Customer Reviews

Sin City Volume 2: A Dame to Kill For (3rd Edition)

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In 1986, Frank Miller ushered in a new age in comic writing and illustration with his landmark "Batman: The Dark Night Returns." A couple of years later, he reinvented the form again with his gritty return to Daredevil. To almost no one's surprise, Miller completely retooled the medium with his take on film noir in "Sin City".

How radical was this alteration in Miller's artistic vision?

In a world of garish, computer-derived colors, Miller constructed a world of broad swaths of black ink. In a medium dominated increasingly by splash pages linked by plots beneath the sophistication level of your average porno movie, Miller delivered a compelling satire of modern urban existence. In an industry increasingly convinced of its own sociological significance, Miller crafts a tale so over-the-top in its violent imagery as to eradicate any claim to stature amongst the Starbucks set.

How do you follow up the outstanding statement that was "Sin City"?

You don't.

"A Dame to Kill For" finds Miller clearly less infatuated with the vision that fairly screamed from his pen in the prior tale. The art, while still visually stunning in places and always crafted with a cinematic flair, seems somehow rushed here, as though the languid love affair he previously had with his imagery has cooled to a Thursday night quickie.

The plot involves a sleazy photographer whose past returns to haunt him in horrific fashion. As in the best film noir, nothing is as it initially seems, motives are rarely clear, and the hero takes a terrific beating along the way to both body and sensibility. Unfortunately, Miller's portrayal of the villain here is less nuanced than his past work, detracting from the psychological reality he is apparently trying to convey.

This is an eminently forgivable sin in the noir world. Did anyone truly believe that Bogart's Spade really wouldn't pack Mary Astor off to the big house at the end of "The Maltese Falcon"? Did anyone not find the melodramatic finale to "D.O.A." to ultimately ring hollow? Not likely, but neither did this diminish these films' stature as classics of the noir genre; after all, the noir world is in the final analysis a distorted vision of our own painted solely from the duskier hues of the palette.

While not a story to die for as was "Sin City", "A Dame to Kill For" is still a story well worth your time.

Sin City may be black ink on white paper, but it's nothing without the grey. The characters in this book are grey--all over.

A Dame to Kill For is the story of Dwight. Dwight is a good guy with 2 bad habits--booze & broads. But he's sober now. He's taking great pictures of husbands doing nasty things to women who aren't their wives in order to make a living as a private-eye. Dwight is damaged, but on the mend--until Ava shows up. Then it all gets messy. Really messy.

This is the 2nd tale of Sin City and about mid-way through the story Marv, the star of the first book, makes a guest appearance. This book stands completely on its own from book 1 (The Hard Goodbye). However, Marv's story in The Hard Goodbye begins to intertwine with Dwight's and Miller throws in a few cameos for those who read The Hard Goodbye.

This is probably my favorite Sin City yarn. I love them all, but in my opinion creator Frank Miller found his stride in book 1 then ran with it in spades with this book.

And for those folks delving into the world of Sin City because of the 2005 film, this book will be a special treat cuz it's the prequel to Dwight's story in The Big Fat Kill, in which Clive Owen, Michael Clarke Duncan & Rosario Dawson starred in the 2005 film. Do yourself a favor and throw down the cash for this book now. Trust me, $12 is peanuts for the all entertainment packed in these pages.

This is Frank Miller's second Sin City story. While it doesn't quite match The Hard Goodbye, it's a damn fine example of comics noir in it's own right. The lead character this time around is Dwight, but fans of Marv will be pleased to know that he shows up here in a supporting role. This story takes place prior to, and concurrently with, "The Hard Goodbye". In fact, you can see Marv enacting some scenes from "The Hard Goodbye" in the background of panels here. Anyway, the story is about how Dwight's ex-girlfriend Ava comes and asks him for help. I don't want to give away the story, but it may seem a bit familiar to fans of film noir. Despite what may seem like a predictable storyline, I loved it because it is so well told and the art is beautiful. This is not one of the stories that is being adapted for the Sin City motion picture, but the sequel to this book, The Big Fat Kill is in the movie.

Simpler than other volumes in the series, "A Dame To Kill For" is still a cool, dark slice of comic book noir -- imagine Eisner's "Spirit" onscreen, as directed by the Coens in a more serious mood.

This may be my favorite of the books (though trying to pick a favorite "Sin City" yarn is like trying to select a favorite Beatles album). It encapsulates everything I like about Miller's work: beautiful black-and-white illustrations with an emphasis on venetian blinds; cigarette smoke; shattered glass and dangerous curves; twisty storylines that pop in on one another; hot mamas and serious ultraviolence.

Plus, it contains my favorite moment in the entire series: Dwight, shot and seriously wounded by the murderous harlot he loved, is being raced away from a crime scene by Marv (who has a nice supporting role here). Marv says Dwight won't survive unless they get to the nearest hospital; Dwight, a bloody mess, insists on being taken somewhere further away and delivers the line of dialogue that best sums up the ethos of "Sin City" : "I'll make it. I won't die. I've got too much I have to do to let myself die." Sweet.

After the horrific ending in Sin City 1, I wasn't sure I could handle another in the series. Enter Sin City 2, "A Dame to Kill For," and photographer Dwight McCarthy. Not the coolest guy in the world, but, then I guess it fits the genre. His life is ugly and boring. He'd like to make some changes, but then Ava returns from his past. Sleazy Dwight falls hard, again, and the result is violent, sadistic and infatuating.

Don't know how many of these I can take, but I am hooked on the visual, comic book imagery Miller creates. I'd definitely not recommend this book for teenagers (my 13-year-old is my sample) or for the faint-of-heart.

I definately thought the hard goodbye was great, but a dame to kill for wasn't the best. The story is about a guy named Dwight who is trying to forget his past. Until he meets Ava again, she is an old girlfriend who left him for a richer man. This is where the story got a little too mushy. Dwight starts loving her again and starts trying to save her when she tells him her husbands abusive gaurd named Manute beats her and tortures her. You'll find Marv is also in this story because this story takes place before and during the hard goodbye. Although this book does have a very good twist to it i just wasn't interested in Dwight's love life. it is still a good book though.

Let me say that again: not just monochrome, but black and white. None of the shades halfway between.

That defines the whole tone of the story - everything and everyone is at its extreme. Dwight is a man driven by his extremes, either quiet and peaceful enough or, as he says, the monster is loose. Mort the cop, has his extremes, from family man and cop to cop killer. Ava is a woman of extremes, Miho is a woman of just one extreme, and so on for all the rest.

It's a dirty story, about the dirty sides of people in a dirty city. I don't mean that it's smutty, although readers offended by nudity should pick another title. It's just about people at their very worst, where there's no good way out, except that some of the very worst may be taken down like a mad dog.

It's great.

//wiredweird

Worth dying for, worth killing for, worth going to hell for...amen. After all that in book 1, I didn't know what to expect from book 2, and it bugged me. Now that I've read it I must say I was pleasantly surprised, and have even more confidence in Miller's series. He managed another great tale from this dark world of Sin City. It would seem Dwight-the main character can't get anything right without going straight to hell first. I thought it was excellent and I was glad when he finally did get it right. I enjoyed book 2 as much as or even more than book 1. In case anyone's wondering..The paperback editions are durable and large enough. Even with sensitive eyes or an eye condition, it's an easy read that shouldn't cause any strain or discomfort. Very cool books. I'm looking forward to #3 and 4.

"A Dame to Kill For," which is Book 2 in Frank Miller's "Sin City" series, is now going to be known as the only one of the first four books that was not part of the "Sin City" movie. Given the options it was a smart move because this one tells the story of what happened that made Dwight get a new mug and "The Big Fat Kill" is the better tale of the two if you are going to do one Dwight story and if you want to do a story in two parts "That Yellow Bastard" is a better choice as well.

Dwight is reduced by circumstances, most notably an attempt to stay sober, to spying on men cheating on their wives with prostitutes so that he can take their photographs. What he desperately wants is one clear chance to wipe the slate clean and get his life together. Four years earlier Ava left Dwight for another man and he knows that seeing her again is nothing but bad news above the fold even without the banner headline. He should just kill her or at least walk away, but when she begs him for help none of the cold harsh realities of what she has done and what sort of woman she really is matters to Dwight. He is going to need all the help he can get to deal with Ava, because being sober is not making Dwight smart enough to avoid making one big mistake.

In terms of the "Sin City" chronology, "A Dame to Kill For" comes before "The Hard Goodbye." We know because Marv is not only in the bar where Nancy is dancing as Dwight comes by for a visit, he helps his pal out when the hero of this story finds the man mountain named Manute to be insurmountable. This ends up working against this story in a couple of ways. You had to agree that it is hard to think of Marv as just a sidekick given how strong of a character that he is, and the fact that Dwight cannot handle Manute makes him a lesser hero. After all, it is Marv who labels Ava with the titular appellation. I knew that he was going to get his act together in the end, given what happens in the next book, but for most of this one Dwight is getting beat up, thrown through a window, and shot a whole bunch of times. Clearly Miller is making a point about the healing power of a burning desire for revenge

Overall, the black & white artwork (or, I should say, white on black artwork) is less experimental in Book 2 and if anything looks like it was drawn with white ink on black paper rather than the other way around. For me the sequence that stands out is in Chapter 2 when Dwight heads to a bar to meet with Ava and all of the panels have smoke drifting through them, although some of Miller's panels where the blinds on the windows make for alternative parallel lines of light and darkness are interesting (there are others that are just overkill). For the most part Miller is laying out the story so that it looks more like a conventional comic book than Book 1, so there is not the sense of boldness from before. But then the story is less ambitious as Dwight comes across as just another guy who made the mistake of thinking with some other part of his anatomy besides what is between his ears.

In 1995 "A Dame to Kill For" won Will Eisner's Best Limited Series Award so it is not like it is a book to skip. If you make it to Book 2 in the "Sin City" series you should be in for the long haul and more of those hot nights, dry and windless, that are the kind that make people do sweaty, secret things.

Frank Miller's "A Dame to Kill For" serves as his deeper, darker journey into the guts of Sin City and its motley crew of murderers, prostitutes and thieves.

Miller created the gold standard for noir comix with "The Hard Goodbye," his first graphic novel about Sin City. "THG" introduced not only Sin City but also that glorious ugly lug of an anti-hero, Marv, wrapped in a dark, lovely tale of revenge.

"A Dame to Kill For" is actually a parallel tale in time to "THG," with Marv taking a co-starring role as temporary sidekick to his buddy Dwight. Now Dwight may be a clean-living photographer at the outset of "Dame," but that's only because he is keeping the "beast" inside him under tight wraps. As Dwight says, nobody knows exactly what would happen if the beast got loose, but everyone knows it would be no good.

Two things let Dwight's beast out from its chains. One is booze, and Dwight can control that. The other is dames, and there is one in particular that Dwight just can't resist. Ava. The sultry sexy mermaid Ava, who left Dwight for a rich bankroll of a husband a few years back. What is poor Dwight to do when Ava shows up on his door, speaking seduction but planning his corruption and downfall?

Let the beast loose.

A complex tale of deceit, corruption, and vengeance, "Dame" may not hit the heights of "THG," but it comes pretty darn close. Dwight is another anti-hero worthy of the title, and he gets to rub shoulders (and much more) with Sin City's other notorious denizens.

Ava is also a creation for the ages, as she twists men into pretzel after pretzel in her quest for . . . well, it's not exactly clear what she wants, but it's clear that she enjoys causing the suffering of men.

Again, Sin City graphic novels aren't for the squeamish. Bullets and blood fly fast and furious, and Miller's fantastic use of black-and-white creates loads of atmosphere and does nothing to diffuse the gore. A must-read for fans of the mature graphic novel and of noir as well.