Sin City: Hard Goodbye Bk. 1 (Sin City (Dark Horse)): Hard Goodbye Bk. 1 (Sin City (Dark Horse)) | 
| Author: Frank Miller
Artist: Frank Miller
Publisher: Dark Horse
Category: Book
List Price: £10.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 4468
Media: Paperback
Edition: l
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 1593072937
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9781593072933
ASIN: 1593072937
Publication Date: February 1, 2005
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Frank Miller's Sin City is visually quite astonishing. A brutal adult noir set in the fictional Basin City, Miller's black and white artwork realises the atmosphere of some weird Depression-era-style future superbly well. Our principal character, Marv, is a giant, as large as he is ugly, who has found some peace, some kindness, some shelter in the arms of a prostitute called Goldie. Goldie, running from someone, scared as hell, needs protection as much as Marv needs a little human kindness. Hauling himself out of the depths of a huge hangover Marv wakes to find Goldie murdered. And revenge is one of the things Marv does best. While the artwork is undeniably fine the story is rather thin in places, and the sound effects come a little too thick and fast. Although not a great comic it is a very good one and, as the first part of the classic Sin City series, the beginning chapter in what has become an essential addition to the adult graphic novel collector's list. --Mark Thwaite
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Classic start to a classic series....a must have! April 24, 2008
This is one of my favourite graphic novels. Utterly fantastic and visually stunning. Even if you are not a reader of graphic novels, any traditional crime fan would be pulled into Frank Millers world of hard cases, hitmen, dames and hookers. The men are big and burly, the women are so hot and curvy, and its all conveyed perfectly in harsh black and white artwork. Its like traditional film noir on the page.
This is the first in the series of Sin city, and the protagonist is the incredible Marv, hulking street fighter and tough guy with a "condition." He can't believe his luck when he meets a beautiful woman called Goldie...But it's not to last, and she ends up murdered. Then Marv is hot on the trail of her killers, and blood splattered vengeance will be his!! Kevin is truly one of the creepiest baddies I've seen, and Marv makes sure he gets what he deserves. Some of the characters are just amazing and recur throughout the Sin City series, like Gail, the fiery hooker, and Nancy, the angelic strip club dancer. This is a great crime story, as well a thrilling personal drama. I found it kind of romantic too, in a tragic way.
A welcome change from traditional superhero comics. Frank Miller is a genius! Read the rest of series now, and have a look at the art book! A great adult read indeed!
 Impressive crime story August 6, 2007
This is a great story and incredibly well drawn. Marv is a brute with justice on his side in this dark tale of violence, prostitution and corruption. Highly recommended if you're fond of noir and incredibly well designed drawings. Some of Miller's art is astounding and this is well worth a look.
Grimy "Goodbye" March 26, 2007
With a name like "The Hard Goodbye," it isn't surprising that the first volume of the Sin City series is pure, gritty noir. After practically reinventing the superhero comic, Frank Miller created a series that can definitely be called his opus -- gritty, dark, sexy and heady. Think of it as "The Big Sleep" meets "Kill Bill."
"The night is hot as hell. Everything sticks." With those words, tough, scarred Marv encounters and beds a beautiful, alluring "goddess" named Goldie. No sooner have they made love than she is found dead beside him, and unsurprisingly the police believe that Marv is the killer. Case closed? Not really.
Being blamed for the murder of the woman he loved, Marv devotes himself to finding who killed her and framed him. He rampages through the depths of Sin City, unearthing the twisted power structure that holds it up -- and in his homicidal quest, destroying his hidden enemies for the murder of Goldie... and in the process, dooming himself.
The noir atmosphere starts from the first panel -- toughguyspeak, a silhouette and a beautiful woman. That dark, dirty feel sets the mood for the book, and in fact for the entire series. Imagine one of those old Humphrey Bogart noir movies, with the smoky atmosphere and black-and-white film... but darker, more violent, openly sexual, and often gruesome in tone.
Miller's drawing style is all in black and white, and in "Hard Goodbye" the style is simple, but effective. He uses stark swashes of dark and light to illustrate the characters' faces and bodies, never overburdening the reader with too many unnecessary details. Although later volumes have more visual detail, Miller strips it down here to the bare bones, and it fits the spare narrative beautifully.
"Sin City" itself is a seedy underbelly, full of crime, revenge and corruption; Marv isn't the guy who's going to clean it up, a la Dashiell Hammett, but the guy who will get revenge, no matter what the consequences are. The characters are just as dark: a corrupted Cardinal, psychopathic cannibal Kevin, and moderately crooked cops. Lots of death ensues.
Frank Miller's "Sin City: The Hard Goodbye" is a hard book to read. However, the Chander-by-way-of-Tarantino comic book is an electrifying read, dark and bloody and vivid.
Five Star Sin June 29, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This has to be the perfect place to start from if you want to enter the world of Sin City. Frank Miller brings what has to be one of the best graphic novels ever to the public. If you have already seen the film and want to follow up your interest in Sin City, this is one of the 3 main books used. The others being That Yellow Bastard and The Big Fat Kill, there is also a small section of Booze, Broads and Bullets used.
The second Sin City film will be based around the book To Hell and Back, which is the seventh book of the Sin City Empire.
Hartigan saves little Nancy Callahan in Miller's comic noir June 7, 2005
5 out of 11 found this review helpful
Although I still have a preference for Marv and narrative of "The Hard Goodbye," the first of Frank Miller's "Sin City" graphic novels, I think that artistically he hits full stride in the fourth, "That Yellow Bastard." It is just mildly ironic that this becomes the first volume in the series to add any color to Miller's black and white world. But whereas "The Hard Goodbye" had an almost kitchen sink approach with Miller pretty much trying everything he could come up with for black & white (or white & black) illustrations, I find there is much more of a coherent artistic vision and a rhythm to way in which Miller goes from predominantly black to predominantly white pages, and back again. "That Yellow Bastard" begins with tough cop John Hartigan, whose good heart is going bad on him, trying to stay alive long enough to do one last case before he dies. Somebody has been raping and murdering little girls for some time and now they have taken 11-year-old Nancy Callahan. Hartigan is able to save Nancy from Roark Junior, the son of Senator Roark, but takes four bullets in the process. Junior is in worse shape, having an ear and both of his "weapons" removed by Hartigan's bullets. If an old man dies and a little girl survives, then Hartigan considers that a fair deal. But this bloody encounter is but the first act in this particular comic noir. The first episode sets the rules for Hartigan's world, where protecting women is hard-wired into the psyches of tough guys like him. Even when Hartigan finds out that Nancy grew up and filled out, that does not change his mission (just complicates it a bit). Granted, the age difference would make more sense if he was her grandfather, but then there is a consistency to what Hartigan means when he says that he loves Nancy, even if she is inclined to read it a different way. There is a leap in the narrative at one point that you might find a bit hard to accept (i.e., confession leads to immediate release), but you have to admit it is a lot easier to be a pariah out in the world than stuck in prison (and I think Junior would have wanted it that way). Again, the art work here is Miller at what I consider to be his best, but attention must also be paid to the sense of pacing that he shows in several scenes (most notably when Hartigan pulls himself together for the final confrontation with Junior). There are easily a dozen great looks at Hartigan's grizzled face, and a 15-page sequence, spanning two chapters, of Nancy dancing at the club, consisting of not only full-page shots but also two-page spreads, as she mesmerizes her audience. With "That Yellow Bastard" readers who were introduced to the graphic novels by the film that incorporated three of the first four volumes will be heading into new territory with "Family Values." It will interesting to see when and how Miller tops artistically what he came up with for this one.
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