Sin City: That Yellow Bastard, Part 1

[cyberghostface]

In addition to the usual content warning for 'Sin City' -- violence, nudity, etc -- I'm going to preface with this a warning: one of the villains is a child molester/killer. We don't actually see anything related to that but it's mentioned so I figured it's worth a heads up.

I think this is one of the stronger Sin City stories but if you're not a fan of the previous ones or Frank Miller's style in general it's probably not for you.

Comments

[cyberghostface]

FWIW his work on Daredevil and his early Batman stuff are all considerably better than this.

[lb_lee]

Yeah? How context dependent are his runs?

[cyberghostface]

They're all pretty accessible to newcomers.

[servant_iskandar]

The Bullseye - Elektra arc in Daredevil is pretty self-contained for the most part: it's also worth noting for Klaus Janson's strong contribute on art duties / inking.

Then there's the culmination in Born Again, which reads well as a standalone story; it is also the first collaboration of note Miller had with artist David Mazzuchelli.

They would eventually join again for Batman: Year One. My advice is to simply go, grab a copy (your local library might also carry one) and read it. If you can manage to find it, go for the original edition because the coloring in it is much better in my opinion, as Mazzuchelli's firing on all cylinders there.

You should also be able to find excerpts on s_d. As for The Dark Knight Returns, I still see it as one of the strong points of Miller's career... but you can also spot what eventually would turn to excess/flanderization/self-parody and go wrong in just a few years: DC resorting to GRIMDARK GRIMDARK GRIMDARK all too often, while Miller sped up his own decline, a virtual red line leading to The Dark Knight Strikes Again and ASBAR.

This arc of Sin City is relatively early in that descent, you've already noticed both its problems and high notes. IMHO, there's something truly hilarious and disturbing about Junior coming back at Hartigan as a homicidal version of the Yellow Kid.

[lb_lee]

Yeah, like it's kinda weird reading THIS when my sole exposures (asides from random snippets here and there) were things like ASBAR and some godawful post-apocalyptic story with a child main character whose title and publisher I've mercifully forgotten. Like, I can see his "good" skills and also the "dear god no" skills, and knowing where they ended... it's just kinda sad.

Batman is also admittedly a pretty hard sell for me even at the best of times. I MIGHT pick it up if I see it, but I admit, I'm not hugely invested either way.

God, THAT'S what I was missing! I felt there was something more to the Yellow Guy and now I'm like, "oh god, OF COURSE. Goddammit Miller."