Product Description: In 1991, visionary creator Frank Miller continued his shakedown of the comics industry when he premiered his visceral and powerfully charged Sin City series. With Sin City, Miller sent a shock wave through the industry and beyond, stunning critics and amazing readers, the after-affects of which are still being felt today. While Miller is primarily praised for his outstanding stories, it is his breathtaking artwork that continues to shine on. To honor the artist and his groundbreaking work, Dark Horse Maverick is pleased to present Frank Miller: The Art of Sin City, a unique and handsomely bound hardcover coffee table book, containing pieces both published and unpublished -- some never before seen by the public. Printed on glossy 100 lb. coated paper stock and featuring items ranging from preliminary sketches to promotional pieces, this beautiful edition holds everything a Sin City fan, or connoisseur of fine art, could ever hope for.
Decent, but not Thrilling Dark Horse has done a good job with their "Art of..." books of late, and I was excited that they produced a book on Sin City. The real enjoyment of this book is seeing Frank Miller's sketches, which are nothing if not impressive, and a great many of these, as well as unpublished works, are presented. What is disappointing, however, is that too much of the book is devoted to individual pages from the numerous Sin City miniseries and one-shots, which makes it seem less impressive and somewhat of a waste of money. Additionally, unlike the more complete and interesting "Art of Hellboy," there is very little annotation or commentary on the images, which makes this book a lesser offering than it should have been.
inspiration for print artists and illustrators Innovative technique, closer to fine art than comic illustration. My major quibble is that the technique is kept a big secret. Artists share ideas freely. Only 3rd rate hacks hoard. Share your technique, dude. It won't hurt a bit. You'll watch your ideas grow and spawn new ideas. Also, if Miller used other artists, they should be given credit under their work. Goes without saying.
perfect exhibition of light-dark aesthetics It's really a shame that Sin City fans are responsible for this book's poor overall rating. The title says it all- it's about the ART of Sin City, so people who want to see all original material should just wait for new Sin City comics and stop complaining about this book.
With that said, I should really take a moment to compliment Dark Horse for producing books like this and The Art of Hellboy, both of which are valuable to artists like me who do not read comics but are in awe of many of the artists who work in the field. I could name many artists who I wish had books like this one- compilations of finished art and sketches that showcase the art in large format and take the readers/viewers behind the scenes of how it was produced.
If you are an artist who is looking to master the aesthetics of black and white design, I highly recommend both this book and The Art of Hellboy. I also recommend both books if you are a fan of art and enjoy discovering complexity in what appears to be simple, and vice versa. However, if you have every Sin City comic and are distraught because you bought this book expecting it to be all new material, then do us artists and art fans a favor and put your copy back on the market.
The REPRINTED Art of Frank Miller I saw this in a comic book store and boy, was this a disappointment. Most of the material has appeared in the pages of the Sin City comic books. Here, they're reproduced at a larger size but big deal. Compare this to the recent Art of Hellboy and you'll see a huge difference in terms of value. Do not buy this book if you already own the Sin City comics or graphic novels because you're going to be getting something you've already seen.
Shame on you, Frank. There is hardly any new material here. I have been a huge fan of Frank Miller since his Wolverine mini-series done in the late 80s. I'm a huge Sin City fan, and I own all of the graphic novels, even though I also own most of the individual issues, so you can imagine my joy when I heard this project was first announced. It arrived today from Amazon, and I'm returning it tomorrow morning. This book is about 90 percent reprints of pages from the various Sin City mini series, and some promotional items, with perhaps a dozen or so rough layouts and sketches. There were exactly 4 images in this book that I hadn't already seen!!! I can't believe he would try to milk [$$]from his fans like this!!! If you own the majority of the graphic novels in this series, don't waste your money on this. There is very little about his thought or design processes. If you haven't read any of the books in this series, this is a good teaser for the full graphic novels.
I bought this hoping that it would wash the bad taste of DK2 away, but now I feel doubly cheated.
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