FLOAT 100 · Comics · No. 88
Dark Horse Presents #51
Frank Miller walked away from DC over a ratings fight and took his noir to a small black-and-white anthology; this $1.95 issue carried the second chapter of Sin City, and the first time the city got a cover of its own.
- Year
- 1991
- Maker
- Dark Horse Comics
- By price in comics
- 98 of 100
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Create a free account- Cover date
- June 1991; Dark Horse lists a June 1, 1991 release
- Publisher
- Dark Horse Comics; edited by Randy Stradley
- Sin City story
- "Sin City Episode Two," 12 pages, written, drawn and lettered by Frank Miller
- Cover
- Sin City cover by Frank Miller, colored by Claude Legris, with Heartbreakers and Harlequin insets
- Cover price
- $1.95 U.S., $2.35 Canada; 36 pages, black and white interiors
- Place in the saga
- Second appearance of Sin City; the first chapter ran in the Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special, April 1991
- Serialized
- The first story, later titled The Hard Goodbye, ran through Dark Horse Presents #62 (June 1992)
- Census
- 48 copies graded as of October 2026; ten at CGC 9.8, the highest grade
- Awards
- The collected story won the 1993 Eisner for Best Graphic Album: Reprint
- Recorded CGC 9.8 sale
- $79.15 on June 2, 2026
Leaving DC for an anthology
By the end of the 1980s Frank Miller had remade Daredevil, written and drawn the 1986 miniseries The Dark Knight Returns, and published his first creator-owned series, Ronin. Then he broke with DC Comics over a proposed ratings system for comics, which he regarded as censorship. He refused further work for DC and moved to Dark Horse Comics, an independent publisher, where he became a prominent advocate for creators' rights.
Dark Horse was then five years old. Its first comic, Dark Horse Presents, had debuted in July 1986 as a black-and-white anthology mixing established and new creators; Paul Chadwick's Concrete was in the first issue. Miller's Dark Horse work by then included Give Me Liberty with Dave Gibbons, published in 1990 and 1991.
Miller said he wanted Sin City to be "a world where virtuous behavior was rare," drawing on old gangster films and film noir. He told it in stark black and white, later adding occasional spot colors such as red, yellow, blue and pink to single out characters and moments.
Episode Two
Sin City did not start in this issue. Its first chapter, "Sin City: Episode One," eight pages long and introducing Marv and Goldie, ran in the Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special, a 116-page, $9.95 book cover-dated April 1991 whose wraparound cover by Miller showed characters from the other stories in it. Dark Horse Presents #51 carried the second chapter and is the first regular issue of the anthology to feature Sin City.
The issue is cover-dated June 1991, and Dark Horse's own catalog gives a June 1, 1991 release; one encyclopedia entry dates it to May 1991 instead. It cost $1.95 and ran 36 pages. Miller drew the cover, signed "FM," and Claude Legris colored it. Inside, "Sin City Episode Two" runs 12 pages, written, penciled, inked and lettered by Miller; the publisher's description called it "the short second installment of a new regular feature."
The rest of the anthology was typical of Dark Horse Presents at the time: part two of Anina Bennett and Paul Guinan's science fiction serial Heartbreakers, about "fierce female clones"; the final act of Steve Csutoras and Stefano Gaudiano's Harlequin; a letters page edited by Stradley; and a spoof ballot titled "Comics Buying Guys' Fan Awards for 1990."
Marv's hard goodbye
The story Miller serialized from the anniversary special through Dark Horse Presents #62, cover-dated June 1992, is now known as The Hard Goodbye. Marv, a trained killer with a military past, wakes to find his companion Goldie murdered. Framed for the killing, he hunts the real murderer, a serial killer named Kevin, and traces the protection behind him to Cardinal Roark.
It ends without a rescue. Police coerce Marv into confessing by threatening his mother, and he dies in the electric chair. Miller wrote, drew and lettered every chapter, under editor Randy Stradley.
The collected story won the 1993 Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: Reprint, and Miller won Eisners that year as Best Writer/Artist and Best Penciller/Inker. Later deluxe editions, starting in 2016, reproduced the art at original size from Miller's archives.
A key that rarely trades graded
No print run for the issue appears in the sources consulted here. Few copies have been graded: in October 2026 the grading census listed just 48 copies. Of the 38 with Universal labels, ten were graded CGC 9.8, the highest grade on record, and eight were 9.6; nine more carried Signature Series labels and one a qualified grade. Ungraded copies are cheap: one price tracker listed about 29 recent ungraded sales, from under a dollar to $27.99.
Graded copies are rarely sold. One price tracker recorded only two graded sales: a CGC 9.6 for $44.90 on January 6, 2023, and a CGC 9.8 for $79.15 on June 2, 2026.
To identify the issue, look for Dark Horse Presents #51 with a June 1991 date, a $1.95 price and Miller's Sin City cover with small Heartbreakers and Harlequin insets. Collectors seeking the true first appearance of Marv look instead for the Fifth Anniversary Special, a 116-page book.
From an anthology to the screen
After Robert Rodriguez made a short film that impressed Miller, the two co-directed the film, released April 1, 2005, with Mickey Rourke as Marv; Quentin Tarantino directed one scene for a fee of one dollar. When the Directors Guild of America would not allow a joint credit, Rodriguez resigned from the guild so that Miller could share it. The film grossed $158.7 million worldwide on a $40 million budget, competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and won the festival's Technical Grand Prize.
A sequel followed in 2014. Dark Horse Presents itself ran 157 issues through September 2000, its longest-running title, and was revived online in 2007 and in print in 2011 and 2014. Miller went on to publish 300, about the Battle of Thermopylae, with Dark Horse in 1998.
The numbers
- Cover price
- $1.95 U.S. / $2.35 Canada
- Pages
- 36; Sin City Episode Two is 12
- Print run
- Not documented in the sources consulted
- Census, October 2026
- 48 graded: 38 Universal (ten CGC 9.8, eight 9.6), 9 Signature Series, 1 qualified; none above 9.8
- Sin City appearance
- Second; first was the Fifth Anniversary Special (April 1991, 8-page Episode One)
- Serialization
- Fifth Anniversary Special and Dark Horse Presents #51 to #62, 1991 to 1992
Timeline
Dark Horse Presents #1 launches as Dark Horse Comics' first comic.
Miller's The Dark Knight Returns is published by DC.
Sin City: Episode One, introducing Marv and Goldie, appears in the Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special.
Dark Horse Presents #51 carries Sin City Episode Two and Miller's Sin City cover; Dark Horse lists a June 1 release.
The first Sin City story concludes in Dark Horse Presents #62.
The Hard Goodbye wins the Eisner for Best Graphic Album: Reprint; Miller wins Best Writer/Artist and Best Penciller/Inker.
Miller publishes 300 with Dark Horse.
The original Dark Horse Presents ends after 157 issues.
The film Sin City, co-directed by Rodriguez and Miller, is released with Mickey Rourke as Marv.
A second Sin City film is released.
Deluxe editions reproducing Miller's art at original size begin to appear.
A CGC 9.6 copy sells for $44.90.
A CGC 9.8 copy sells for $79.15.
The grading census lists 48 copies, ten of them at CGC 9.8.
The world in 1991
President George H. W. Bush announces that Kuwait is liberated, ending the Gulf War.
Los Angeles police beat motorist Rodney King, captured on amateur video.
The Dow Jones closes above 3,000 for the first time.
The Pittsburgh Penguins win their first Stanley Cup.
The Chicago Bulls win their first NBA championship, over the Los Angeles Lakers.
President Bush nominates Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.
The United States and the Soviet Union sign the START I arms treaty.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 2, 2026 | $79 | Sold at auctionCGC 9.8, online sale; the only CGC 9.8 sale on record at the price tracker consulted. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Dark Horse Presents #51 is number 98 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (88 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Marv and Goldie first appeared not in Dark Horse Presents #51 but in an eight-page chapter in a $9.95 anniversary special two months earlier.
- Frank Miller lettered Sin City himself as well as writing and drawing it.
- Robert Rodriguez quit the Directors Guild of America so Miller could share directing credit on the 2005 film.
- Quentin Tarantino was paid one dollar to direct one scene of Sin City.
- The issue also printed a spoof ballot called the "Comics Buying Guys' Fan Awards for 1990."
- Dark Horse Presents was the first comic Dark Horse ever published, and ran 157 issues in its first run.
- Only 48 copies had been graded by October 2026, and ten of them reached CGC 9.8.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026