"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> hole in the wall
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Sin City was a blast. The movie featured three stories taken right out of three graphic novels in Frank Miller's Sin City. The first follows Marv, an incredibly strong brute capable of doing and surviving anything he's driven to do, while he seeks justice for the death of the one woman who showed him unquestioning kindness. Next is A Dame to Kill For and The Big Fat Kill's Dwight, who struggles to keep the truce between the Old Town girls and the cops by all means necessary. And then it's Hartigan, an honest detective who got framed and accused at molesting an underage girl right on the day he was going to retire.

These pages are from the first book Violent Marv. The one above wasn't in the movie though.


I wondered why the movie was black and white. Like 50's movies, I thought. Or maybe because it's too violent and there'd be too much blood that being in full color would be too gory. Like the Crazy 88 slashing frenzy in Kill Bill. No, it's because the comics were in b&w. And it's this style that really sets Sin City apart. There is no hue in any page, it's either inked black or left white. And yet Sin City itself does not deal with absolutes, no purely benevolent heroes, no supremely evil enemies. Everything is gray. It adds all the depth that colors and shades could. It sets Sin City in a harsh, unforgiving light and gives you a sense of inevitable doom and despair. It brings out the darkness residing in each of its characters while letting their virtues shine amidst such a cruel world.

This is the style of drawing I've always wanted to be able to do, even back in high school. There are no lines, just fills.

The other part of Sin City's greatness is its first person narration. Each book is captioned with the thoughts and views of its protagonist, and it's what makes the storytelling tick. And it's not filled with the high and mighty talk of superheroes; these are the fears and hopes of ordinary people.


I read a bunch of 'regular' comics later, after I finished with Sin City and its other titles. And the DC and Marvel ones are just lame. I couldn't help comparing how shallow they are to Sin City. And how ridiculous! Like in Wolverine Origins, which I thought would be cool, Logan just looked silly in his mask and tights. And the story, no matter how many twists the writer put it through, remained plain. Sin City is so deeply immersed in conflict and emotion and issues that it totally demolished the already slight believability of superhero anthologies.

I erased the other comics I got, afterwards. They're so dull now. I still like the superhero mythology, which is what I really liked about comics in the first place. Which hero has what kind of power and what happened when he met this other character, etc. But the storytelling will never compare.

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1 Comments:


At 1:43 AM, Anonymous Anonymous

People should read this.