In this hard-boiled episode, we kick off Crimewave!, a series of episodes on gritty crime comics, complete with its own theme song! And for our money, there ain't no better way to get things rolling than by jawing about Frank Miller's bare-knuckled Sin City: The Hard Goodbye, published by Dark Horse Comics, see?

Here's the thing about Basin City—it's the kinda place where a hulking bruiser like Marv can spend a once-in-a-lifetime night of passion with an angel like Goldie, only to wake up the next morning to find she's been murdered—and the cops are on their way to take him down for the crime!

Can our problematic protagonist prevail against crooked cops, tough-as-nails sex workers, a smirking serial killer, and the most powerful family in Sin City—not to mention his own faulty faculties? And can this black-and-white valentine to noir fiction muscle past the bouncers and make it into that den of iniquity known as ... The Comics Canon?

Things Discussed in This Episode:

• A brief history of crime comics
• Content warning
• Frank Miller's Sin City artwork
• The women of The Hard Goodbye
• Lucille gets a raw deal
• That's an awful lot of Nancy
• How to enjoy revenge fantasies
• Kurt Busiek and the Punisher
• The Sin City movie
• Is the "lasting influence" argument a cop-out?
• Kill or Be Killed Vol. 1-2
• Queenpin by Megan Abbott
• Tumor
• The Maltese Falcon and The Reelist podcast

Join us in two weeks as Crimewave! continues with another highly stylized revenge tale: Richard Stark's Parker: The Hunter, by Darwyn Cooke!

Until then, that's a very nice coat you've got there. But not as nice as our Comics Canon merchandise! And why not accessorize with a little King Krackle from our sponsor at Category 4?

Last but not least, do us a solid and rate us on Apple Podcasts, send us an email, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook, and we may read your comments in an upcoming episode. And as always, thanks for listening!