Blacksad is a series of wonderful noir comics that combines some of my favorite elements: detective fiction, anthropmorphized characters and period pieces. The comic is the brain child of the Spanish writer/artist team, Juan de Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido. These guys are former animators who, at one point, apparently worked for Disney. Their love of film noir and detective stories spawned one of the greatest comics in years. These were originally published in French but have been translated to Spanish and English.
John Blacksad is a cat in a world inhabited by animals. He works as a private detective in New York City during the 1950's. His stories feature themes that were true to life in the 50's as well: racism, atomic age paranoia, and post-war economics. The series is dressed with jazz music, gangsters, booze and dangerous women as well, to better illustrate the noirish flavor of this amazing series.
Blacksad begins with the story Somewhere Within the Shadows. Debuting in 2000, this is where we meet John Blacksad, a hard drinking "Private Eye" in the vain of Phillip Marlowe or Sam Spade. He investigates the murder of a famous actress. The artwork is expressive, detailed, and perfectly captures the mood of a pulp detective story. It's probably my favorite story in this series.
Artic Nation, the second book in the series, came out in 2003. This one features some heavier subject matter. Blacksad searches for a missing girl named Kaylie. She has been kidnapped by a racist political organization called Arctic Nation. Their members are various animals, all with white fur, to draw allusions to the KKK and white supremacy. Another gang called the Black Claws generate themes of interracial conflict as well. Blacksad's struggle to find the missing girl is interspersed throughout these heavier themes.
The next in the series, Red Soul, was released in 2005. This features themes of America's two biggest fears during the era, nuclear annihilatioin and the communist "Red Scare." This story sees Blacksad mingling with all sorts of characters in the city's social scene to get to the bottom of a mystery. It's not as heady as the previous story but it's still very intriguing.
Dark Horse Comics would later publish these first three stories as a single volume in 2010, simply titled Blacksad, and translated into English.
Book four, A Silent Hell, also appeared in 2010. This story, set in New Orléans, features Blacksad and his pal Weekly (a reporter who's also a weasel) traveling there to meet Faust (a goat who's also a failed musician). The goat has a terminal illness, and is treated by voodoo high priestess. Faust commisions Blacksad to find an old friend of his. This story was a lot of fun and the artwork captures vintage New Orleans very well.
The final tale (so far) is called Amarillo. Amarillo is Spanish for "yellow." Released in 2014, this one concerns two beatnik types: a lion named Chad, and his hotheaded bison friend, Abraham. Blacksad is still in New Orleans on holiday but Weekly goes back to New York. This is one of those stories where the adventure finds the protagonist. Blacksad just kind of falls into the plot. Our hero is approached by a wealthy Texan (a steer) to drive a vintage yellow car on a cross country road trip from New Orleans to Amarillo, TX to Denver, CO, and finally to Memphis TN, where we meet Blacksad's sister. The whole thing culminates in a murder that has to be solved. And what does Luanne, a Siamese cat with psychic powers and a knife-throwing boyfriend, have to do with this? It's another very good story that has all the trappings of a great pulp-inspired adventure, though it seems brighter than the other stories, in both tone and artwork.
All in all, the Blacksad stories are probably the greatest pulp detective stories in modern comicdom. The artwork is reminiscent of storyboards for a Disney film and the writing is as sophisticated as any pulp novel. Rumor has it, there are supposed to be more stories on the way but they have yet to be published. This series is truly unique and highly recommended for anyone who loves comics.
