Graphic Novel Review – Blacksad by Juan Diaz Canales, Juanjo Guarnido (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction/Graphic Novel
Length: 184 pages
Publisher: Dark Horse Originals
Release Date: June 22, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1595823939
Stand Alone or Series: 1st volume in the Blacksad series
Source: Christmas Gift
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Private investigator John Blacksad is up to his feline ears in mystery, digging into the backstories behind murders, child abductions, and nuclear secrets. Guarnido’s sumptuously painted pages and rich cinematic style bring the world of 1950s America to vibrant life, with Canales weaving in fascinating tales of conspiracy, racial tension, and the “red scare” Communist witch hunts of the time. Guarnido reinvents anthropomorphism in these pages.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first of three volumes in the Blacksad series. I got a copy of this as a Christmas gift from my husband.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this quite a bit. The drawing is amazing, using mainly muted tones and is amazingly detailed. I loved the variety of facial expressions all these different anthropomorphic characters have. The stories are engaging, very well done and easy to follow.
This volume includes three separate stories featuring Blacksad. Blacksad is a cat/man that is a private investigator in America during the 1950’s “red scare” era. All of the characters are done as animals but are very human in their actions. The type of animal chosen to represent a character is mainly based on the primary characteristic of that character. For example; bouncer is a gorilla, sneaky snitch is a rat…etc.
In general it was really well done but also very adult (there are numerous sex scenes). My one complaint is how the female characters are portrayed. While there is great variety in both animal type and visual appearance to the male characters in this book, all the females look very much the same. In fact every single female character is incredibly slender in a deer-like way, has huge prey-like eyes, a pert nose, and gigantic human breasts. The human breasts were a little weird for me since they are featured prominently in full glory but on women who are supposed to be deer, dogs, or other slender animals. This aspect left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. You don’t see any male nudity really.
Despite the above, this was incredibly well done and a fascinating look at both history and an interesting way to handle an anthropomorphic graphic novel for adults.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this. I really loved the artwork color and detail. The stories are engaging and well done. The graphic novel has the perfect noir type of atmosphere and Blacksad is exactly the kickbutt PI you would expect from this era. The odd portrayal of the female characters throughout left me with a bad taste in my mouth though. I would definitely recommend checking this out but didn’t enjoy it enough to get the next couple books in the series.
