If "Sin City" left you wanting more dark alleys and dangerous dames, there are plenty more crime comics out there. Of course, the best place to start is with Frank Miller's original "Sin City" graphic novels, which have been re-released to coincide with the movie. Each book is self-contained, so you don't necessarily need to read them in order, but starting with the first book, "The Hard Goodbye," is a good idea. "The Hard Goodbye" is the story of Marv, an ugly, psychotic tough guy who's been framed for murdering Goldie, a beautiful hooker who came to him looking for protection. A knight in bloody bandages and a tattered trench coat, Marv is like a Raymond Chandler hero on crack. He's got no qualms about chopping off heads and shooting goons in the groin, but ultimately, Marv just wants to do right by Goldie.

If you've already torn through "Sin City" like a bullet through a kneecap, then undoubtedly the best crime comic on the shelves right now is the Vertigo series "100 Bullets." Written by Brian Azzarello and drawn by Eduardo Risso, "100 Bullets" is a deft blend of old- and new-school noir. The series (currently on its 59th issue) starts out as a collection of hardboiled revenge stories. The premise is simple: the mysterious Agent Graves appears out of the shadows with a briefcase, which he presents to someone who's been wronged. Inside the case are a gun and 100 untraceable bullets, an opportunity to take revenge on whomever you want. The first recipient of Graves' gift is Dizzy Cordova, just out of jail and still mourning her husband and infant son who died in a drive-by. As the series progresses, it becomes clear Graves has larger plans than giving the opportunity for revenge to random schmoes on the street. This is a book that rewards close reading-off-hand gestures and background characters can often show up 20 or 30 issues later with a big impact. Azzarello weaves together a meta-story rife with conspiracy and intrigue so complicated that you'll need a flowchart to keep track of the shifting alliances and double-crosses. Risso's artwork shares some of Miller's visual tics-curvy chicks, hulking tough guys, lots of rain and shadows and negative space-but Risso's style is all his own and gives the characters and the grimy streets they inhabit a gritty, cinematic quality. It's a perfect complement to Azzarello, who writes like a hybrid of Raymond Chandler and Quentin Tarantino, mixing thundering violence with sly wordplay and cracking dialogue.

Coming in a close second is the series of crime graphic novels that Brian Michael Bendis wrote and drew back in the early 1990s. Now a huge star at Marvel Comics, Bendis got his start pumping out a series of black and white crime books. The best of Bendis' early comics is "Torso," which he wrote with Marc Andreyko. "Torso" is the mostly true story of post-Untouchables Elliot Ness and his pursuit of the notorious Torso Killer in 1930s Cleveland. Like Miller, Bendis' art is strictly black and white, although he throws lots of photographs and other mixed media into the panels, which, while unique, can sometimes be rather jarring. Bendis has a strong visual sense, though, and the way the individual panels and pages are laid out in the book are almost as important as the dialogue and plot. In one particularly stunning sequence, Ness interrogates a prime suspect in the Torso murders. But the suspect is too smart for Ness and runs verbal circles around the cop. As the back-and-forth gets more intense (thanks to Bendis' keen, Mamet-style exchanges), the panels form a massive spiral with Ness in the middle, helpless. Reading "Torso" and Bendis' other two books, "Jinx" and "Goldfish," is as much a tasty visual treat as reading "Sin City," though nowhere near as violent.

Meanwhile, "Sandman Mystery Theatre" captures a more traditional pulp feel. A revival of the Golden Age incarnation of the DC Comics hero, "SMT" was released at the same time as Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" series in the early 1990s, with Vertigo apparently trying to capitalize on the success of Gaiman's fantasy epic. Written by Matt Wagner, the creator of the "Grendel" series, another noir-ish epic, "SMT" follows the adventures of Wesley Dodds, a member of New York's upper class who at night becomes the Sandman.

Dressed in the obligatory trench coat and slouch hat, Dodds arms himself with a gasmask and a pair of "gas-guns" filled with a chemical that puts people to sleep. In the series' first storyline, "The Tarantula," Dodds is caught up in investigating a string of grisly high-society murders. Like most modern noir writers, Wagner relies on the conventions established by writers like Dashiell Hammet and Chandler, but ups the ante by making the villains more depraved and the heroes darker and more obsessed. Under his bookish appearance, Dodds is driven by dark dreams and visions from the first World War. Unlike the complex mystery Wagner weaves, Dodds' motivation for his nighttime career is simple: "Innocence is dying in this sick and lonely world," he says. "Innocence is all that's promised in the next." It's a sentiment even the psychopathic Marv would agree with.