one he loved through it all. Marv is ruthless & on a mission that can only end one way. The villains are slick, evil, and and smarter than Marv but, even that won't stop him. Marv is a character that is running on pure emotion and, Sin City is the dark, corrupt, and extremely evil place he calls home. This book is Well worth your dollars. Unless you only want to read about Super heroes who fly and wear goofy outfits and fight super villains who are bound to lose eventually. Sin City is not your average comic book or graphic novel or whatever you want to call them. Sin City is dark place full of characters who will get your attention no matter how much you hate or love what they're about.

Rating:
Summary: It's Miller time!
Review: This is an absolutely fantastic black and white graphic novel by Frank Miller, who helped revitalize the superhero genre with his versions of Batman and Daredevil. Sin City might be described as "film noir", except for the fact that it isn't a film, it's a comic book. But it soon will be a film! Frank Miller himself has co-directed the film with Robert Rodriguez, so there is a good chance it will be faithful to the comic book. The film adapts more than one of the Sin City graphic novels, but I thought people might like to know who plays the characters from this particular book:

Mickey Rourke plays Marv.
Jaime King plays Goldie.
Carla Gugino plays Lucille.
Jessica Alba plays Nancy.
Elijah Wood plays Kevin.
Rosario Dawson plays Gail.
Rutger Hauer plays Roark.


Rating:
Summary: Brilliant combinations of violence, mystery, love and more
Review: This one of the best written graphic novels, which would not come s a suprise to anyone who has read any other works of Frank Miller. This story is one you can read over and over again. Nothing beats the character Marv. For all fans of Frank Miller, or Daredevil, Watchmen, the Punisher, the League of Extrodinary Gentlemen (the comic) or just graphic novels in general I recommend. Though if you have low tolerance for nudity or violence or swearing in any form, I would not suggest this comic, but fo everyone else...have an awesome time. Also, a major motion picture is being made of 3 different stories of the 7 series Sin City comics (one of them being this one).

Rating:
Summary: One of the best graphic novels ever
Review: What can I say that hasn't already been said. Yes, it is violent and yes, Marv, the main character probably isn't your friendly everyday neighbor. But who cares? This is a comic book. It has a truely amazing storyline, the most wonderful graphic art I've ever witnessed in black and white. Superb!!!
If you like this one, check out Frank Miller's "Daredevil, The Man without Fear" and "Batman, the Dark Knight Returns".

Rating:
Summary: Noir Perfected
Review: I don't mean to categorize Frank Miller's "Sin City" by saying it is "noir perfected," but I feel that what this book does, it does perfectly. It's a dark, gritty, intense drama about a crime through the eyes of a murderer who is not guilty of the murder he is accused of. In real life, Marv, Goldie, Nancy, and the rest of Miller's "Sin City" cast would be the individuals most of us tend to stay away from. They live in the grossest most beaten down parts of a town that is famed for its gross beaten down borroughs. Yet, the cast of characters Miller assembles around Marv make his character, and more importantly this story, one of the most oddly likable in comics.

Marv is not an antihero. He's not a recluse like Spawn who is locked in some eternal denial of his reality yet constantly wants to change it. Marv loves and accepts the fact that he lives outside the lines, 'caise afterall, doesn't somebody always?

This late in the "Sin City" game, I can only guess that those of you who pick this up are interested because of the Robert Rodriguez film that comes out April 1, 2005. For those of you, I highly recommend this book, because while the "Sin City" movie contains more "Sin City" story than this TPB alone, you can instantly realize how well adapted this movie will be when you read the first 20 pages and then watch the preview. Rodriguez was wise to allow Miller to co-direct the "Sin City" film because it appears as though it will be the truest comic book film of all time. If you think the movie looks intriguing, please read this book first because it'll not only give you a deeper idea on the character of Marv, but'll change the way a lot of you look at comics simply because of how Frank Miller works.



Rating:
Summary: It just doesn't get better than this
Review: Frank Miller is the beatles! Being a teenager in the eighties was fairly devoid of revoultionary inspiration, especially in the artistic realms. Then i read the dark knight returns, i can only imagine it was a similar experience for those teenagers in the sixties hearing revolver for the first time. A quantum leap in expectation and experience happened, suddenly a whole new world of possibilites became tangable. Miller's genius is palpable. Someone said "talent is making what others find hard to do easy and genius is making what talent finds hard to do easy." Millers writing is effortless in it's dance with the forms, i.e. they are inseperable.
But it is the art work! To put it as best i can it brings tears to my eyes every time and makes my heart open. His love of what he's doing is plainly obvious, he loves these characters and they're beauty is shining through. He is accomplishing what all artists strive for: To capture the soul.
Sin City is a rough place, the collective content of the darker aspects of our humanity boiled up in a steaming stew. And for people who don't want to see they find only violence and the expressions of their own fears. But the human spirit shines brightest in the worst depths, the creative spirit is unstopable, just look at rap music. The politics of the situation doesn't detract from the heroism, Marv is a gritty, Johnny Cash hero.
As Bill Hicks says all it takes is the right bar and the wrong woman, and who knows where we'll land. This book touches spots.

Rating:
Summary: Am I the only one that doesn't love it?
Review: Frank Miller is a sick, sick, man. I respect his directing abilities, he did some good work on Batman and some phenomenal work on Daredevil, but this series is pretty sick. This trade is the first installment in the Sin City series that's written and drawn by Frank Miller. The series is basically just a number of different stories based in the vile city known as Sin City *cough*Las Vegas*cough*. Before I go on, this book should only be read by the mature reader, things like cannibalism, nudity, extreme violence, and overall the bottom ring of human life are present.

Our main character is the hardly lovable tank known as Marv. Marv has no idea why, but he somehow gets some extremely hot chic named "Goldie" to sleep with him, and the whole story is nice and touchy-fealy....... for the first three pages. The only problem is, when Marv wakes up the next mourning he finds Goldie laying next to him, dead. Of course the cops think Marv killed her and the rest of the book is basically Marv going on a suicide mission to send the people that killed the one woman that took pity on him for one night straight to hell. But as Marv says numerous times throughout the story, the hell that he sends Goldie's killers to will seem like heaven after what he'll do to them.

The story gets very involved with us finding out about important political figures being involved in Goldie's death, but that doesn't stop Marv. We follow him throughout his journeys to get to the bottom of what's going on in Sin City, we meet Marv's crooked parole officer, a psychotic cannibal, a corrupt cardinal, and many more "colorful" characters. The story progresses pretty nicely and the ending is thoroughly satisfying. Needless to say, the story is told in the distinct "Miller Style" of great dialogue injected with real personality.

And now my patented fourth (and or fifth) paragraph: the flaws. I'll be the first to admit that I love Frank Miller's art, I think he's one of the best Daredevil artists of all time, but I truthfully don't care for the art in this book at all. It's all black and white with not one drop of color added with a lot of shadow play and white on black backgrounds. I can see the style that Miller was going for but I really don't see why that has to punish the reader, some of the panels are very confusing and some are overly simplified. What I thought would have worked well would be the Hellboy art style of total black with solid colors, it's still got the style but it's a lot easier on the eyes.

So in closing, this is by no means a bad trade but I wouldn't recommend picking it up unless you're a huge Frank Miller fan. I should I also mention that Frank Miller is writing / directing a new Sin City movie that looks awesome. The movie isn't necessarily based on this trade, it's more based on the whole series in general, but it wouldn't be bad to pick this one up if you're really interested in the movie.