Out of curiosity, do the stories/characters appear through more then one book? I ordered the first two, and recieved the 2nd book the other day. Would my enjoyment change if i read these randomly, or would it be better to read them in order?

Thanks for the update Dr.DVD, I was hoping the differnce wasn't too much, I didn't want to have to track the old ones down on ebay.
Off to amazon I go!
Anyone know of prices that beat amazon? ($11.56, $11.56, $12.92 for the first batch released) free shipping over $25
Thanks!

Well, the film is omitting one of the stories of the first four, so I would guess it doesn't matter. The only reservation I would have is that while they are all self contained stories, the fate of one character might be mentioned in a later one before you read the actual story of that character.

While this isn't necessarily an example, I was reading the Marv story last night and Jessica Alba's character of Nancy appears. Nothing siginificant happens, but if I had read the story where she was a focus first it might not have had the same impact.

Each book is fully self-contained, but the characters and places will reappear through the various books.

Here's how the first four books were published:

Sin City Vol 1 - The Hard Goodbye*
Sin City Vol 2 - A Dame to Kill For
Sin City Vol 3 - The Big Fat Kill*
Sin City Vol 4 - That Yellow Bastard*
(Books marked with a * are the basis for the movie)

However, the stories take place in a different order:

That Yellow Bastard
A Dame to Kill For
Sin City/The Hard Goodbye
The Big Fat Kill

That Yellow Bastard takes place over the course of eight years, and the events toward the end of the book take place either during or just before A Dame to Kill For, going by one small panel.

One thing... the climax of "The Hard Goodbye" is mentioned in passing in The Big Fat Kill, so you should definitely read The Big Fat Kill after the original Sin City Hard Goodbye.

Thanks guys. I figured it would be something like that. I think i'll try to read them in release order while i can just for those subtle mentions of other characters and events.

I think I read in Ent. Weekly that Hard Goodbye, Big Fat Kill, and Yellow Bastard were the basis for the film - not Dame to Kill For. Also, a few short stories (like the Customer is Always Right) are tied into the film.

Where are the short stories collected?

That is not true. A graphic novel is a comic story that is told in a book size form, not the standard 32 page length. Sin City is not a graphic novel because the comics were published in standard form first then collected into a trade paperback. So technically it is not a graphic novel because it was not originally published in the grapic novel form, but graphic novel is a viable term, it just doesn't apply here.

And read Sin City aka The Hard Goodbye. That Yellow Bastard is probably my favorite though, and Hell and Back (the most recent) was my least favorite. But all the others are good to.

SIN CITY: BOOZE BROADS AND BULLETS (Volume 6, I think)

This contains all of the Sin City short stories from the various one-shot comics and Dark Horse anthologies:

"Just Another Saturday Night" from Sin City 1/2 (Wizard mail-in special offer) 17 pg
"Fat Man and Little Boy" from Sin City Lost Lonely Lethal #1 3 pg
"The Customer is Always Right" from Sin City The Babe Wore Red and Other Stories 3 pg
"Silent Night" from Sin City: Silent Night #1 (Christmas special) 27 pg
"And Behind Door #3" from Sin City The Babe Wore Red and Other Stories 4 pg
"Blue Eyes" from Sin City Lost Lonely Lethal #1 14 pg
"Rats" from Sin City Lost Lonely Lethal #1 7 pg
"Daddy's Little Girl" from A Decade of Dark Horse #1 8 pg
"Wrong Turn" from Sin City Sex and Violence #1 23 pg
"Wrong Track" from Sin City Sex and Violence #1 3 pg
"The Babe Wore Red" from Sin City The Babe Wore Red and Other Stories #1 24 pg

Got my Sin City: The Hard Goodbye book from Amazon last night (they're already shipping the others, execpt the last 3). This is great. I'm not a comic book fan at all, but I had to get the books after watching the SIn City trailer, and then reading everything I could find on the film. Just great stuff, and cool artwork. Anyone know where I could see the covers for the last 3 volumes? Amazon has the old covers up still...

I think amazon does have the new cover art, but for some of them you have to click the "other editions" link (and choose 2nd) because i guess they still have old stock as well. Already picked up 1 & 3 and then ordered 3 others last week-they say to expect them to ship in May.....

DarkHorse.com has the new Family Values cover up, but not for the remaining two. These will look great all together on my shelf:



By the way, don't fret, that "Now a Major Motion Picture" circle is just a sticker.

I never got into comics growing up (no comic book stores in my hometown), but I picked up "The Hard Goodbye" yesterday to look through, and I didn't want to put it down. I'm a sucker for stories, be it a novel, a comic book, a graphic novel, a movie, whatever. If you like stories, it's a safe bet.

The Difference Between Comic And Graphic Novel Is Adult Content Contained In The Story. Comics Are The Tongue In Cheek, The Bright Color, Conventional Super Hero Tales That One Sees At Your Local Around The Corner Store. Whereas Graphic Novels Contain Much More Violence, Depressing, Dark Places And Characters Which Are Depicted In Either Text Or Pictures. Also To Be More Truthful About The Difference; Authors Seem To Be Taken More Serious About Thier Work When They Refer To It As Being A Graphic Novela Rather Than Something One Reads In The Sunday Funnies.

A graphic novel would be something that was put out directly as a novel in graphic form. Sin City came out in signle issues first, so in theory, it's not even a graphic novel. it's a trade paper back or a collected series while Killing Joke or superman:true brit are graphic novels.

The term is really just to make a "comic book" step away from the burned in image you get of something that is for kids only or in the sunday paper. There is nothing wrong with reading a comic book.

What's with all the people capitalizing the first letter of each word lately?

Jack, Sin City: Family Values was released as a graphic novel, not serialized, but the other Sin City stories were originally released as individual issues.

At this point, I would say any book length comic is a graphic novel, and then differentiate between original graphic novels and collected editions.

Ive always seen the Sin City books at the comic stores i usually visit and always wanted to give them a read but it wasnt till i started to hear about the movie and see the trailer that i finally decided to get the books. I bought and read the 1st one, The Hard Goodbye, and i was hooked! It was a really great story. I then got the 2nd, A Dame to Kill For, and found it just as great. Now the 3rd, The Big Fat Kill, i found to be pretty good, not great though. It was more straight forward with the story and action but not as involving as the first two. I just bought the 4th, That Yellow Bastard and im really looking forward to reading this one, becuase its seems to be everyones favorite. Overall though, fantastic books, im officially a fan!

For the record Sin City IS a graphic novel, no matter how the stories were origianally released. They were CONCEIVED of as novels with a novel's story arc, not as a collected part of a comic book's run.

Actually Frank Miller's work in comics - particularly his reinvention of Daredevil - is exceptional, too.

And anyone who calls graphic novels "pretentious" hasn't been paying attention, since several (Spiegelman's MAUS is a prime those not exclusive example) have won major literary awards in the past decade.

I would say that the first Sin City story, now called the Hard Goodbye, wasn't conceived of as a novel. It ran in ten page increments in Dark Horse Comics Presents, with a cliffhanger every ten pages. There was an overall story, but it wasn't written for the novel format.

not quite true

the first graphic novel was done by eisner, and was an uplifting tale called "a contract with god"

it was a novel because it wasnt serialized

marvel put out the first mainstream graphic novel with the introduction of the new xmen, a book far from adult oriented

hollywood is attempting to discern between kids and adult fare by using graphic novel to describe sin city

it was originally serialized

DarkHorse.com finally has the cover for the sixth volume of Sin City:

And Amazon has the final new cover:

Do any stores have a deal if you buy the 3 books that make up the movie? The cheapest I've seen so far is at Amazon for $36. But that's just their normal price, not a discounted one for buying all 3.

Right now Borders and Walden books have a deal, but 2 graphic novels, get 1 free. There is also a coupon floating around somewhere for another 10 or 15% off.

Do you know how long the Buy 2 get one free offer is good for?