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Sin City: That Yellow Bastard

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If Dirty Harry worked out of Sin City, he would be Hartigan. The strict moral code, the unorthodox way of handling things, the utmost respect for the law and the utmost disrespect for anyone who tries to break it; it's all there. But Dirty Harry never worked in Sin City, and Dirty Harry always had the law on his side.

If Sin City ever produced an honest-to-god hero, it is Hartigan. He's not a thug like Marv, and he's not a criminal like Dwight. His faults aren't faults at all, but obstacles placed before him because of his greatest strengths. He suffers immeasurably for wanting to help someone. He suffers even more for wanting to help her again.

If Dwight is the one that gets away, it's because he is no better than the world he inhabits. Hartigan is the one that pays, because the world can not endure a hero as pure as Hartigan. That Yellow Bastard is the proof that Frank Miller gives as to why the enduring heroes in Sin City such as Marv, Dwight, and Miho aren't heroes at all, but merely grim reflections of the city that they live in. They have made the necessary adaptations to exist in an ugly place like Sin City. They aren't necessarily bad people, but they do bad things. Sin City isn't necessarily a bad town, but bad things happen there. But Hartigan is a good person that does good things. Sin City is not a place for a man like Hartigan to exist on the same terms as a man like Dwight. It is not fair, but it is the truth.

That Yellow Bastard is the greatest of the Sin City books because in it we see Sin City in all of its awful glory; a place where hope doesn't come in its simple, most beautiful form, but instead as a hideous mutation that is disarming and unpleasant.

Frank Miller reinvented the quintessential comic book superheroes Batman and Daredevil, and he even created the enduring character Elektra in the Daredevil books. But Hartigan is his greatest invention, because Hartigan is everything that makes superheroes great, placed inside a man with no special powers, but just a relentless determination to do what he feels is right.

That Yellow Bastard is the best of the Sin City series because it not only has Frank Miller's usual brutally-graphic violence (and man is it brutal) and hard-hitting action (this book contains the best car chase ever) but it also tells the tale of a man trying to do good in a city that dares to care. A man who tries to fight against the corruptive scumbags who run the city like a pack of hungry wolves. That man is Dec. John Hartigan, the ONLY straight cop in Basin City.


Enter John Hartigan, a gruff, well-built, old-timer who suffers from angina and carries a big-ass revolver, relevant to Bruce Campbell's "boomstick". Hartigan is a man on a mission. His mission: to save Nancy Callahan, age 11, before he retires. She has been kidnapped by sicko rapist/killer, Junior who, unfortunately is a son of a very powerful senator, who is corrupt like most in Sin City. Hartigan goes in guns blazing, knocking-out his partner and suffering a sudden heart-attack along the way. He doesn't know that he's made the biggest mistake of his carrer. But that's why we like Hartigan because he manages to do good while risking his own life. He is the most noble character in the whole series.


Hartigan puts Junior in a coma, but in the process is shot-up pretty bad and put in a coma too. He is then framed for raping Nancy (even though she was saved) and put in solitary confinement. Life is basically over for Hartigan, but while in prison he gets letters from Nancy, who has changed her name because she is still in danger. But when Hartigan stops getting letters, he goes mad.


After eight long years, Hartigan is let out've prison and goes to look for Nancy, who is being stalked by a yellow-skinned creature that distinctly resembles Junior! Now, it's up to Hartigan to protect Nancy, who has become a stripper at a seedy tavern, from the Yellow Bastard!


With constant plot twists, a couple of suspenseful show-downs at a spooky farm and dingy dock, and shocking violence and action, That Yellow Bastard is a compelling noir-ridden, moving, and twisted adventure about heroism, love, good and evil, betrayel, and revenge, with an ending that you'll never forget. This is Frank Miller's best work as both an artist and a writer, but isn't for the faint of heart!

Frank Miller's "Sin City" series has set a gold standard for the graphic novel in recent years. Not only does Miller's stark black-and-white artistry elevate the genre, it suits its hardboiled world to a T.

And Miller has created some wonderful characters to inhabit his nest of vipers. Generally, the "Sin City" stories involve clashes between anti-heroes and villains . . . heroes are hard to come by, and the most likely candidates are either murderous hookers with hearts of gold, or berserkers like Marv who may be killers, but are killers with hearts of gold (deep, deep down, of course).

Finally, in "That Yellow Bastard," Miller gives Sin City a hero in true sense of the word. Hartigan is the lone good cop in the nation's most corrupt police force in the nation's most corrupt town. He's on his last night before retirement, but he knows that an eleven year-old girl has been kidnapped and is doomed to die most horribly.

And Hartigan can't let a little thing like the rest of his life stand in the way of her salvation.

What could have been a single night of bloodshed turns into a decade of misery, torture, hope, vengeance and love for Hartigan, his beloved damsel in distress Nancy, and the Yellow Bastard.

For the Yellow Bastard is more than a sadistic murdering rapist . . . he's the only son of Senator Roark, the leading light in the ruling family of Sin City. The rules are simple, even for a cop -- you cross Roark, you get destroyed. Roark doesn't just kill you . . . he exacts vengeance like Kaiser Soze.

Miller's artistic nihilism has never been better, as the cold solitude of Hartigan's lost world comes through on every page. And the well-publicized use of yellow to depict the Yellow Bastard couldn't be a better choice. Through it all, Miller weaves in little glimpses of Dwight, Marv, and the other patrons of Sin City that make his graphic novels so clever and enjoyable.

I didn't think Miller could top his monstrous creation, Marv, but he may have with Hartigan. I'm glad these two never had to clash . . . Sin City might not have survived.

Of all of Frank Miller's Sin City stories, this is the most compelling, scary, shocking, and original.

Miller's vision of/for Sin City is heavily influenced by film noir, the genre of pulp fiction, and the novels of Jim Thompson. But don't be fooled: Sin City works so well because the stories are strikingly original within the confines of the genre. The protagonists/anti-heroes are revenge-driven, doom-bound, and on the wrong side of the law. The bad guys tend to be the people that on the outside the public admires: senators, priests, cops, etc.

That Yellow Bastard works so well because it incorporates some of Sin City's best characters and plot twists. The artwork remains of Miller's incredible standard (though it can be argued that the first arc had the best realised pencils and inks). But I don't think anywhere else in Miller's enitre cannon is the dialogue so well-executed and sharp. The ending is as shocking as it is inevitable.

Though That Yellow Bastard can be read seperately from the other collections, it's not the Sin City storyline to start with (the original "Marv" storyline, A Dame To Kill For, and The Big Fat Kill should be read first). But definietely pick this up.

Frank Miller and Amazon make some money. You read a damn good story. Fair trade.

What makes Frank Miller tick? What drives one of the most renowned writers in comic history to write the kind of character driven, gritty and hard edged stories he is famous for? Who knows, but from his early work on Daredevil to his groundbreaking Dark Knight Returns story, the man has proven he is a master writer. His Sin City stories for Dark Horse are no exception, and That Yellow Bastard is without a doubt the best Sin City yarn Miller has ever penned. John Hartigan is an old cop on the verge of retirement, and on his last day on the job, he responds to a kidnapping call. What results is a showdown with a deranged psychopath in order to save a young girl named Nancy, but regular Sin City readers know that in this city, things don't always work out for the best. By the time That Yellow Bastard reaches it's climax, you'll be left in awe at one of the absolute greatest comics ever created. Miller's art is about what you might expect: unpleasent, gritty, and well suited to the story. Not to mention, you'll never look at the color yellow the same way again. That Yellow Bastard is devestatingly surreal and brutal at the same time, and if you've never read any of Miller's Sin City works, now has never been a better time to dive in, and with the upcoming movie coming out, you might want to check this out first.

This collection of the originally six-issue storyline "That Yellow Bastard" might just be the best volume the Sin City line has offered so far. Both art as storywise everything is top-notch. The choice Miller made to add the color yellow to the normally only black/white art, which is both finely detailed and mood-setting, is very functional and refreshing, and the storyline has enough plot-twists to keep the reader interested (not like for example in "The Big Fat Kill" which was a nice story but had pretty obvious plot-twists in my opinion).

The story is about a cop named Hartigan who has only an hour to go before he will go into early retirement, doctor's orders. There's just one loose end he really wants to tie up before he does. He wants to save an eleven year old girl out of the hands of a sadistic kid-killer/rapist who has shown before he can kill without remorse. Only problem is that the abductor is the son of the senator, and hardly touchable because of it. He tracks him down and THAT's when things start to happen from which we learn how corrupt Sin City in its entirety really is. Hartigan is in for a world of pain from there on, both psychically and mentally, with only one person in the world who still believes in him, that being the girl he was trying to save. But is that save for her ? Only time will tell, and the story has but just begun ...

My compliments go, again, to the art in which it shows that Miller was still incredible into this little project of his and also to a story which skilfully avoids becoming predictable anywhere. With that I can add that this is probably THE most violent and bizar volume of the series, with a very original ending that only gets reveiled in the last three pages.
Note with this book is that although people like Marv and Dwight (main-characters from other Sin City volumes) are mentioned and even minorly featured in it, they are in now way a factor in the story. This is a 100% self-contained storyline. Good pick if you're into police/noir stories. People who like Sin City story-wise are advised to also try out the titles "Astro City" and "Top Ten" sometimes. Not entirely the same but there's a good chance you'll like it.

Detective John Hartigan is only hours away from retirement but Nancy Callahan, age 11, is moments away from death. In the hands of a ruthless connected serial killer and rapist Nancy will suffer unmentionable ordeals. John Hartigan must raise his 38 cannon and ignor his failing health to save little Nancy, even at the expense of his dignity and his life.

This cleverly written and exquisitely illustrated tale pulled from the dark gritty bounds of Frank Miller's Sin City series will rock you.John Hartigan is not your typical cop and his devotion to the protection of Nancy from the cruel menace that wishes to defile her spans eight years. Miller has created a superior character in Hartigan and molded a believable plot exploring the idiosyncratic mind of a killer and the devotion of an aging man whose body is no match for his adversary. Put away your preconceptions about the "comic book" medium and prepare to be flattened. In the tradition of "Pulp Fiction" and "Silence of the Lambs" "That Yellow Bastard" is praiseworthy celebration of human ability that is illustrated with maturity and candor.

-Brian Franklin

To be frank (ha ha), I haven't seen another Greek tragedy realized in the noir genre as well since "Taxi Driver". "That Yellow Bastard" just nails it, thanks to Frank Miller, who I consider not only a legend in the comics industry, but in the literary mainstream as well. He is a Grade-A knock-you-on-your-ass storyteller and artist, plain and simple. This is not an introspective tale, and it will not make you feel warm and good inside, but then again neither do all the other Sin City yarns. This is probably more tragic than "The Hard Goodbye" in an emotional aspect, because even though Marv was a tough-as-nails, morally-confused man, whom everybody wanted dead in the first place, Sin City beat Hartigan down harder in every which way. His life is torn to shreds when he fights a war against corruption that he couldn't win in the first place. In my eyes, the downward spiral for Hartigan is as enduring as "Hamlet" or say "Romeo and Juliet", since Hartigan has this unshakable bond with a girl he saved 8 years prior, but in the end, any chance of happiness he could share with Nancy Callahan ultimately falls apart and trust me, if the last three or so pages doesn't kick you in the gut, nothing else will. I sincerely hope that this will be remembered in the far future as a great piece of storytelling. Raymond Chandler and Sam Spade would be proud.

I thoroughly enjoy reading Frank Millers work. It is very refreshing at highly original. THIS in my opinion, is his best. I am not going into the plot, because its been already stated many times. This is by far the most beautiful comic mini series.

It has feeling, emotion, action and thought. I love it. I knew what happens in the end before I read it, but after reading it I still was shocked. It actual brought emotions out of ME. Very powerful stuff.

If you like Frank Miller, or Sin City pick this up the second you have a chance.

If you don't know Frank Miller or Sin City, but want to get into it...Check out the others before this.

Can't wait for this live action on the silver screen in Sin City the movie. Bruce Willis = Hartigan. Good choice.

It's very simple to sum up this book and the rest of the Sin City collection: genius. Frank Miller is the greatest comic book writer in artist of our time, he has taken everyting he touches to the next level. Batman, Daredevil, Wolverine have all be priviledged to be written by Miller. His latest project with Sin City has taken comic books to a new level that no other writer out there can touch. He is pure genius.