20 Absolutely Masterful First Pages Of Comics

9. Sin City: The Hard Goodbye

A third Frank Miller? Yes, indeed. The man knew his way around a first page the way Dale Earnhardt, Jr. knew his way around a steering wheel, and the first volume of Sin City sees the best of his career.

Just in case the name of the series (nicknamed from the fictional "Basin City," not Las Vegas) and the high-contrast black-and-white art was too subtle, Miller takes care to evoke the divine and the damned right up front: "hot as Hell," "a goddess." The setup is as seedy and salacious as can be as Marv prepares to take to bed a woman he has only just met, but that language gives it all a sense of purpose and importance.

For all that, Miller also provides enough realistic detail to make it tangible, like the air-conditioning unit, Marv's hard swig of whatever cheap beer he's drinking and the way the blankets, true to Marv's description, stick to Goldie like Saran wrap.