Week 9: Blacksad


This week I read Blacksad Volume One: Something Within the Shadows by writer Juan Díaz Canales and artist Juanjo Guarnido. I had been meaning to read it for a while because the art style is just so iconic, the incorporation of the watercolor medium in a Film Noir story gives it a classical feeling. The caricatures of the anthropomorphic animals are on par with Disney films like Robin Hood or Zootopia, but with slightly more human proportions. There's this maid character who's a mouse lady and she looks almost exactly like Mrs. Brisby from Secret of Nym, she’s a really cute design.
I found the story to be fairly predictable, it's a pretty standard Film Noir plot. For me, it’s really the art that makes this volume. I wasn't especially compelled by the characters, maybe it gets better in other volumes. I thought there would be more of a twist at the end, but the killer was it just turned out to be some rich guy, Ivo Statoc, that we only have one scene with him prior to his death. It's not set up very much that he’s the richest man in the city, they don’t sprinkle little bits of this character in the background or anything before he actually shows up. We only knew that it was going to be somebody of high status because they could pay off someone to bury somebody by an anagram of their name. Also, the canine cops are corrupt: they are told to stop the investigation as soon as there are leads to a powerful person and have the ability to cover up murders. This comic is unapologetically gritty and morally grey.
This might just be for the first volume, but I think the merit of this graphic novel is the fun caricatures and beautiful watercolor. I've never been that interested in the Noir genre, but I was really looking forward to Blacksad. I’m not going to say that I'm disappointed because I had heard some criticisms before going in, but I was a little underwhelmed plot-wise. That being said, I'm still going to check out Volume 2 at some point and fawn over the art some more.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 11: Transmetropolitan

My reading for this week was four issues of Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis Darick Robertson and it’s a romp and a half. When I started reading, I didn’t realize that it was set in the future. One thing to note is that, off the bat, this comic is raunchy as hell. The first line setting the scene is literally “Up a goddamn mountain.” It really sets up the irreverence that this character (and I’m assuming also author) have for this world. Then he blows up a bar because he has a missile launcher and he can get away with that I guess. It’s not until he gets to the tollbooth that I realize it’s a science-fiction future story. With the first shot of the city, Ellis caught my attention and wouldn’t let go.             This is a world where kitchen appliances can get high on robot drugs and people can change their species to any kind of animal, including Aliens. You can upload your brain into computers and essentially...
Read more

Week 12: Fun Home

This week, I read Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. had a vague understanding of what Fun Home was about before I read it; A lesbian finds out that her dad is gay and then he dies. What I did not know was that the Dad was a jerk who was emotionally distant/physically abusive to his kids and had sex with his high-school students. I like how she likens her family to that of the Addams Family New Yorker cartoons and the irony was lost on her as a child, but even Gomez and Morticia are attentive and caring to not only their kids but to each other as well… In the TV show, anyway, not as familiar with the illustrations.             One part I found particularly interesting was the bit about obsession-compulsion disorder. I don’t know a whole lot about OCD, so it was fascinating to learn the different kinds of rituals and superstitions that people with the disorder invent for themselves. She made her own shorthand for the term “I think” a...
Read more

Week 6: Underground Comics

The Underground Comics I read this week were Tijuana Bible and Tits and Clits . Needless to say, both were very sex-oriented, but both were very different angles. Tijuana Bible , which was written by men, have more of a carefree approach to sex. All anyone wants to do in these stories is have sex, it’s what their lives revolve around. Tits and Clits, on the other hand, is written entirely by women and actually isn’t all about sex. While that is obviously a major theme in the works, the stories could feature serious stories about self-image, rape, and sexual orientation. It’s not sensationalized or for the arousal of other men. Tijuana Bible was also way more graphic in its depictions of sex. Tijuana Bible was made as a male fantasy while Tits and Clits was more of a commentary on real life.
Read more