Author: Frank Miller
Year Published: 1991
Genre: comic/graphic novel
Rating: |

I’m sitting here on a plane at 35,000 feet, halfway to my destination (more specifically, I’m somewhere in the sky way above Des Moines), and I’m kicking myself for not bringing an additional book with me. I just got Frank Miller’s Sin City the other day and thought it would be the perfect thing to take with me on this trip. I want something that can captivate me and help the time fly by. A good book or a gripping comic or engrossing comic can really help ease the anxiety of flying. I’ve known about Sin City for a while, I saw the movie adaptation in the theater when it was released but I’ve never read through the original source material. It turns out, this book is exceptional (surprise surprise). Frank Miller’s frantic romp following the ultra-violent exploits of Marv through the gritty underground of Sin City is underscored by the binary, hyper graphic black & white art work. When things get frenzied, the ink blends together, the lines and negative space working to obscure what’s happening, helping to make the static pages vibrate with excitement and tension. The final sequence of the book, where the powers that be see to end Marv for his involvement with cleaning up the city by disposing of Kevin actually caused me to have a bit of an existential panic attack. The way he talks about greeting death at the electric chair is just so visceral and raw, I don’t think I’ve read anything else like it. I’m looking forward to reading the second volume!