Silent Night (Sin City Yarn) - That Yellow Bastard

First published in February 1996–July 1996, That Yellow Bastard is a six-issue comic book miniseries, and the sixth in the Sin City series. It follows the usual black and white noir style artistry of previous Sin City novels. That Yellow Bastard is currently under publication by Dark Horse Comics; the first edition became available in July 1997 (ISBN 1-56971-225-5).

The story begins more than eight years before any other Sin City book takes place, with possibly the most noble, and heroic protagonist in the Sin City universe, policeman John Hartigan (suffering from severe angina problems) on his final mission before his forced retirement. Roark Junior, son of one of the most powerful and corrupt officials in Basin City, is indulging his penchant for raping and murdering pre-pubescent girls. It is Hartigan's mission to rescue Junior's latest quarry, a thin eleven-year-old named Nancy Callahan. Hartigan rescues her, but only after severely wounding Junior and sending him into a coma. Hartigan is then framed for kidnapping and raping Nancy, and sent to prison for eight years, until he manages to achieve parole and attempts to locate and protect Nancy from Roark's men.

In Rodriguez's adaptation, Bruce Willis stars as Hartigan, Jessica Alba as Nancy, Nick Stahl as the Yellow Bastard/Junior, Powers Boothe as Senator Roark and Michael Madsen as Hartigan's partner, Bob. There are only a few notable differences in the film version: Mort is replaced by Bob when Hartigan is released from prison, an appearance by Carla Gugino as Lucille is omitted (but reinstated in the extended version released to DVD), and Senator Roark(Powers Booth) has a mustache.

In the DVD commentary, Frank Miller indicated that he was initially motivated to write That Yellow Bastard after his disappointment with The Dead Pool, the fifth and final film in the Dirty Harry series. Nancy -- who prior to this story had no last name -- was named "Callahan", a name shared with Clint Eastwood's character.