He only does his job, whatever the clientele asks: in this case, to demonstrate with photographic evidence the infidelities of a husband. It is his daily bread, it takes much more for the whiskers of detective John Blacksad to shake. His impeccable suit does not hide his mood: wild, like every injured animal. In order to do so, he’ll find himself immersed in the swampy world of drugs, black magic and jazz.The rhino bursts into the enraged office.
This time around the detective is in New Orleans and he has to find pianist Sebastian Little Hand Fletcher before the night is up. John Blacksad’s latest case, L’enfer, le silence (El infierno, el silencio), was published in France by publishers Dargaud and by Norma in Spain at the end of last year. Guarnido is truly skilful in his use of colour too: he uses different colour combos to highlight flashbacks or other sections of the stories. The simple stories are set unbelievably well thanks to the highly detailed artwork. The artist works in the Disney factory films and this knowledge is on masterful display here in the graphic narrative. The anthropomorphic element of the comic is so well done that the reader forgets the characters are animals. So, the cop is a dog, the cat is wily and the rat is a traitor. Sticking to the pattern of classic fables, each character is represented by a specific animal. The greatest virtue and attraction of Blacksad lie in Guarnido’s artwork. So, really, the storylines will not bowl the reader over, even with the very well-rounded-off dialogues, as they will be very familiar to the reader from both cinema and literature. The camera movements, general shots and close-ups, framing and ellipses could be taken directly from the 1941 John Houston masterpiece, based on the story by Hammett, The Maltese Falcon. The comic reads like an excellent storyboard for film noir. However, seeing that the stories are told in comic book form, we should really point out that it’s definitely more cinema-like than novel-esque. Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe poking around where they are not welcome immediately spring to mind. It repeats the classic stereotype private-eye typical of crime detective literature by the likes of American writers Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett.
The series, with four published comic books under its belt, is based on the noir tradition, which basically means it brim-full of all the typical genre clichés. The authors are animator Spaniards Juan Diaz (script) and Juanjo Garrido (artwork and colouring). The comic has been awarded major international prizes, and in France, where comics are held as high art, it enjoys massive success and popularity. The cat John Blacksad throws light on cases interlaced with crime and politics. The stories are set in the 50s in the States. Anthropomorphic realism blacksad Blacksad is a serial comic based on classic film noir from the 50s and features anthropomorphic animals.
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