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Miller, Frank – Sin City: Hell and Back

Listing of all his comics

Sin City: Hell and Back

Ah, the first computer revolt. I had this whole thing written, forgot to save it, and my computer locked up at some point after that when I was doing something else. Oh well. This volume is the story of a man who leaps off a cliff to save the life of a young woman trying to commit suicide and what happens to both of them after that. Wallace and Esther… not exactly names that inspire fear, but Wallace is probably the most capable of all the “heroes” in these books. It’s nice to see one of these books where the lead guy doesn’t almost die half a dozen times before the series is over with. This is also the largest of the series, clocking in at 9 issues (the longest one besides that was 6 issues, and this one also had one double-sized issue to boot). As for where this story fits in terms of quality with the rest of them, I’d have to say it’s right in the middle. For a lot of series that would be a bad thing, but there’s not a volume of this that’s anything less than slightly above average, so that still makes this a pretty damned good read.

The most disturbing thing about this volume, honestly, is all the talk that’s gone on about Frank Miller lately. I’ve heard for sure that he’s doing a Dark Knight sequel (and I mention my thoughts on it somewhere else on this page) and I’ve also heard that he’s doing more Daredevil stuff. That’s all well and good for Marvel and DC, but it sucks for anybody who’s a much bigger fan of his Sin City stuff than anything else he’s done. Sure, I liked the superhero stuff when I was younger, but I’ve outgrown almost all of that, mostly because a lot of it is just bad. Granted, this stuff will be better, but these are still guys running around in spandex. You kind of lose the ability to suspend disbelief about that sort of thing as you get older. It’s his life, and I’m sure the money is fantastic, but I think he’s making the wrong call. Unless he’s only doing this so he’ll be free to do whatever he wants with Sin City for the rest of his life, then I’ll be happy. Back to this volume. It’s always fascinating to see who you can recognize from previous Sin City volumes, and that’s certainly true for this book too. All kinds of familiar faces. There’s also a “trippy” segment that has to be seen to be believed. See if you can spot all the other characters he’s ever worked with, and it’s in color too. Like I said, not the best of these volumes, but any of them can be considered more than good enough to spend an afternoon reading.