Customer Reviews
Hmmm... - By: Bungle, 29 Jun 2007 
Having read all of the other 6 previous Sin City books i was hoping for a final book to really blow the rest out of the water with loads of action & secret sbeing revealed, hopefully whilst including the characters i had become accustomed to i.e. Marv,Dwight & Jon. Unfortunately, i was rather disapointed. I was very unsre whether to give it a 4 star rating to be honest because of how split i amin my verdict.
The book does have its good bits involving alot of action sequences & bits of humour, however, as i was with the 5th & 6th books, i felt slightlyin the dark as to who the main characters were. In A Dame To Kill For for example, we had already met Marv, learning of what sort of person he would be. The same isin The Big Fat Kill as we had already met Dwight & seen his unique personality. In contrast, the main manin Hell & Back goes by the name of Wallace whom we have seen no history of or background to. I was hoping while starting to read the book that he may somehow link into other characters pasts. Again i felt disappointed when this wasnt the case.
I have to say this isnt the first time the final bookin a series has left me feeling rather incomplete & empty yet entertained at the same time. Allin all, the book seems to me to be slightly confused & with no link to the previous books (which i found was so appealing about the first 4). Therefore i reluctantly label this book as one of the more averagein the series with very little stand out moments or storyline to it. Buy it to complete your collection, but dont get your hopes up.
Frank Miller's "Sin City" has a new hero in town - By: Lawrance M. Bernabo, 19 Aug 2005 
Bigger does not prove to be betterin Book 7 of Frank Miller's "Sin City" series. "Hell & Back" is a 296-page graphic noir that introduces a new heroin Wallace, an ex-Navy seal who takes it personally when he saves Esther from committing suicide only to have her taken by men unknown for reasons unknown. He does not know why she jumped or even where she lives, but that does not matter. He was kissing Esther when the lights went out & a guy like Wallace tends to take something like that personally. As he says on the title page of this one: "I'm going to kill somebody. Put your clothes on." When we find out who he is saying that to you have to wonder if our hero might not bein over his head on this one.
So, once again we have a hard-boiled guy looking to save a sexy dame, but despite the basic similarity "Hell & Back" comes across a bit differently from Miller's previous graphic novelsin the series. It is not just that Wallace has that mop of hair hangingin this face, but that for the most part Miller has cleared the stage of a lot of the familiar characters. The only previous "Sin City" book you need to have read is the previous one, "Booze, Broads, & Bullets," so that when Delia shows up with her blue eyes & blue bodice you know this is not a good sign. Miller is sparse with introducing color into the black & white world of "Sin City," but Delia's blue is far & away the most effective use of color. But the orange of leopard skinned Mariah makes me think maybe the color pink does not occupy the other end of the spectrum here.
"Sin City" actually breaks into full color at one point, when Wallace gets injected with a hallucinogenic drug & starts freaking out. Comic book fans will spot the likes of Lone Wolf & Cub, Captain America, Hagar the Horrible, & the Catin the Hat as Wallace totally trips out & tries to find the truthin the illusions. Actually, he does a pretty good job of it. Artistically Miller also plays with white a lot morein this one than he didin most of the previous books, although apparently just to be different rather than to any specific effect. Then again, Miller is over a thousand pages into his comic book noir & how many different ways can the guy draw play & white pages?
I know that with Book 7 we now have a complete set of "Sin City" graphic novels. You can tell because when you put the seven books side-by-side on the shelf the bindings form a picture of Nancy. But I would hate to think this is the last "Sin City" from Miller because it does not provide a big finish. Since Miller provided the definitive big finish with "The Dark Knight Returns" we have reason to hope for something similar with his own creation, but this is not it. Wallace is almost too competent of a hero compared to Marv & Dwight, especially with the support group he hasin place, but Esther being the least interesting damselin distress to date helps take this one down a notch as well. Consequently, "Hell & Back" is good but not great, & with Miller that always ends up being something of a disappointment.
The word was that this was going to be part of the "Sin City" movie, with Johnny Depp as Wallace (he was also supposed to be Robert Rodriguez's first choice for Jackie Boy), but who wants to see a "Sin City" movie with an intermission or cutin two parts like "Kill Bill"? I do not know if any or all of these rumors are true, but trying to think of Wallace as being Johnny Depp while I read "Hell & Back" did not quite work, morein terms of the body type pulling off all of Wallace's stunts than the longhaired look, because obviously Depp can pull that off.
Gripping, enthralling, not to mention cool! - By: A. Morrison, 18 Jul 2005 
I love this book so much. I didn't get into the Sin City graphic novels until after the film - which I enjoyed but whoa! The books are so much better. And of the first seven Sin City graphic novels - this one is by far the best. Not least because it has a happy ending! Wallace & Esther rock & the ending moved me to tears when Wallace asks Esther why she did what she did at the beginning of the story (I'm trying not to spoil it for those who haven't read it.) All the Sin City novels are great - (the weakestin my opinion being Family Values, which was still good) - but if you want to get lostin a great story - then look no further than this one. You won't be disappointed. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
One of the lesser in a great series! - By: rudeboy_01@hotmail.com, 14 Mar 2001 Frank Miller ... well what can you say. Frank Miller is one of the prime GRAPHIC artist alive these days. The Sin city series has been one of the coolest comic series around. Still this story about loss, love & revenge involving kidnapping, wierd stroylines & as always extremely good looking women did not take mein as tight a grip like as previous volumes of the series did. Still Frank Miller doesn't produce bad stories. As a comic novel it still transcends above a lot of the other stuff out there these days!
