A 250 word review of the Blacksad: Amarillo english translation
by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido; Dark Horse Books
Blacksad is a new chapter in an ongoing story. To learn about the first chapter go here.
Blacksad is a comic about a pulp private investigator in a 1950s world of anthropomorphic animal-people. In the newest instalment our black cat detective is down on his luck and stranded in New Orleans without the cash to get home. Luckily for him he is landed a sweet, relaxing gig driving the yellow Cadillac Eldorado of a rich, Texas oil Hippopotamus across America. Unluckily for him, this car is almost immediately stolen by a pair of scruffy writers, a buffalo poet and a young lion who has just written his next great novel. It gets even worse when the car runs afoul of a murder. Blacksad: Amarillo is another great, pulpy detective comic that tells a classic crime story filled with atmosphere, action, and joy while also providing a pretty fun madcap roadtrip across 1950s America. It is also one of the best looking comics I've read: Blacksad: Amarillo is gorgeous, composed of sumptuous paintings that make every panel. It is a comic that, despite being not particularly long, took nearly a week of reading time to gawk at. Blacksad: Amarillo also continues the series' examination and devotion to 1950s Americana, showcasing the most stylish and nostalgic elements of that era in a really interesting and evocative way. Blacksad: Amarillo is pretty much everything I want from a comic: it tells an exciting, fun story with atmosphere with masterful and inspiring artwork. Blacksad is must read comics.
Word count: 237
Post by Michael Bround
Previously:
Blacksad
Blacksad: A Silent Hell
A 250 word (or less) review of the Blacksad and Blacksad: A Silent Hell collections
By Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido; English translations from Dark Horse Books
One
of the worst things about being an obligate anglophone is that I can't really
enjoy many amazing looking comics in their native form. Fortunately, a select
few French, Spanish, and Italian language comics do eventually get released
into the North American market as English translations. Blacksad is an absolute
gem of a French comic made by Spanish creators that is now also available in
English. The comic follows hardboiled, anthropomorphic Cat-person detective
John Blacksad as he solves a variety of cases. From a story perspective the
comic is very much a loving, tongue in cheek, tribute to pulp detective stories
with a style that celebrates the conventions and wallows in the excesses of the
genre. It's great and sometimes pleasantly silly. This style is wedded to some
well constructed and exciting mystery plots, all of which are set in a very
1950s animal-people-America and examine some aspect of the period American
society (racism, jazz, the Red Scare). But the thing about Blacksad that
absolutely sweeps me off my feet is the art: Blacksad is a visual smorgasbord
of character work, realized settings, and glorious colouring. Every panel of
the comic is like a museum quality Americana painting of an alternate universe
populated by Animal-people. It's gorgeous. That said, Blacksad isn’t perfect:
there’s some dubious race stuff, women are very sexualized and abused, and the
whole thing is vaguely yiffy. But despite this, Blacksad is such a technically
good and enjoyable comic that you should read it anyway.
Word
count: 248
