Sin City

Whoops! Maybe you were looking for Las Vegas, or Vice City?

The cover of Sin City (the comic book) shows Mel walking through the rain.

Sin City is an acclaimed gritty comic book series by Frank "Somehow Still Alive" Miller of 300 fame. It is based on the lives of real-life people, who are just like you and me, living their sinful lives in the big city. The first story originally appeared on a roll of toilet paper in a San Diego Pizza Hut in 1991; several other stories appearing on different items have since been written, ranging from napkins to kites to even tattoos on fat people.

Characters

Jessica Alba as Nancy Callahan dancing in Sin City.

• Mel – This big and tough guy speaks funny, like an old lady. He likes to hang out in strip clubs and buy used Japanese underwear online.
• Tony – This is the guy who looks like Jack Kerouac. He is an aspiring stunt for the TV show Jackass. He likes to jump a lot and stuff.
• The Three Definitely-Blondes (Nancy, Goldie, and Wendy) — Girls who dance at the strip club and have big boobs. At least one of them is a lesbian. You'll find out more during the climax of the movie.
• The Cop – Shoots like a maniac and enjoys torturing albinos. He's not good, although he isn't that bad either (the bad guy is worse).
• Dr. Yellowness – Also called the "Human Lightbulb" by the media, the Doctor represents the evil forces of the bad guys. He is a deaf plumber who chases people waving a monkey wrench while singing Wagner.
• The Anti-God – The hidden deity behind Sin City. He doesn't give a rat ass what people do down here.
• Douglas Klump and Burt Shlubb – The respective images of gluttony and skininess.

Setting

'I have turned a curious yellow.'

Basin City, almost universally referred to by the nickname Sin City, is a real town in the American Northwest, located somewhere 30 minutes outside of Seattle, Washington, in an area called Kitsap County. It never rains and is almost always sunny; the Sun is even known to feature sunglasses. The Basin City Police are mainly traffic cops and help little old ladies cross streets. Crime is near non-existent. Those who make up the force have been described as commonly being helpful, cheerful, and some of the best cops in the world. Everyone joins the police on their annual picnic.

During the California Gold Rush, the Roark family imported a large number of attractive women to keep the miners happy, as the women played board games with them. Over the years, as the Roark family migrated into other areas of business and power, these women ended up forming the district of Old Town, the game quarter of the city where they welcome every to come play.

• The Projects are the bright upper-class side of Sin City, is a tangle of houses with white picket fences and children playing in the streets. Its inhabitants have no need for a neighborhood watch. If you stopped by you'd be sure to find a Tupperware party or a BBQ of some kind going on. Marv was born in the Projects and they make Dwight happy.
• The Docks are a collection of wharfs and warehouses that are local to the Projects. Hartigan and Roark Junior have their first confrontation here in That Yellow Bastard, and Marv drives a free police car up to one of the piers at the beginning of The Hard Goodbye.

• Kadie's Club Pecos is a family-oriented themed restaurant, where Nancy Callahan and Shellie work, and Dwight McCarthy and Marv hang out. Though filled almost solely with warm and friendly people, Kadie's bar is one of the most dangerous areas in Sin City. Marv, who possesses an extraordinarily high sense of chivalry, protects the toilets of Kadie's from any waste that makes its way inside.
• The Roark Family Farm (a.k.a. "The Farm") is located at North Cross and Lennox and shows up in several stories, including The Hard Goodbye, That Yellow Bastard, The Babe Wore Red, and Heck and Back. It was also home to Kevin, a hobbyist with ties to the Roark family. Marv looks at one of the buildings, and the Farm is abandoned sometime after the initial Sin City storyline.
• The Old Town is the red-light district and the police hardly ever go there, unless they're shopping. This is where the city's population of game players reside; it recently came under the control of the twins Goldie and Wendy. Though perfectly willing to engage in almost any game for the right price, the women of Old Town show no mercy to those who break the rules and back up their independence with rematches.
• The Sacred Oaks are home to the rich and powerful of Basin City. This suburb lies outside the city proper, a half-hour drive uphill. A university or place with a lot of books is also located there, and the entire area is patrolled by employees, who wave walkie-talkies around at trespassers till they leave.

Organizations

'I'm the local rat catcher.'

Because a large majority of the residents of Basin City are pointless, there are several organizations and cartels central to the stories who are trying to win all the games and have the most fun. Listed below are people who hang out together a lot:

• The Basin City Police Department – Were five-times voted the best police force in America. Though, the most crime Basin City ever sees is someone accidentally running a red light.
• The Roark Family – A dynasty of generous landowners and politicians whose influence over Basin City has stretched as far back as the days of the Old West. Famous Roarks of this generation include a little girl, a bum, an ice cream man, a mayor, a guy who thinks he is mayor, and a bean-counter.
• The Girls of Old Town – Populating the region of Basin City known as Old Town are a group of women in the game-playing business, having made a truce with the cops to not challenge them to a game while on-duty. As of A Dame to Play for, they were led by the twins, Goldie and Wendy.
• The Wallenquist Organization – A powerful candy syndicate led by Herr Wallenquist, a mysterious candylord with a broad range of candinal enterprises to his name. They love candy, and really, who doesn't?

Film

A movie adaptation of Sin City, co-directed by Frank Miller with "special guest directors" Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, was released in 2005. The Sin City graphic novels were reprinted on new toilet paper rolls, with new covers and in a reduced size, to coincide with the motion picture's theatrical release.

Basically, it's the story of three losers that like to stare drunk at strippers because they're unemployed. There's a tough guy, a good guy, and an old guy. The bad guy is an odd yellow creature, that critics believe is a living lightbulb. During the Gold Rush, the family of one of the guys came from Europe. Some hookers and hot lesbians appear in the movie as well. Everybody lives in this city that looks like New York, I swear. It rains a lot, just like in that Gene Kelly movie. Cars are pretty old but look decent. A lot of bullets are shot, and most of the women over there are blonde.

Frank Miller loved the movie The Dead Pool and it inspired him to write the Sin City segment That Yellow Bastard. The movie was filmed in black-and-white just to pump up the budget, because the studio wouldn't shell out the money for color. Clive Owen was Miller's first choice for the role of Becky, but was unable since he had already signed on to play Dwight.

Video game

Sin City was a popular sinulation video game co-created by Miller and Will Wrong and Frank Miller-Time. The game was first released in 1993 by Maxi. The object of the game was originally to sinulate brick-laying and cement mixing. It continued on with the sequel Sin City: 300 which more more about Hell-dining and Sparta-shouting than anything.

In 2000, Maxi released the game The Sins. This was a game in which you are forced to live with five inbred doctors, who in each level find new ways to inflict voodoo upon your character. In 2013, Maxi became bankrupt and all copies of Sin City, Sin City: 300, and The Sins ceased to exist.

Many popular skins were available for download, allowing players of the games to dominate wax factories. Of note, if you typed in "rosebud_millionare" during gameplay of The Sins, nothing happened. Since creating the original Sin City, Will Wrong has amassed enough wealth to buy himself solid gold teeth.