10 Hugely Influential Comics That Changed Everything

8. Sin City (Dark Horse Comics)

With the August 25th UK release of Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's Sin City movie sequel, A Dame To Kill For, now is as good a time as any to throw a spotlight on Miller's highly influential comic book series. The first instalment of Sin City debuted in 'Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special' in April 1991, and as further stories have been published over the years, it has really shown itself to be the purest form of Frank Miller's work. Harder than hard-boiled crime stories, filled with tough, broken men prone to extreme violence, existing in the crime ridden Basin City alongside sexy dames and dangerous femme fatales, it's Miller distilled to his very essence. With black and white, stark and stylised artwork and gritty, pulpy dialogue, Sin City is film noir in comic book form. The influence of Sin City can be keenly felt in nearly every crime comic book that has been created since. Brian Azzarello's epic 100 Bullets series, published by DC imprint Vertigo, would have struggled to be greenlit in a pre-Sin City world. It is a supremely constructed and complex tale, weaving in the fates of several seemingly disparate characters and groups into one cohesive narrative, a trick which Miller pulls off in Sin City. Similarly, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Criminal series, detailing the lives of different characters operating in the fictional Center City, owes a great debt to Miller. Both these series' managed to simultaneously wear their Miller love on their sleeves and yet transcended the status as imitators and became defining works of their own.