To be able to dive into it all, page after page, is to see it from quite a privileged vantage point. They are a treasured landmark in comics and I doubt anyone would dispute that. Taken in as one cascading panorama of ragged and jagged finely articulated streaks of black, these compositions are as dynamic as any art form. There’s an elegant brutality at work, even more than that. For all the sex and violence that takes places within these pages, not a page of it feels false. It takes a real human touch to go down the paths that Miller takes. Miller’s vision is nothing less than a delicate balance between art, life, and death.

In lesser hands, some of the hard stuff would turn creepy and lose its pulpy luster. But the Frank Miller we are concerned with is the real deal, someone who can take you down twisted scary alleyways and never falter.

All the girls would trust him with their lives, not to mention their gorgeous bodies.

If Frank Miller had not become a master storyteller, I can imagine him having no trouble sliding into a nice lowlife role as a trusted bodyguard at a strip joint. If you’ve had a chance to see the original “Sin City” movie, then you know that’s the line up in that flick. Dwight will take on the whole underworld to defend a community of sex workers he’s come to bond with like family. Hartigan will protect a young girl even if it means trading in his own life. Marv will avenge Goldie, the best friend he ever made. All of these palookas find themselves at a crossroads, a big fat chance at redemption, and all these brutes go for it. Neither were all the other larger-than-life losers in this epic masterpiece. We find Marv, this two-time loser with a mug only a mother could love. There’s only one option: Tear the hell out of there and take out as many cops as possible along the way. Suddenly, as he’s trying to get his head together, he hears the sirens of the crooked cops of Sin City. It seems obvious that the big guy killed her but, no, it wasn’t him. The big palooka can’t believe his good luck to be with such a gorgeous dame. The collection begins with “The Hard Goodbye.” We have all the beautiful silhouettes of sex. All in time for the much anticipated Sin City sequel, “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,” set for August 22, 2014. “Take one volume of Sin City and repeat until you have completed the omnibus.” Big Damn Sin City collects Frank Miller and Lynn Varley‘s seven stories: The Hard Goodbye, A Dame to Kill For, The Big Fat Kill, The Yello Bastard, Family Values, Booze, Broads, & Bullets, and Hell and Back. “Frank Miller’s Big Damn Sin City” is just what the doctor ordered, if he has a decidedly dark side.

Big Damn Sin City by Frank Miller