Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido (.CBR)

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Mar 10th, 2011, 12:51 pm

#728080 by Ojay

Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido
Requirements: CBR Reader. 148 MB.
Overview: Created in the hard-boiled detective/film-noir genre, the comic is set in the U.S. during the 1950s and follows the exploits of a feline private investigator named John Blacksad. So far only three issues have appeared (in 2000, 2003 and 2005), but considering the quality of the artwork (in watercolor!), the delays are understandable.

All of the characters are depicted as humanoid animals without tails. Rather than actually being animals, they’re meant as an artistic caricature to exaggerate personality, physical appearance and mannerisms, with the occasional visual pun. Female characters appear more human than their male counterparts, and the police force is mostly canine. Blacksad himself is a black cat with a white muzzle and a trenchcoat. He’s both educated and street-smart, jaded yet hopeful, with an eye for the ladies but having all the bad luck of his kind.

Blacksad

Juan Díaz Canales

Juanjo Guarnido

Dargaud, iBooks, Public Square Books

01. Somewhere within the shadows

Quelque part entre les ombres

Quelque part entre les ombres (Somewhere within the shadows) is more of a prelude, an introduction to the style and setting of the series to come. Blacksad investigates the death of a famous actress, an ex-girlfriend. Faced with dead ends, a police superintendent named Smirnov allies himself with Blacksad to bring the murderer to justice.

02. Arctic nation

Arctic nation

Arctic Nation, takes place in an economically-depressed suburb and revolves around racism. Blacksad looks into the disappearance of a young girl and finds himself bumping up against a possibly corrupt police chief and a white-furred supremacist group. This case also introduces a character named Weekly, a marten investigative reporter for a tabloid newspaper.

03. Alma roja

Âme rouge

Âme rouge (Red soul), Blacksad renews an old acquaintance and prevents him from being murdered within a group of left-wing intellectuals. Things get more difficult when the Cold War government attempts to arrest Blacksad’s friends during the communist witch-hunt.

04. Silence of Hell

L'Enfer, le silence

The 1950, New Orleans, where Mardi Gras celebration in full swing. With Weekly, a jazz producer named Faust made the acquaintance of Blacksad. Faust asks the latter to hold any one s case: one of his musicians, the pianist Sebastian, disappeared. It has not been heard from for months, jeopardizing the private music label of a star. Sebastian Faust is concerned that once too, foundered in drugs. His complaint is all the more urgent that Faust knows suffering from cancer. John accepts the mission and gradually discovers that Faust has not said everything. S he sees that he himself is manipulated, but decided nonetheless to find Sebastian to understand the reasons for his disappearance. He does not know yet that he will find his most grueling investigation, to more than one respect.

Reviewed by Dronon. 2008

The comics scene in France is very different from the North American market. Sure, we know about Tintin and Asterix, but not much else. And that’s sad, because Europe turns out some really high-quality material. Although admittedly there are language differences.
Most North American comics are in the superhero genre. They’re printed on 10" x 6.5" paper and come out once a month for $3 to $4. The production teams may involve as many as 5 people and can have story arcs stretching over 20 issues.
Comics in France are written in every genre imaginable. The pages are big (up to 12" x 9" on good paper), are bound in hardcover, and sell for around 12 euro. The production teams are frequently artist-and-writer duos. The time between issues can be as long as 1 to 2 years. And while there may be an overall story arc, the plot within any given issue is usually pretty self-contained. The market is active for both children and adults, and store shelves can have cutesy kid humor sitting right next to erotica. If this is difficult to imagine, think Smurfs… and then think Heavy Metal.
Of particular interest to furry fans is Blacksad, by the Spanish team of Canales and Guarnido. Created in the hard-boiled detective/film-noir genre, the comic is set in the U.S. during the 1950s and follows the exploits of a feline private investigator named John Blacksad. So far only three issues have appeared (in 2000, 2003 and 2005), but considering the quality of the artwork (in watercolor!), the delays are understandable.
All of the characters are depicted as humanoid animals without tails. Rather than actually being animals, they’re meant as an artistic caricature to exaggerate personality, physical appearance and mannerisms, with the occasional visual pun. Female characters appear more human than their male counterparts, and the police force is mostly canine. Blacksad himself is a black cat with a white muzzle and a trenchcoat. He’s both educated and street-smart, jaded yet hopeful, with an eye for the ladies but having all the bad luck of his kind.
In terms of buying these comics, only the first two volumes have been translated into English, published in softcover by iBooks, who went bankrupt. (And it happened just as they were also publishing the Furry! The Best Anthropomorphic Fiction anthology.) The first volume is the most gritty of the three, but as mentioned above, the story is more of an introductory one. The second volume is a bit longer with a more complex plot, but the quality of the English translation is slightly lower.
If the language difference doesn’t bother you, it may still be possible to buy the French editions. Failing that, it’s been enormously popular and has been translated into many other European languages. If you can’t find anything through online sellers like Amazon, eBay or AbeBooks, look for French comic stores in Montreal or Quebec (like LeSiteBD/Monet, Fichtre, Imaginaire) to save yourself overseas shipping chages. A Spanish edition is also available in North America from Public Square Books.
If you enjoy anthropomorphic comics that have excellent artwork, I highly recommend having at least one of the Blacksad books in your collection.

Reviewed by Jennifer, Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Silence of Hell is the fourth part of the amazing Blacksad series by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, one of the best graphic novels I know. Don't let the fact that all persons are animals here deter you. The animal always fit the character perfectly and are beautifully drawn. It's also very definitely not for children, with very adult themes.

The drawings of the fourth novel are less detailed than the others and the story isn't quite as tightly woven. Of the four books, this is the weakest - but even so, it's well worth buying. There are magnificent pages that you can loose yourself in and it's a beautiful hommage to New Orleans and its music.

If you love graphic novels and hardboiled/noir detective stories, then go ahead and buy Blacksad. I promise you that you will buy all of them, never mind what I wrote here. Even a weak Blacksad novel is way above much of what is published in the comic genre and the first three books are very strong indeed.