Graphic Novel Review: SIN CITY TWO, A DAME TO KILL FOR

A DAME TO KILL FOR (SIN CITY, VOLUME TWO) graphic novel by Frank Miller I(Dark Horse Books, April 2005) Paperback, 2nd Edition, 208 pages. Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

Because of a shocking ending to the first Sin City book, many people wondered how successful Frank Miller could be with future tales of his no-holds-barred city noir. 

     Enter Dwight McCarthy, a clean-living photographer who tries to avoid trouble because he knows what he's capable of. His tactics don't do him much good when a girl from his past (who he can't say no to) shows up and professes her love for him. When he finds out she's in way over her head, it looks as though trouble has found him. What's going to happen? You guessed it: people get hurt.

My Five-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     SIN CITY won a 1995 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series, and this entry had a lot to do with that. This is my favorite of the SIN CITY novels, and reminds me of crime fiction writer Raymond Chandler’s private detective Phillip Marlowe, mostly for the first person narration and the settings/situations (not so much the wry observations that Marlowe was noted for, although there are some juicy comments here). 

     Like the other novels, this one also depicts a society that, unlike the stylish art, is not so black-and-white. A DAME TO KILL FOR deals with obsession, justice, redemption, and the very nature of good and evil. 

      Main character Dwight McCarthy, a private detective down on his luck and reduced to taking seamy photographs of illicit affairs for a food-obsessed overweight Agamemnon (nice choice of name), gets aroused and then manipulated by ex-wife Ava. This leads to murder and all sorts of trouble for Dwight, who gets an assist from long-time associate Marv.

     The dialogue in two expressive shadowy panels details how far poor Dwight has fallen under a spell: “I call her every foul name there is. She makes my name sound like music, like a chant to some dark god . . . She’s slippery with sweat . . . . Before long my hatred’s spent but she won’t let go.  She kisses and coaxes me and the fire grows again . . . . . I’m dragged to the ground by a jungle cat. She devours me and I thank her for it.”  Another essential read.