The following article was originally found on the Dark Horse website. It has been reproduced here for posterity's sake. So, if it's ever removed from the original site, you will still find it here.
The original article can be found at:
http://www.darkhorse.com/news/features/pg_feview/sku_98403/item_98403b/index.html

Romance comes to Sin City

On a clear, cool night in the middle of a long, hot summer, Wallace's life is forever changed by a beautiful woman standing alone on a cliff. Esther's her name, and she's as gorgeous as her name is Biblical. She's also sweet and intelligent, and unlike anyone Wallace has ever met--especially in Sin City.

Frank Miller's latest Sin City yarn is, in his own words, a "love story," focusing on the undeniable chemistry between Wallace and Esther, and the strange horror Wallace endures when Esther is stolen from him the same night they meet. But her kidnappers have no idea whom they're up against when Wallace goes after the woman he barely knows--but knows he never wants to lose.

While all Sin City stories are romantic, in that Miller's approach to creating them is highly romanticized (he's the first to admit it's largely a fantasy series), Hell and Back is different in at least one distinct way.

"They're all love stories," Miller said, "although often one of the people involved is dead." Although the lovers in Hell and Back enjoy only a few precious moments of acknowledging their mutual feelings, it's clear from the beginning that Wallace has no intention of letting anything--even death--keep him away from the woman he's waited his whole life to meet.

"This time I wanted to do something that was much more purely romantic. I think part of it was that I had just finished 300, and coming off a story of such moral import, I wanted to do something that featured the purest hero yet in Sin City."

This is just one in a long line of unique approaches Miller's taken with the niche crime-comics genre he's carved for himself.

"Crime stories are more versatile than I thought they were. I started Sin City playing against the various types that were already out there, in reverence to previous authors--Chandler and Hammett--and the first Sin City owed one hell of a lot to Mickey Spillane.

As with any new venture, Miller played around with convention for a while before finding the footing he'd been looking for on the streets of Sin City.

"I feel like I've found my voice with the material now; and with this series, what I'm finding intriguing about it is that it deals with two lead character who are not paranoid, nor obsessed--nor drunk, nor any of the other things my characters tend to be."

Reading the first issue of Sin City: Hell and Back will be a welcome experience for fans of Miller's work. The entire first issue is laid out beautifully and thoughtfully, and much attention is given to the dramatic set-up that first lands Esther in the arms of Wallace.

"I wanted this one to absolutely set its own pace," Miller pointed out. "That's one of the reasons I've been cagey with poor Diana (Schutz, Miller's editor--ed.) for so many months over how many chapters this is finally going to be. And I wanted to let each important moment breathe . . . To me a woman on a cliff contemplating suicide is worthy of a great many images before she jumps."

After years of proving that comics creators with vision and integrity can create worthwhile and popular independent series, Miller has no plans to leave Sin City behind, despite the numerous other projects he's got planned.

"Are you kidding? I live for it. I wouldn't be putting these books out if I didn't love it," he said. "As a matter of fact, this period has been the most enjoyable and rewarding of any in my career. And it's not like I'm sixty years old or anything. I'm just getting started here."