"...A JUNGLE WHERE IT'S SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST- WHERE PEOPLE ACT LIKE ANIMALS..."

Blacksad.

Alright, time for something completely different...


I've been sitting on this for a year now, and already a second volume is out so I'm well and truly behind the times.

Read 'BLACKSAD', published by Dark Horse Comics- it's absolutely brilliant!

I guess I should explain. According to the ever reliable Wikipedia, Blacksad is:

"a series created by Spanish authors Juan Diaz Canales (writer) and Juanjo Guarnido (artist), and published by French publisher Dargaud. Though both authors are Spanish, their main target audience for Blacksad is the French market and thus they publish all Blacksad volumes in French first; the Spanish edition usually follows about one month later."

Speaking more of narrative now.  John Blacksad is an ex-cop turned private-eye in a late 1950's film-noir world populated by a host of anthropomorphic animals (i.e animals that walk and act as humans). Imagine Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon, only played out with the cast of Disney's The Jungle Book and your part way to understanding what this is... Actually, that's not quite true. As pointed out in the book's well-observed introduction (by legendary Jim Steranko):

"...Rather than animals who act like people, the creator's approach is predicated on people who resemble animals..." 

This odd stylistic choice means that you can literally 'get' a character before they even speak, so aside from being quirky the animals serve as a form of expressive short hand, or 'type casting'. Sounds lazy but it works beautifully.

The artwork in all the volumes is stunning- you'll find no 'lazy panels' in any of these stories, and the choice of colour pallet is richly evocative. Aesthetically I was blown away, and to be honest I bought the first book on these strengths alone. I will point out that the style does slowly change between each volume; much of the grain is forsaken for crisp edges and stronger saturation, but the standard remains breathtakingly high.

So, that leaves us with the writing...

I'm not sure what I was expecting in truth; I would have probably been content with just the 'pretty pictures', but the storytelling is also top notch. Each individual volume feels like a lost film-noir classic; tales of child abductions and nuclear secrets, filled with mystery, intrigue and brilliantly sharp dialogue (and although it must have suffered through translation it's never noticeable that English was not the intended language).

I honestly can't find fault, except perhaps that each of the stories in the first volume were too short! But still, that's why they call them short stories, right? Having said that, the second volume appears to be one story cover-to-cover, so my prayers have been answered. All I have to do now is buy it.

Anyway, whether or not you're a fan of the film-noir genre as I am there's something in this for everyone to enjoy. By turns fun and broody, breezy and brutal, irreverent and poignant, but always very, very cool, Blacksad is practically the Shaft of the anthropomorphic animal-kingdom. Personally I can't help but 'hear' the voices of Keith David (that of Spawn in the animated series) and James Woods respectively as the duo of Blacksad and his news-chasing sometime-ally Weekly, but part of the magic will be coming into these characters for yourself.

I urge you; find a copy, sit back with a good drink and soak-up these modern-classics.

"From that day forward, that has been my world. A jungle where it's survival of the fittest- where people act like animals. I had chosen to walk the dark path in life... And I'm still on it."

Blacksad.