Sin City is a
comic book series created, written, and drawn by
Frank Miller. It was first released in 1991 in
Dark Horse's anthology comic book,
Dark Horse Presents. Originally conceived as a 48 page special,
Frank Miller enjoyed writing it so much that it was expanded to graphic novel size. Sin City is a modern
noir style comic book, with
narratives and a dark mood throughout the series. All of the stories take place in
Basin City, fondly known to its residents (mainly composed of prostitutes, corrupt cops, gangsters, drug dealers, and other sinful types) as Sin City. It's a corrupt city, a place that no one really wants to live in.
The series usually has a different protagonist for each graphic novel, but normally keeps the supporting characters around. One of the antagonists is continued through the legacy of family. The
Roark family has a firm grasp of control on Basin City. Members of the family are often used as antagonists, an all-powerful person against the streetwise protagonists.
The series also has an interesting way of conveying its noir mood. All of the graphic novels are in black-and-white, for a few exceptions. Every now and then, somethings are deemed to need color. In
That Yellow Bastard, the antagonist is , as the title suggests, yellow. He is colored as so, throughout the graphic novel. In
Hell and Back, more things are given color: a nightgown, the color of a character's eyes, an assassin's leopard pattern clothes, and when the protagonist has drug hallucinations the entire scenes are in color.
The series is composed (so far) of these stories:
Sin City, the graphic novel, follows the story of
Marv. He's an ex-con, with quite an ugly, scarred mug. He's quite strong and well-trained with a gun, but even calls himself dumb. One night a woman sleeps with him, a beautiful woman the likes that he'd never have. A woman that he considers an angel. However, their time togethor is cut short when he wakes up the next morning to find her dead and cop sirens outside. Someone killed her, and tried to frame him for it. He quickly finds out who did it. Roark.
Cardinal Roark. A man who can't be reached, whose defenses could never be breached. But he's determined. He's going to find out why the angel that slept with him was killed. It doesn't matter what it costs him.