Frank Miller: The Art of Sin City HC
By Frank Miller and Lynn Varley
Introduction by R.C. Harvey
Published by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse's Frank Miller art book is out in stores this week, and while the $40.00 price tag is bound to put some people off, there's no denying it's a beautiful showcase for the artistic style Miller has used for the past few years.
While Miller was a favourite artist of mine in the '80s -- and his work from that era with inker Klaus Janson continues to hold my admiration -- Sin City has mostly bored me with its dead-end obsession with tough guys, double-dealin' broads and detail-obliterating shadows.
But if you go for that, you'll definitely dig this book. Each page is a separate work of art unto itself -- covers, selected pages, trading card art, prints, you name it. I'd go so far as to say that you don't even need the actual comics, this collection of images pretty much gives you the same visceral effect of the entire series to date. The book is printed on heavy, 100 lb. stock interspersed with textured red pages containing sketches.
The nicest pages are those coloured by Millar's longtime partner Lynn Varley. Her experimentation on the To Hell and Back series found Miller leaving more open space in his art for her to work in, and it was a spectacular visual partnership, one that may surprise people disappointed by the garish palette in evidence in the much-despised Dark Knight Strikes Again project (prominent in its absence in the bio on Miller in the back).
As comic art books go, this is one of the finest presentations of the work of a single artist that I've seen. It even manages to elevate Miller's hackneyed obsession with noir tropes into something you might find worth celebrating. Certainly respected comics commentator R.C. Harvey's introduction does just that -- and in fact is more interesting and entertaining than any given issue of Sin City. I just wish the source material were more worthy of the apotheosis it receives here. Grade: 4/5