Hell and Back (A Sin City Love Story)
Encyclopedia
Hell and Back is a nine-issue comic book
limited series
, first published by Dark Horse Comics
in July 1999–April 2000.
, an artist/war hero/short order cook who saves a suicidal woman named Esther. She likes his art and they go out for a drink. They are ambushed by two men, who drug Wallace and kidnap Esther. Apparently, The Colonel and Liebowitz are a part of this conspiracy. Wallace spends the night in the drunk tank, after being dragged out of the gutter by two of Basin City's (notoriously corrupt) police officers, Manson and Bundy, and upon his release seeks out Esther. He is crossed once again by a squad of police officers after he tells Commissioner Liebowitz he plans to find Esther alone if need be, and proceeds to dispatch them with humiliating ease, leaving them bound, naked and without money. After locating Esther's home via his landlady, (she'd taken her address) he finds her apartment occupied by Delia, who claims to be Esther's roommate.
Wallace and Delia are attacked by the Colonel's new manservant, Manute, but they escape after Wallace beats him in hand-to-hand combat and defenestrates
him (a reference to a similar scene from A Dame To Kill For
). Then a sniper attacks from a nearby window, whom Wallace takes out by shooting him through the scope of his rifle, similar to a scene from RoboCop 2
(also written by Miller). All the while, Delia tries unsuccessfully to seduce him as they are pursued by two more assassins in a Mercedes, which Wallace also disposes of.
Afterwards, Wallace meets up with an old war buddy referred to only as Captain. He borrows an old Chevrolet Nomad
known as 'The Heap' from him and Wallace and Delia turn in for the night at the Last Hope Motel (a reference to Nancy Callahan
's car and the place where she and John Hartigan
hide in That Yellow Bastard
).
Wallace handcuffs her to the bed for what she believes is foreplay, when he reveals that he knows she cannot be Esther's roommate, since Esther's clothes would have the smell of Delia's cigarettes on them. Just then, Wallace is drugged by a sniper for the second time. He wakes at the Santa Yolanda Tar Pits, where Delia, Gordo, and a drug wizard named Maxine are preparing to abandon his car in the pits. Maxine gives him a huge dose of something strange and Wallace goes on a trip.
A large portion of the comic, wherein he finds himself hallucinating, is then done in full color, similar to Miller's work on Ronin
and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
saga, (all colored by Lynn Varley
, his wife). After a surreal sequence involving a crashing fighter jet, trash-talking cherubs
and dinosaurs, the car hits a tree. He discovers a young girl dead in the trunk, intended to frame him, and, since he can only perceive the girl as a battered Raggedy Ann
doll, he declares that 'just this once, I'm grateful for the drugs'. The police show up, as does Captain, who kills the police. Captain explains he'd have gotten there sooner if it wasn't for snipers establishing a perimeter. They torture the one remaining sniper, (as did Dwight in The Big Fat Kill
,) and find out where Delia, Gordo, and Maxine were heading and pursue them. During this sequence the Captain morphs into various pop culture icons, including King Leonidas from Frank Miller's 300, Lone Wolf and Cub
, an ED-209
droid from the RoboCop
movies, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
, Captain America
, Dirty Harry
, John Rambo
, Martha Washington
from Give Me Liberty
, Hagar the Horrible
and even Hellboy
. This portion is entirely in color.
They shoot past Delia, Maxine and Gordo at a gas station where they were refilling the Humvee they were driving. As they begin driving again, Wallace and Captain ambush them, with Captain disabling the Hummer with a rocket launcher. As they move in, Gordo mortally wounds Captain as Wallace shoots Gordo in the face. At gunpoint, Wallace makes Maxine bring him out of his hallucination hell. As she does, he shoots her in the head and shoots Delia through the gut when he suffers a panic attack. After blacking out for a few seconds, Wallace finds himself back in a black and white 'normal' world, Maxine dead and Delia wounded. Paralyzed from the waist down, and genuinely fearful, she begs him to have mercy on her, and as a last act of chivalry Wallace does so by shooting her in the back of her head ('She never sees what hits her.') . He then carries Captain's body back to the Heap and drives away.
He meets up with another war buddy named Jerry, the Captain's lover. They burn Captain's body in a funeral pyre, where afterwards they work trying to flush the rest of the drugs out of Wallace's system. Mariah, another female mercenary working for the Colonel, is assigned to Delia's task in her stead. The Colonel is killing anyone linking Wallace to him, starting with the doctor who kidnapped Esther. He even has Mariah break Liebowitz's son's arm after luring him away from his high school. He then threatens Liebowitz's family even further, putting the Commissioner in a moral quandary.
Wallace confronts Liebowitz in his apartment and tries to get him to join his side. Wallace discovers that the real scheme the Colonel is operating is a slave trafficking and organ harvesting ring of which Liebowitz was (intentionally or otherwise) unaware of. Wallace explains how he launched a one-man assault on the factory, first infiltrating the complex, cutting a swathe of stealthy death through the roster of guards and discovering several atrocities going on there. He was then confronted by Mariah and the Colonel as well as many, many armed guards. Wallace managed to escape the factory alive but without saving anyone, much to his own chagrin.
At this point, the phone rings in Liebowitz's apartment. It's The Colonel, telling Wallace where Esther is: she is at the Roark family
farm, long since abandoned at this point. The deal is simple: Wallace's silence for Esther's safe return. When Wallace finds her, an enemy helicopter arrives and opens fire, Wallace shielding Esther with his body. However, Wallace is one step ahead: Jerry, who was up on a hill with heavy ordnance, blasts the chopper out of the sky with a rocket launcher; Wallace, who was wearing a Kevlar vest
, survived the choppers machinegun fire miraculously. Wallace takes Esther to the hospital and he and Jerry prepare to make a second assault on the Colonel's base of operations, when a flood of people are brought in on stretchers.
By this time, the police have launched a massive raid on the Colonel's factory, where the Colonel is captured. The Colonel threatens Liebowitz, who in return shoots him in the head for hurting his son and tells his underlings to 'make a missing person outta the fucker'. Wallenquist lets it all be square, against the wishes of Mariah, (who somehow escaped the factory raid,) seeing no profit in revenge. He seeks no revenge on Wallace or Liebowitz.
Weeks later, Wallace and Esther leave town. He asks her why she wanted to jump and she responds "I was lonely". They drive away towards a better life away from Sin City.
(ISBN 1593072996).
Hell and Back (A Sin City Love Story) is a nine-issue comic book
limited series
, first published by Dark Horse Comics
in July 1999–April 2000.
, an artist/war hero/short order cook who saves a suicidal woman named Esther. She likes his art and they go out for a drink. They are ambushed by two men, who drug Wallace and kidnap Esther. Apparently, The Colonel and Liebowitz are a part of this conspiracy. Wallace spends the night in the drunk tank, after being dragged out of the gutter by two of Basin City's (notoriously corrupt) police officers, Manson and Bundy, and upon his release seeks out Esther. He is crossed once again by a squad of police officers after he tells Commissioner Liebowitz he plans to find Esther alone if need be, and proceeds to dispatch them with humiliating ease, leaving them bound, naked and without money. After locating Esther's home via his landlady, (she'd taken her address) he finds her apartment occupied by Delia, who claims to be Esther's roommate.
Wallace and Delia are attacked by the Colonel's new manservant, Manute, but they escape after Wallace beats him in hand-to-hand combat and defenestrates
him (a reference to a similar scene from A Dame To Kill For
). Then a sniper attacks from a nearby window, whom Wallace takes out by shooting him through the scope of his rifle, similar to a scene from RoboCop 2
(also written by Miller). All the while, Delia tries unsuccessfully to seduce him as they are pursued by two more assassins in a Mercedes, which Wallace also disposes of.
Afterwards, Wallace meets up with an old war buddy referred to only as Captain. He borrows an old Chevrolet Nomad
known as 'The Heap' from him and Wallace and Delia turn in for the night at the Last Hope Motel (a reference to Nancy Callahan
's car and the place where she and John Hartigan
hide in That Yellow Bastard
).
Wallace handcuffs her to the bed for what she believes is foreplay, when he reveals that he knows she cannot be Esther's roommate, since Esther's clothes would have the smell of Delia's cigarettes on them. Just then, Wallace is drugged by a sniper for the second time. He wakes at the Santa Yolanda Tar Pits, where Delia, Gordo, and a drug wizard named Maxine are preparing to abandon his car in the pits. Maxine gives him a huge dose of something strange and Wallace goes on a trip.
A large portion of the comic, wherein he finds himself hallucinating, is then done in full color, similar to Miller's work on Ronin
and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
saga, (all colored by Lynn Varley
, his wife). After a surreal sequence involving a crashing fighter jet, trash-talking cherubs
and dinosaurs, the car hits a tree. He discovers a young girl dead in the trunk, intended to frame him, and, since he can only perceive the girl as a battered Raggedy Ann
doll, he declares that 'just this once, I'm grateful for the drugs'. The police show up, as does Captain, who kills the police. Captain explains he'd have gotten there sooner if it wasn't for snipers establishing a perimeter. They torture the one remaining sniper, (as did Dwight in The Big Fat Kill
,) and find out where Delia, Gordo, and Maxine were heading and pursue them. During this sequence the Captain morphs into various pop culture icons, including King Leonidas from Frank Miller's 300, Lone Wolf and Cub
, an ED-209
droid from the RoboCop
movies, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
, Captain America
, Dirty Harry
, John Rambo
, Martha Washington
from Give Me Liberty
, Hagar the Horrible
and even Hellboy
. This portion is entirely in color.
They shoot past Delia, Maxine and Gordo at a gas station where they were refilling the Humvee they were driving. As they begin driving again, Wallace and Captain ambush them, with Captain disabling the Hummer with a rocket launcher. As they move in, Gordo mortally wounds Captain as Wallace shoots Gordo in the face. At gunpoint, Wallace makes Maxine bring him out of his hallucination hell. As she does, he shoots her in the head and shoots Delia through the gut when he suffers a panic attack. After blacking out for a few seconds, Wallace finds himself back in a black and white 'normal' world, Maxine dead and Delia wounded. Paralyzed from the waist down, and genuinely fearful, she begs him to have mercy on her, and as a last act of chivalry Wallace does so by shooting her in the back of her head ('She never sees what hits her.') . He then carries Captain's body back to the Heap and drives away.
He meets up with another war buddy named Jerry, the Captain's lover. They burn Captain's body in a funeral pyre, where afterwards they work trying to flush the rest of the drugs out of Wallace's system. Mariah, another female mercenary working for the Colonel, is assigned to Delia's task in her stead. The Colonel is killing anyone linking Wallace to him, starting with the doctor who kidnapped Esther. He even has Mariah break Liebowitz's son's arm after luring him away from his high school. He then threatens Liebowitz's family even further, putting the Commissioner in a moral quandary.
Wallace confronts Liebowitz in his apartment and tries to get him to join his side. Wallace discovers that the real scheme the Colonel is operating is a slave trafficking and organ harvesting ring of which Liebowitz was (intentionally or otherwise) unaware of. Wallace explains how he launched a one-man assault on the factory, first infiltrating the complex, cutting a swathe of stealthy death through the roster of guards and discovering several atrocities going on there. He was then confronted by Mariah and the Colonel as well as many, many armed guards. Wallace managed to escape the factory alive but without saving anyone, much to his own chagrin.
At this point, the phone rings in Liebowitz's apartment. It's The Colonel, telling Wallace where Esther is: she is at the Roark family
farm, long since abandoned at this point. The deal is simple: Wallace's silence for Esther's safe return. When Wallace finds her, an enemy helicopter arrives and opens fire, Wallace shielding Esther with his body. However, Wallace is one step ahead: Jerry, who was up on a hill with heavy ordnance, blasts the chopper out of the sky with a rocket launcher; Wallace, who was wearing a Kevlar vest
, survived the choppers machinegun fire miraculously. Wallace takes Esther to the hospital and he and Jerry prepare to make a second assault on the Colonel's base of operations, when a flood of people are brought in on stretchers.
By this time, the police have launched a massive raid on the Colonel's factory, where the Colonel is captured. The Colonel threatens Liebowitz, who in return shoots him in the head for hurting his son and tells his underlings to 'make a missing person outta the fucker'. Wallenquist lets it all be square, against the wishes of Mariah, (who somehow escaped the factory raid,) seeing no profit in revenge. He seeks no revenge on Wallace or Liebowitz.
Weeks later, Wallace and Esther leave town. He asks her why she wanted to jump and she responds "I was lonely". They drive away towards a better life away from Sin City.
(ISBN 1593072996).
Hell and Back (A Sin City Love Story) is a nine-issue comic book
limited series
, first published by Dark Horse Comics
in July 1999–April 2000.
, an artist/war hero/short order cook who saves a suicidal woman named Esther. She likes his art and they go out for a drink. They are ambushed by two men, who drug Wallace and kidnap Esther. Apparently, The Colonel and Liebowitz are a part of this conspiracy. Wallace spends the night in the drunk tank, after being dragged out of the gutter by two of Basin City's (notoriously corrupt) police officers, Manson and Bundy, and upon his release seeks out Esther. He is crossed once again by a squad of police officers after he tells Commissioner Liebowitz he plans to find Esther alone if need be, and proceeds to dispatch them with humiliating ease, leaving them bound, naked and without money. After locating Esther's home via his landlady, (she'd taken her address) he finds her apartment occupied by Delia, who claims to be Esther's roommate.
Wallace and Delia are attacked by the Colonel's new manservant, Manute, but they escape after Wallace beats him in hand-to-hand combat and defenestrates
him (a reference to a similar scene from A Dame To Kill For
). Then a sniper attacks from a nearby window, whom Wallace takes out by shooting him through the scope of his rifle, similar to a scene from RoboCop 2
(also written by Miller). All the while, Delia tries unsuccessfully to seduce him as they are pursued by two more assassins in a Mercedes, which Wallace also disposes of.
Afterwards, Wallace meets up with an old war buddy referred to only as Captain. He borrows an old Chevrolet Nomad
known as 'The Heap' from him and Wallace and Delia turn in for the night at the Last Hope Motel (a reference to Nancy Callahan
's car and the place where she and John Hartigan
hide in That Yellow Bastard
).
Wallace handcuffs her to the bed for what she believes is foreplay, when he reveals that he knows she cannot be Esther's roommate, since Esther's clothes would have the smell of Delia's cigarettes on them. Just then, Wallace is drugged by a sniper for the second time. He wakes at the Santa Yolanda Tar Pits, where Delia, Gordo, and a drug wizard named Maxine are preparing to abandon his car in the pits. Maxine gives him a huge dose of something strange and Wallace goes on a trip.
A large portion of the comic, wherein he finds himself hallucinating, is then done in full color, similar to Miller's work on Ronin
and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
saga, (all colored by Lynn Varley
, his wife). After a surreal sequence involving a crashing fighter jet, trash-talking cherubs
and dinosaurs, the car hits a tree. He discovers a young girl dead in the trunk, intended to frame him, and, since he can only perceive the girl as a battered Raggedy Ann
doll, he declares that 'just this once, I'm grateful for the drugs'. The police show up, as does Captain, who kills the police. Captain explains he'd have gotten there sooner if it wasn't for snipers establishing a perimeter. They torture the one remaining sniper, (as did Dwight in The Big Fat Kill
,) and find out where Delia, Gordo, and Maxine were heading and pursue them. During this sequence the Captain morphs into various pop culture icons, including King Leonidas from Frank Miller's 300, Lone Wolf and Cub
, an ED-209
droid from the RoboCop
movies, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
, Captain America
, Dirty Harry
, John Rambo
, Martha Washington
from Give Me Liberty
, Hagar the Horrible
and even Hellboy
. This portion is entirely in color.
They shoot past Delia, Maxine and Gordo at a gas station where they were refilling the Humvee they were driving. As they begin driving again, Wallace and Captain ambush them, with Captain disabling the Hummer with a rocket launcher. As they move in, Gordo mortally wounds Captain as Wallace shoots Gordo in the face. At gunpoint, Wallace makes Maxine bring him out of his hallucination hell. As she does, he shoots her in the head and shoots Delia through the gut when he suffers a panic attack. After blacking out for a few seconds, Wallace finds himself back in a black and white 'normal' world, Maxine dead and Delia wounded. Paralyzed from the waist down, and genuinely fearful, she begs him to have mercy on her, and as a last act of chivalry Wallace does so by shooting her in the back of her head ('She never sees what hits her.') . He then carries Captain's body back to the Heap and drives away.
He meets up with another war buddy named Jerry, the Captain's lover. They burn Captain's body in a funeral pyre, where afterwards they work trying to flush the rest of the drugs out of Wallace's system. Mariah, another female mercenary working for the Colonel, is assigned to Delia's task in her stead. The Colonel is killing anyone linking Wallace to him, starting with the doctor who kidnapped Esther. He even has Mariah break Liebowitz's son's arm after luring him away from his high school. He then threatens Liebowitz's family even further, putting the Commissioner in a moral quandary.
Wallace confronts Liebowitz in his apartment and tries to get him to join his side. Wallace discovers that the real scheme the Colonel is operating is a slave trafficking and organ harvesting ring of which Liebowitz was (intentionally or otherwise) unaware of. Wallace explains how he launched a one-man assault on the factory, first infiltrating the complex, cutting a swathe of stealthy death through the roster of guards and discovering several atrocities going on there. He was then confronted by Mariah and the Colonel as well as many, many armed guards. Wallace managed to escape the factory alive but without saving anyone, much to his own chagrin.
At this point, the phone rings in Liebowitz's apartment. It's The Colonel, telling Wallace where Esther is: she is at the Roark family
farm, long since abandoned at this point. The deal is simple: Wallace's silence for Esther's safe return. When Wallace finds her, an enemy helicopter arrives and opens fire, Wallace shielding Esther with his body. However, Wallace is one step ahead: Jerry, who was up on a hill with heavy ordnance, blasts the chopper out of the sky with a rocket launcher; Wallace, who was wearing a Kevlar vest
, survived the choppers machinegun fire miraculously. Wallace takes Esther to the hospital and he and Jerry prepare to make a second assault on the Colonel's base of operations, when a flood of people are brought in on stretchers.
By this time, the police have launched a massive raid on the Colonel's factory, where the Colonel is captured. The Colonel threatens Liebowitz, who in return shoots him in the head for hurting his son and tells his underlings to 'make a missing person outta the fucker'. Wallenquist lets it all be square, against the wishes of Mariah, (who somehow escaped the factory raid,) seeing no profit in revenge. He seeks no revenge on Wallace or Liebowitz.
Weeks later, Wallace and Esther leave town. He asks her why she wanted to jump and she responds "I was lonely". They drive away towards a better life away from Sin City.
(ISBN 1593072996).
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
limited series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
, first published by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
in July 1999–April 2000.
Plot
It tells the story of WallaceWallace (Sin City)
Wallace is the protagonist of Hell and Back, the longest of the Sin City yarns written by Frank Miller.Wallace starts off as an ex-military civilian...
, an artist/war hero/short order cook who saves a suicidal woman named Esther. She likes his art and they go out for a drink. They are ambushed by two men, who drug Wallace and kidnap Esther. Apparently, The Colonel and Liebowitz are a part of this conspiracy. Wallace spends the night in the drunk tank, after being dragged out of the gutter by two of Basin City's (notoriously corrupt) police officers, Manson and Bundy, and upon his release seeks out Esther. He is crossed once again by a squad of police officers after he tells Commissioner Liebowitz he plans to find Esther alone if need be, and proceeds to dispatch them with humiliating ease, leaving them bound, naked and without money. After locating Esther's home via his landlady, (she'd taken her address) he finds her apartment occupied by Delia, who claims to be Esther's roommate.
Wallace and Delia are attacked by the Colonel's new manservant, Manute, but they escape after Wallace beats him in hand-to-hand combat and defenestrates
Defenestration
Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window.The term "defenestration" was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year 1618. The word comes from the Latin de- and fenestra...
him (a reference to a similar scene from A Dame To Kill For
A Dame to Kill For
A Dame to Kill For is a comic book limited series first published by Dark Horse Comics in 1993. It is the second story in Frank Miller's Sin City series, and the first to be published in miniseries format. It was written and drawn entirely by Frank Miller...
). Then a sniper attacks from a nearby window, whom Wallace takes out by shooting him through the scope of his rifle, similar to a scene from RoboCop 2
RoboCop 2
RoboCop 2 is a 1990 science fiction action film directed by Irvin Kershner and starring Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Belinda Bayer, Tom Noonan and Gabriel Damon. Set in the near future in a dystopian metropolitan Detroit, Michigan...
(also written by Miller). All the while, Delia tries unsuccessfully to seduce him as they are pursued by two more assassins in a Mercedes, which Wallace also disposes of.
Afterwards, Wallace meets up with an old war buddy referred to only as Captain. He borrows an old Chevrolet Nomad
Chevrolet Nomad
The Chevrolet Nomad was a station wagon model made off and on from 1955 to 1972, and a Chevy Van trim package in the late 1970s and early 1980s, produced by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors...
known as 'The Heap' from him and Wallace and Delia turn in for the night at the Last Hope Motel (a reference to Nancy Callahan
Nancy Callahan
Nancy Callahan is a fictional character from the graphic novel series Sin City, created by Frank Miller. She first appeared in The Hard Goodbye before becoming a more prominent character in later stories, most notably That Yellow Bastard....
's car and the place where she and John Hartigan
John Hartigan
Detective John Hartigan is a major protagonist in the Sin City series of graphic novels, written by Frank Miller. He is the central character in That Yellow Bastard, and has a small cameo in Just Another Saturday Night...
hide in That Yellow Bastard
That Yellow Bastard
That Yellow Bastard is a six-issue comic book limited series, and the sixth in the Sin City series. It was published by Dark Horse Comics in February–July 1996, It follows the usual black and white noir style artistry of previous Sin City novels, with the exception of yellow on Roark Junior...
).
Wallace handcuffs her to the bed for what she believes is foreplay, when he reveals that he knows she cannot be Esther's roommate, since Esther's clothes would have the smell of Delia's cigarettes on them. Just then, Wallace is drugged by a sniper for the second time. He wakes at the Santa Yolanda Tar Pits, where Delia, Gordo, and a drug wizard named Maxine are preparing to abandon his car in the pits. Maxine gives him a huge dose of something strange and Wallace goes on a trip.
A large portion of the comic, wherein he finds himself hallucinating, is then done in full color, similar to Miller's work on Ronin
Ronin (comic book series)
Ronin is a comic book limited series published between 1983 and 1984, by DC Comics. The series was written and drawn by Frank Miller with artwork painted by Lynn Varley. It takes place in a dystopic near-future New York in which a ronin is reincarnated...
and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a four-issue comic book limited series written and drawn by Frank Miller, originally published by DC Comics under the title Batman: The Dark Knight in 1986. When the issues were released in a collected edition later that year, the story title for the first issue...
saga, (all colored by Lynn Varley
Lynn Varley
Lynn Varley is an award-winning colorist, notable for her collaborations with her former husband, comic book writer/artist Frank Miller, whom she divorced in 2005.-Biography:...
, his wife). After a surreal sequence involving a crashing fighter jet, trash-talking cherubs
CHERUBS
CHERUBS is a Non-Profit Organization. It was founded in February, 1995 for families of children born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, a severe and often lethal birth defect. It was founded and currently led by Dawn M...
and dinosaurs, the car hits a tree. He discovers a young girl dead in the trunk, intended to frame him, and, since he can only perceive the girl as a battered Raggedy Ann
Raggedy Ann
Raggedy Ann is a fictional character created by American writer Johnny Gruelle in a series of books he wrote and illustrated for young children. Raggedy Ann is a rag doll with red yarn for hair and has a triangle nose...
doll, he declares that 'just this once, I'm grateful for the drugs'. The police show up, as does Captain, who kills the police. Captain explains he'd have gotten there sooner if it wasn't for snipers establishing a perimeter. They torture the one remaining sniper, (as did Dwight in The Big Fat Kill
The Big Fat Kill
The Big Fat Kill is a five-issue comic book limited series published by Dark Horse Comics in November 1994–March 1995.-Plot:The story opens in Shellie's apartment, where a drunken former fling is furiously rapping on her door, demanding to be let in. Shellie is obviously scared, but is...
,) and find out where Delia, Gordo, and Maxine were heading and pursue them. During this sequence the Captain morphs into various pop culture icons, including King Leonidas from Frank Miller's 300, Lone Wolf and Cub
Lone Wolf and Cub
is a manga created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. First published in 1970, the story was adapted into six films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, four plays, a television series starring Yorozuya Kinnosuke, and is widely recognized as an important and influential work.Lone Wolf and Cub...
, an ED-209
ED-209
The Enforcement Droid Series 209, or ED-209, is a fictional robot in the RoboCop franchise. The ED-209 serves as a heavily-armed obstacle and foil for the series' titular character, as well as a source of comic relief due to its lack of intelligence and tendency towards clumsy malfunctions.The...
droid from the RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
movies, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot is a 1995 comic book written by Frank Miller, drawn by Geof Darrow and published by Dark Horse Comics...
, Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
, Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry is a 1971 American crime thriller produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan....
, John Rambo
John Rambo
John Rambo is an iconic fictional character and the basis of the Rambo saga. He first appeared in the 1972 novel First Blood by David Morrell, but later became more famous in the film series, played by Sylvester Stallone...
, Martha Washington
Martha Washington (comics)
Martha Washington is a fictional character created by Frank Miller, first appearing in the four-issue comic book series Give Me Liberty, published in 1990 by Dark Horse Comics.-Fictional character biography:...
from Give Me Liberty
Give Me Liberty
Give Me Liberty is a four-issue comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse Comics in 1990. It was created and written by Frank Miller and drawn by Dave Gibbons...
, Hagar the Horrible
Hägar the Horrible
Hägar the Horrible is the title and main character of an American comic strip created by cartoonist Dik Browne , and syndicated by King Features Syndicate. It first appeared in February 1973, and was an immediate success. Since Browne's retirement in 1988 , his son Chris Browne has continued the...
and even Hellboy
Hellboy
Hellboy is a comic book superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 , and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers...
. This portion is entirely in color.
They shoot past Delia, Maxine and Gordo at a gas station where they were refilling the Humvee they were driving. As they begin driving again, Wallace and Captain ambush them, with Captain disabling the Hummer with a rocket launcher. As they move in, Gordo mortally wounds Captain as Wallace shoots Gordo in the face. At gunpoint, Wallace makes Maxine bring him out of his hallucination hell. As she does, he shoots her in the head and shoots Delia through the gut when he suffers a panic attack. After blacking out for a few seconds, Wallace finds himself back in a black and white 'normal' world, Maxine dead and Delia wounded. Paralyzed from the waist down, and genuinely fearful, she begs him to have mercy on her, and as a last act of chivalry Wallace does so by shooting her in the back of her head ('She never sees what hits her.') . He then carries Captain's body back to the Heap and drives away.
He meets up with another war buddy named Jerry, the Captain's lover. They burn Captain's body in a funeral pyre, where afterwards they work trying to flush the rest of the drugs out of Wallace's system. Mariah, another female mercenary working for the Colonel, is assigned to Delia's task in her stead. The Colonel is killing anyone linking Wallace to him, starting with the doctor who kidnapped Esther. He even has Mariah break Liebowitz's son's arm after luring him away from his high school. He then threatens Liebowitz's family even further, putting the Commissioner in a moral quandary.
Wallace confronts Liebowitz in his apartment and tries to get him to join his side. Wallace discovers that the real scheme the Colonel is operating is a slave trafficking and organ harvesting ring of which Liebowitz was (intentionally or otherwise) unaware of. Wallace explains how he launched a one-man assault on the factory, first infiltrating the complex, cutting a swathe of stealthy death through the roster of guards and discovering several atrocities going on there. He was then confronted by Mariah and the Colonel as well as many, many armed guards. Wallace managed to escape the factory alive but without saving anyone, much to his own chagrin.
At this point, the phone rings in Liebowitz's apartment. It's The Colonel, telling Wallace where Esther is: she is at the Roark family
Roark family
The Roark family is a fictional dynasty from Frank Miller's graphic novel series Sin City.The family is made up of corrupt officials and landowners of Irish descent, who hold absolute power in Basin City. They are the main antagonists in the series, and are frequent catalysts to various plots and...
farm, long since abandoned at this point. The deal is simple: Wallace's silence for Esther's safe return. When Wallace finds her, an enemy helicopter arrives and opens fire, Wallace shielding Esther with his body. However, Wallace is one step ahead: Jerry, who was up on a hill with heavy ordnance, blasts the chopper out of the sky with a rocket launcher; Wallace, who was wearing a Kevlar vest
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...
, survived the choppers machinegun fire miraculously. Wallace takes Esther to the hospital and he and Jerry prepare to make a second assault on the Colonel's base of operations, when a flood of people are brought in on stretchers.
By this time, the police have launched a massive raid on the Colonel's factory, where the Colonel is captured. The Colonel threatens Liebowitz, who in return shoots him in the head for hurting his son and tells his underlings to 'make a missing person outta the fucker'. Wallenquist lets it all be square, against the wishes of Mariah, (who somehow escaped the factory raid,) seeing no profit in revenge. He seeks no revenge on Wallace or Liebowitz.
Weeks later, Wallace and Esther leave town. He asks her why she wanted to jump and she responds "I was lonely". They drive away towards a better life away from Sin City.
Collected editions
The series has been collected into a trade paperbackTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
(ISBN 1593072996).
Hell and Back (A Sin City Love Story) is a nine-issue comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
limited series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
, first published by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
in July 1999–April 2000.
Plot
It tells the story of WallaceWallace (Sin City)
Wallace is the protagonist of Hell and Back, the longest of the Sin City yarns written by Frank Miller.Wallace starts off as an ex-military civilian...
, an artist/war hero/short order cook who saves a suicidal woman named Esther. She likes his art and they go out for a drink. They are ambushed by two men, who drug Wallace and kidnap Esther. Apparently, The Colonel and Liebowitz are a part of this conspiracy. Wallace spends the night in the drunk tank, after being dragged out of the gutter by two of Basin City's (notoriously corrupt) police officers, Manson and Bundy, and upon his release seeks out Esther. He is crossed once again by a squad of police officers after he tells Commissioner Liebowitz he plans to find Esther alone if need be, and proceeds to dispatch them with humiliating ease, leaving them bound, naked and without money. After locating Esther's home via his landlady, (she'd taken her address) he finds her apartment occupied by Delia, who claims to be Esther's roommate.
Wallace and Delia are attacked by the Colonel's new manservant, Manute, but they escape after Wallace beats him in hand-to-hand combat and defenestrates
Defenestration
Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window.The term "defenestration" was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year 1618. The word comes from the Latin de- and fenestra...
him (a reference to a similar scene from A Dame To Kill For
A Dame to Kill For
A Dame to Kill For is a comic book limited series first published by Dark Horse Comics in 1993. It is the second story in Frank Miller's Sin City series, and the first to be published in miniseries format. It was written and drawn entirely by Frank Miller...
). Then a sniper attacks from a nearby window, whom Wallace takes out by shooting him through the scope of his rifle, similar to a scene from RoboCop 2
RoboCop 2
RoboCop 2 is a 1990 science fiction action film directed by Irvin Kershner and starring Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Belinda Bayer, Tom Noonan and Gabriel Damon. Set in the near future in a dystopian metropolitan Detroit, Michigan...
(also written by Miller). All the while, Delia tries unsuccessfully to seduce him as they are pursued by two more assassins in a Mercedes, which Wallace also disposes of.
Afterwards, Wallace meets up with an old war buddy referred to only as Captain. He borrows an old Chevrolet Nomad
Chevrolet Nomad
The Chevrolet Nomad was a station wagon model made off and on from 1955 to 1972, and a Chevy Van trim package in the late 1970s and early 1980s, produced by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors...
known as 'The Heap' from him and Wallace and Delia turn in for the night at the Last Hope Motel (a reference to Nancy Callahan
Nancy Callahan
Nancy Callahan is a fictional character from the graphic novel series Sin City, created by Frank Miller. She first appeared in The Hard Goodbye before becoming a more prominent character in later stories, most notably That Yellow Bastard....
's car and the place where she and John Hartigan
John Hartigan
Detective John Hartigan is a major protagonist in the Sin City series of graphic novels, written by Frank Miller. He is the central character in That Yellow Bastard, and has a small cameo in Just Another Saturday Night...
hide in That Yellow Bastard
That Yellow Bastard
That Yellow Bastard is a six-issue comic book limited series, and the sixth in the Sin City series. It was published by Dark Horse Comics in February–July 1996, It follows the usual black and white noir style artistry of previous Sin City novels, with the exception of yellow on Roark Junior...
).
Wallace handcuffs her to the bed for what she believes is foreplay, when he reveals that he knows she cannot be Esther's roommate, since Esther's clothes would have the smell of Delia's cigarettes on them. Just then, Wallace is drugged by a sniper for the second time. He wakes at the Santa Yolanda Tar Pits, where Delia, Gordo, and a drug wizard named Maxine are preparing to abandon his car in the pits. Maxine gives him a huge dose of something strange and Wallace goes on a trip.
A large portion of the comic, wherein he finds himself hallucinating, is then done in full color, similar to Miller's work on Ronin
Ronin (comic book series)
Ronin is a comic book limited series published between 1983 and 1984, by DC Comics. The series was written and drawn by Frank Miller with artwork painted by Lynn Varley. It takes place in a dystopic near-future New York in which a ronin is reincarnated...
and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a four-issue comic book limited series written and drawn by Frank Miller, originally published by DC Comics under the title Batman: The Dark Knight in 1986. When the issues were released in a collected edition later that year, the story title for the first issue...
saga, (all colored by Lynn Varley
Lynn Varley
Lynn Varley is an award-winning colorist, notable for her collaborations with her former husband, comic book writer/artist Frank Miller, whom she divorced in 2005.-Biography:...
, his wife). After a surreal sequence involving a crashing fighter jet, trash-talking cherubs
CHERUBS
CHERUBS is a Non-Profit Organization. It was founded in February, 1995 for families of children born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, a severe and often lethal birth defect. It was founded and currently led by Dawn M...
and dinosaurs, the car hits a tree. He discovers a young girl dead in the trunk, intended to frame him, and, since he can only perceive the girl as a battered Raggedy Ann
Raggedy Ann
Raggedy Ann is a fictional character created by American writer Johnny Gruelle in a series of books he wrote and illustrated for young children. Raggedy Ann is a rag doll with red yarn for hair and has a triangle nose...
doll, he declares that 'just this once, I'm grateful for the drugs'. The police show up, as does Captain, who kills the police. Captain explains he'd have gotten there sooner if it wasn't for snipers establishing a perimeter. They torture the one remaining sniper, (as did Dwight in The Big Fat Kill
The Big Fat Kill
The Big Fat Kill is a five-issue comic book limited series published by Dark Horse Comics in November 1994–March 1995.-Plot:The story opens in Shellie's apartment, where a drunken former fling is furiously rapping on her door, demanding to be let in. Shellie is obviously scared, but is...
,) and find out where Delia, Gordo, and Maxine were heading and pursue them. During this sequence the Captain morphs into various pop culture icons, including King Leonidas from Frank Miller's 300, Lone Wolf and Cub
Lone Wolf and Cub
is a manga created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. First published in 1970, the story was adapted into six films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, four plays, a television series starring Yorozuya Kinnosuke, and is widely recognized as an important and influential work.Lone Wolf and Cub...
, an ED-209
ED-209
The Enforcement Droid Series 209, or ED-209, is a fictional robot in the RoboCop franchise. The ED-209 serves as a heavily-armed obstacle and foil for the series' titular character, as well as a source of comic relief due to its lack of intelligence and tendency towards clumsy malfunctions.The...
droid from the RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
movies, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot is a 1995 comic book written by Frank Miller, drawn by Geof Darrow and published by Dark Horse Comics...
, Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
, Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry is a 1971 American crime thriller produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan....
, John Rambo
John Rambo
John Rambo is an iconic fictional character and the basis of the Rambo saga. He first appeared in the 1972 novel First Blood by David Morrell, but later became more famous in the film series, played by Sylvester Stallone...
, Martha Washington
Martha Washington (comics)
Martha Washington is a fictional character created by Frank Miller, first appearing in the four-issue comic book series Give Me Liberty, published in 1990 by Dark Horse Comics.-Fictional character biography:...
from Give Me Liberty
Give Me Liberty
Give Me Liberty is a four-issue comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse Comics in 1990. It was created and written by Frank Miller and drawn by Dave Gibbons...
, Hagar the Horrible
Hägar the Horrible
Hägar the Horrible is the title and main character of an American comic strip created by cartoonist Dik Browne , and syndicated by King Features Syndicate. It first appeared in February 1973, and was an immediate success. Since Browne's retirement in 1988 , his son Chris Browne has continued the...
and even Hellboy
Hellboy
Hellboy is a comic book superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 , and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers...
. This portion is entirely in color.
They shoot past Delia, Maxine and Gordo at a gas station where they were refilling the Humvee they were driving. As they begin driving again, Wallace and Captain ambush them, with Captain disabling the Hummer with a rocket launcher. As they move in, Gordo mortally wounds Captain as Wallace shoots Gordo in the face. At gunpoint, Wallace makes Maxine bring him out of his hallucination hell. As she does, he shoots her in the head and shoots Delia through the gut when he suffers a panic attack. After blacking out for a few seconds, Wallace finds himself back in a black and white 'normal' world, Maxine dead and Delia wounded. Paralyzed from the waist down, and genuinely fearful, she begs him to have mercy on her, and as a last act of chivalry Wallace does so by shooting her in the back of her head ('She never sees what hits her.') . He then carries Captain's body back to the Heap and drives away.
He meets up with another war buddy named Jerry, the Captain's lover. They burn Captain's body in a funeral pyre, where afterwards they work trying to flush the rest of the drugs out of Wallace's system. Mariah, another female mercenary working for the Colonel, is assigned to Delia's task in her stead. The Colonel is killing anyone linking Wallace to him, starting with the doctor who kidnapped Esther. He even has Mariah break Liebowitz's son's arm after luring him away from his high school. He then threatens Liebowitz's family even further, putting the Commissioner in a moral quandary.
Wallace confronts Liebowitz in his apartment and tries to get him to join his side. Wallace discovers that the real scheme the Colonel is operating is a slave trafficking and organ harvesting ring of which Liebowitz was (intentionally or otherwise) unaware of. Wallace explains how he launched a one-man assault on the factory, first infiltrating the complex, cutting a swathe of stealthy death through the roster of guards and discovering several atrocities going on there. He was then confronted by Mariah and the Colonel as well as many, many armed guards. Wallace managed to escape the factory alive but without saving anyone, much to his own chagrin.
At this point, the phone rings in Liebowitz's apartment. It's The Colonel, telling Wallace where Esther is: she is at the Roark family
Roark family
The Roark family is a fictional dynasty from Frank Miller's graphic novel series Sin City.The family is made up of corrupt officials and landowners of Irish descent, who hold absolute power in Basin City. They are the main antagonists in the series, and are frequent catalysts to various plots and...
farm, long since abandoned at this point. The deal is simple: Wallace's silence for Esther's safe return. When Wallace finds her, an enemy helicopter arrives and opens fire, Wallace shielding Esther with his body. However, Wallace is one step ahead: Jerry, who was up on a hill with heavy ordnance, blasts the chopper out of the sky with a rocket launcher; Wallace, who was wearing a Kevlar vest
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...
, survived the choppers machinegun fire miraculously. Wallace takes Esther to the hospital and he and Jerry prepare to make a second assault on the Colonel's base of operations, when a flood of people are brought in on stretchers.
By this time, the police have launched a massive raid on the Colonel's factory, where the Colonel is captured. The Colonel threatens Liebowitz, who in return shoots him in the head for hurting his son and tells his underlings to 'make a missing person outta the fucker'. Wallenquist lets it all be square, against the wishes of Mariah, (who somehow escaped the factory raid,) seeing no profit in revenge. He seeks no revenge on Wallace or Liebowitz.
Weeks later, Wallace and Esther leave town. He asks her why she wanted to jump and she responds "I was lonely". They drive away towards a better life away from Sin City.
Collected editions
The series has been collected into a trade paperbackTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
(ISBN 1593072996).
Hell and Back (A Sin City Love Story) is a nine-issue comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
limited series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
, first published by Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
in July 1999–April 2000.
Plot
It tells the story of WallaceWallace (Sin City)
Wallace is the protagonist of Hell and Back, the longest of the Sin City yarns written by Frank Miller.Wallace starts off as an ex-military civilian...
, an artist/war hero/short order cook who saves a suicidal woman named Esther. She likes his art and they go out for a drink. They are ambushed by two men, who drug Wallace and kidnap Esther. Apparently, The Colonel and Liebowitz are a part of this conspiracy. Wallace spends the night in the drunk tank, after being dragged out of the gutter by two of Basin City's (notoriously corrupt) police officers, Manson and Bundy, and upon his release seeks out Esther. He is crossed once again by a squad of police officers after he tells Commissioner Liebowitz he plans to find Esther alone if need be, and proceeds to dispatch them with humiliating ease, leaving them bound, naked and without money. After locating Esther's home via his landlady, (she'd taken her address) he finds her apartment occupied by Delia, who claims to be Esther's roommate.
Wallace and Delia are attacked by the Colonel's new manservant, Manute, but they escape after Wallace beats him in hand-to-hand combat and defenestrates
Defenestration
Defenestration is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window.The term "defenestration" was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year 1618. The word comes from the Latin de- and fenestra...
him (a reference to a similar scene from A Dame To Kill For
A Dame to Kill For
A Dame to Kill For is a comic book limited series first published by Dark Horse Comics in 1993. It is the second story in Frank Miller's Sin City series, and the first to be published in miniseries format. It was written and drawn entirely by Frank Miller...
). Then a sniper attacks from a nearby window, whom Wallace takes out by shooting him through the scope of his rifle, similar to a scene from RoboCop 2
RoboCop 2
RoboCop 2 is a 1990 science fiction action film directed by Irvin Kershner and starring Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Belinda Bayer, Tom Noonan and Gabriel Damon. Set in the near future in a dystopian metropolitan Detroit, Michigan...
(also written by Miller). All the while, Delia tries unsuccessfully to seduce him as they are pursued by two more assassins in a Mercedes, which Wallace also disposes of.
Afterwards, Wallace meets up with an old war buddy referred to only as Captain. He borrows an old Chevrolet Nomad
Chevrolet Nomad
The Chevrolet Nomad was a station wagon model made off and on from 1955 to 1972, and a Chevy Van trim package in the late 1970s and early 1980s, produced by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors...
known as 'The Heap' from him and Wallace and Delia turn in for the night at the Last Hope Motel (a reference to Nancy Callahan
Nancy Callahan
Nancy Callahan is a fictional character from the graphic novel series Sin City, created by Frank Miller. She first appeared in The Hard Goodbye before becoming a more prominent character in later stories, most notably That Yellow Bastard....
's car and the place where she and John Hartigan
John Hartigan
Detective John Hartigan is a major protagonist in the Sin City series of graphic novels, written by Frank Miller. He is the central character in That Yellow Bastard, and has a small cameo in Just Another Saturday Night...
hide in That Yellow Bastard
That Yellow Bastard
That Yellow Bastard is a six-issue comic book limited series, and the sixth in the Sin City series. It was published by Dark Horse Comics in February–July 1996, It follows the usual black and white noir style artistry of previous Sin City novels, with the exception of yellow on Roark Junior...
).
Wallace handcuffs her to the bed for what she believes is foreplay, when he reveals that he knows she cannot be Esther's roommate, since Esther's clothes would have the smell of Delia's cigarettes on them. Just then, Wallace is drugged by a sniper for the second time. He wakes at the Santa Yolanda Tar Pits, where Delia, Gordo, and a drug wizard named Maxine are preparing to abandon his car in the pits. Maxine gives him a huge dose of something strange and Wallace goes on a trip.
A large portion of the comic, wherein he finds himself hallucinating, is then done in full color, similar to Miller's work on Ronin
Ronin (comic book series)
Ronin is a comic book limited series published between 1983 and 1984, by DC Comics. The series was written and drawn by Frank Miller with artwork painted by Lynn Varley. It takes place in a dystopic near-future New York in which a ronin is reincarnated...
and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a four-issue comic book limited series written and drawn by Frank Miller, originally published by DC Comics under the title Batman: The Dark Knight in 1986. When the issues were released in a collected edition later that year, the story title for the first issue...
saga, (all colored by Lynn Varley
Lynn Varley
Lynn Varley is an award-winning colorist, notable for her collaborations with her former husband, comic book writer/artist Frank Miller, whom she divorced in 2005.-Biography:...
, his wife). After a surreal sequence involving a crashing fighter jet, trash-talking cherubs
CHERUBS
CHERUBS is a Non-Profit Organization. It was founded in February, 1995 for families of children born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, a severe and often lethal birth defect. It was founded and currently led by Dawn M...
and dinosaurs, the car hits a tree. He discovers a young girl dead in the trunk, intended to frame him, and, since he can only perceive the girl as a battered Raggedy Ann
Raggedy Ann
Raggedy Ann is a fictional character created by American writer Johnny Gruelle in a series of books he wrote and illustrated for young children. Raggedy Ann is a rag doll with red yarn for hair and has a triangle nose...
doll, he declares that 'just this once, I'm grateful for the drugs'. The police show up, as does Captain, who kills the police. Captain explains he'd have gotten there sooner if it wasn't for snipers establishing a perimeter. They torture the one remaining sniper, (as did Dwight in The Big Fat Kill
The Big Fat Kill
The Big Fat Kill is a five-issue comic book limited series published by Dark Horse Comics in November 1994–March 1995.-Plot:The story opens in Shellie's apartment, where a drunken former fling is furiously rapping on her door, demanding to be let in. Shellie is obviously scared, but is...
,) and find out where Delia, Gordo, and Maxine were heading and pursue them. During this sequence the Captain morphs into various pop culture icons, including King Leonidas from Frank Miller's 300, Lone Wolf and Cub
Lone Wolf and Cub
is a manga created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. First published in 1970, the story was adapted into six films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, four plays, a television series starring Yorozuya Kinnosuke, and is widely recognized as an important and influential work.Lone Wolf and Cub...
, an ED-209
ED-209
The Enforcement Droid Series 209, or ED-209, is a fictional robot in the RoboCop franchise. The ED-209 serves as a heavily-armed obstacle and foil for the series' titular character, as well as a source of comic relief due to its lack of intelligence and tendency towards clumsy malfunctions.The...
droid from the RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
movies, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot
The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot is a 1995 comic book written by Frank Miller, drawn by Geof Darrow and published by Dark Horse Comics...
, Captain America
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
, Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry is a 1971 American crime thriller produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan....
, John Rambo
John Rambo
John Rambo is an iconic fictional character and the basis of the Rambo saga. He first appeared in the 1972 novel First Blood by David Morrell, but later became more famous in the film series, played by Sylvester Stallone...
, Martha Washington
Martha Washington (comics)
Martha Washington is a fictional character created by Frank Miller, first appearing in the four-issue comic book series Give Me Liberty, published in 1990 by Dark Horse Comics.-Fictional character biography:...
from Give Me Liberty
Give Me Liberty
Give Me Liberty is a four-issue comic book mini-series published by Dark Horse Comics in 1990. It was created and written by Frank Miller and drawn by Dave Gibbons...
, Hagar the Horrible
Hägar the Horrible
Hägar the Horrible is the title and main character of an American comic strip created by cartoonist Dik Browne , and syndicated by King Features Syndicate. It first appeared in February 1973, and was an immediate success. Since Browne's retirement in 1988 , his son Chris Browne has continued the...
and even Hellboy
Hellboy
Hellboy is a comic book superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in San Diego Comic-Con Comics #2 , and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers...
. This portion is entirely in color.
They shoot past Delia, Maxine and Gordo at a gas station where they were refilling the Humvee they were driving. As they begin driving again, Wallace and Captain ambush them, with Captain disabling the Hummer with a rocket launcher. As they move in, Gordo mortally wounds Captain as Wallace shoots Gordo in the face. At gunpoint, Wallace makes Maxine bring him out of his hallucination hell. As she does, he shoots her in the head and shoots Delia through the gut when he suffers a panic attack. After blacking out for a few seconds, Wallace finds himself back in a black and white 'normal' world, Maxine dead and Delia wounded. Paralyzed from the waist down, and genuinely fearful, she begs him to have mercy on her, and as a last act of chivalry Wallace does so by shooting her in the back of her head ('She never sees what hits her.') . He then carries Captain's body back to the Heap and drives away.
He meets up with another war buddy named Jerry, the Captain's lover. They burn Captain's body in a funeral pyre, where afterwards they work trying to flush the rest of the drugs out of Wallace's system. Mariah, another female mercenary working for the Colonel, is assigned to Delia's task in her stead. The Colonel is killing anyone linking Wallace to him, starting with the doctor who kidnapped Esther. He even has Mariah break Liebowitz's son's arm after luring him away from his high school. He then threatens Liebowitz's family even further, putting the Commissioner in a moral quandary.
Wallace confronts Liebowitz in his apartment and tries to get him to join his side. Wallace discovers that the real scheme the Colonel is operating is a slave trafficking and organ harvesting ring of which Liebowitz was (intentionally or otherwise) unaware of. Wallace explains how he launched a one-man assault on the factory, first infiltrating the complex, cutting a swathe of stealthy death through the roster of guards and discovering several atrocities going on there. He was then confronted by Mariah and the Colonel as well as many, many armed guards. Wallace managed to escape the factory alive but without saving anyone, much to his own chagrin.
At this point, the phone rings in Liebowitz's apartment. It's The Colonel, telling Wallace where Esther is: she is at the Roark family
Roark family
The Roark family is a fictional dynasty from Frank Miller's graphic novel series Sin City.The family is made up of corrupt officials and landowners of Irish descent, who hold absolute power in Basin City. They are the main antagonists in the series, and are frequent catalysts to various plots and...
farm, long since abandoned at this point. The deal is simple: Wallace's silence for Esther's safe return. When Wallace finds her, an enemy helicopter arrives and opens fire, Wallace shielding Esther with his body. However, Wallace is one step ahead: Jerry, who was up on a hill with heavy ordnance, blasts the chopper out of the sky with a rocket launcher; Wallace, who was wearing a Kevlar vest
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...
, survived the choppers machinegun fire miraculously. Wallace takes Esther to the hospital and he and Jerry prepare to make a second assault on the Colonel's base of operations, when a flood of people are brought in on stretchers.
By this time, the police have launched a massive raid on the Colonel's factory, where the Colonel is captured. The Colonel threatens Liebowitz, who in return shoots him in the head for hurting his son and tells his underlings to 'make a missing person outta the fucker'. Wallenquist lets it all be square, against the wishes of Mariah, (who somehow escaped the factory raid,) seeing no profit in revenge. He seeks no revenge on Wallace or Liebowitz.
Weeks later, Wallace and Esther leave town. He asks her why she wanted to jump and she responds "I was lonely". They drive away towards a better life away from Sin City.
Collected editions
The series has been collected into a trade paperbackTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
(ISBN 1593072996).