European Comics: Blacksad

Today I read the first book of Blacksad, an edgy French comic written by Juan Diaz Canales and illustrated by Juanjo Guarnido. The comics follow a panther detective through a series of anthropomorphic noir mysteries.

I really enjoyed Blacksad. The story is a fairly standard mystery, but Blacksad's voice is engaging and authentic as a noir narrator, and the artwork is amazing. I felt that the art style was especially effective because it helps immediately establish character personalities--the criminals are rats and scaly creatures, the sheriff is a border collie, etc. I also tend to find that in noir movies or comics all the characters tend to look the same (all the men are square-jawed and serious, the women attractive and curvy) and the style of Blacksad helped prevent this from happening for me.

Guarnido also does a fantastic job at using different shot angles and engaging acting within the panels. I enjoy this kind of visual storytelling much more than flatter shots that other comics used. The watercolor rendering also helps give such a gritty and dark comic a bit of a softer feel too compared to the sharper, more contrasted style that a lot of comics like Batman use, which keeps the comic from being too emotionally tiring to read (which can happen with something full of murder and dark thoughts on the narrator's part). Overall, Blacksad really hit a stylistic sweet spot for me.

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