A long time ago, when I was still in high school, a friend of mine loaned me a kind of rare Brazilian issue of the French comic Blacksad, by that time I wasn’t a fan of gritty noir books but I was absolutely astonished by the artwork in this one.

Cut to the future, almost ten years later, I stumbled across a post in a social media website about this comic book and a lot of memories start to come back into my mind. So, I acquire the Hardcover issue published in 2010 by Dark Horse Comics with the first 3 stories and, man, it was worth it.

Blacksad is a French comic, written and drawn by Spanish authors Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, that follows the life of private detective John Blacksad. The first thing that stands out is not just how well drawn and full of detail the piece is, but how Guarnido manages to show every character personality and strengths through the choice of his ”animal avatar”.

And yes, the characters are anthropomorphic animals, and it fits perfectly. First of all, and I’ll quote Jim Steranko on this one:

“Rather than animals who act like people, the creators’ approach is predicated on people who resemble animals. There’s a major difference and it’s not as remote as it seems.”

Let me try to explain this, the characters look like animals, but they’re the most humanly possible, the animal avatar works almost as a caricature of their personas. But, yes, they’re animals, and like another all-time classic, Maus, this is not what matters the most.

Did I mention that the artwork is fantastic?

Ok, let’s talk a bit about the plot, I’ll try to stay away from big spoilers. The first volume, published by Dark Horse, contains the first three French albums: Somewhere within the Shadows, Arctic Nation and Red Soul. The first one is a great gateway to the series, as it is a very classical ”film noir” plot-driven tale, that has everything you need in a great crime series, we start with the murder of a famous actress, who had a relationship with the main character in the past, and the story picks up from there. There’s lots of fighting, chases, mysterious and powerful characters.

The first issue isn’t very complex, but has a very satisfying end. The true strength of the series is in the sequels, after the world building and showing what the comic is about, the creators give us two stories that, unlike the first one, are very centered in political discussion and great plot twists.

Well, that’s my January recommendation, go ahed and read Blacksad, even if you are not a great fan of crime stories, the artwork will be worth it. Trust me.

See you guys soon, with another one.