24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Gritty Stroll Down the Dark End of the Street, April 27, 2000
This review is from: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (Book 2) (Paperback)
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.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love and death and grey all over..., April 10, 2005
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.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's another hot night..., March 21, 2005
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.
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