Speaking of brilliant artwork and misogyny, Frank Miller's Sin City cycle of noir-infused stories for Dark Horse have broken out of the comic stores and become graphic novel stalwarts, finding their ways into the hands of people who wouldn't normally be caught dead thumbing through a funnybook. The pulpy adventures of broken men and women are full of sex, violence and pessimism but, most importantly, the stark and impressionistic black-and-white artwork of Miller. His use of light and shade is masterful, the look of black-and-white film noir taken as far as it can go, a glorious exaltation and celebration of what comics can do over any other narrative form. At the same time the sex, violence and pessimism are incredibly wearisome, and Miller takes on as many of the bad parts of pulp and noir as the good. Like Kick-Ass, Sin City has been boosted by its movie versions, but it was part of the canon long before then, one of those fateful few comics that appeal to a wider audience. Between that and Frank Miller's elevated status within the comics industry, you don't heard much criticism of Sin City. But you should. Because it's not great. The protagonists in each of the vignettes that add up to make the larger story are paper-thin, each a collection of pulpy cliches with a visual motif, a motivation for whatever violent acts they're going to do, and not a lot else. They're barely developed, and don't have room in their limited pages to grow any further. At least the men get to keep their clothes on, whilst almost every female character is a stripper, a prostitute, or struts around in a state of undress regardless. Sin City is seen as a higher form of comic books, but it actually suffers from many of the issues which keep mainstream comic books dismissed as low culture, oftentimes being even worse than your average issue of Catwoman or Red Hood And The Outlaws. Oh also swastikas. Lots and lots of swastikas. Half-baked, misogynistic and historically insensitive. A classic!
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
