Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Frank Miller

Dwight is a photographer, mostly doing subcontracts for a nasty little private detective. It's not much of a life, but it's something, and it's something better than he had before. Which begs the question: what happens if before intrudes on Dwight's new life?

Such is the premise of *A Dame to Kill For*, the second *Sin City* graphic novel (and the only one of the first few not to be featured in the Robert Rodriguez movie. Don't worry, berks, there's a sequel on the way). As you expect if you've read ten random panels of Frank Miller's work before, what happens is that things go very awry very quickly, and, of course, they get violent.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the novels (reflected nicely in the movie) is how far in advance Miller was obviously setting things up for later episodes in the series. Single panels from other books appear from other perspectives in different books, giving the reader a stronger sense of time than he'd otherwise have (the rest of the clues are a bit more subtle, such as Marv showing up towards the end of this book with the bandages on his face that he gets early in the first book). Miller's world is full and richly detailed, his characters dark and complex, and his art bordering on the expressionist while retaining the minimal quality of good *noir*. Lovely, as usual.