Blacksad - Juan Díaz Canales, Juanjo Guarnido

There is a lot of anthropomorphism in the world of cartoons and comics, and it's a style we are familiar with now from Disney and Pixar movies. That's not surprising, as Jim Steranko notes in the introduction, since long before Disney there has been a tendency to associate humans with animals behaviours and characteristics. It seems less of a cliché or shortcut then than natural for a comic like Blacksad to lean on those stereotypical characteristics, a silverback gorilla as a bodyguard, a lithe lizard as a silent cold blooded assassin. You're going to find weasels and rats in the expected places too. In Blacksad it seems natural also that a private Investigator who snoops around and has lightning reflexes is portrayed as a cat. A pretty tough cat in a trenchcoat.

That's because Blacksad - initially at least  - is set in the 1950s period also draws heavily in its style from classic detective cinematic noir. Not so much in the artwork of Juanjo Guarnido, which is less heavy black and white than European painted comic art style, with a smoky, misty sepia quality to period interiors. The artist however extends that range considerably across the first three stories collected in this Dark Horse English language collection, finding those dark contracts and moods, the colourful blasts, streams of light cutting through the murk. There are some stunning large panel and spreads revelling in the lovely period detail but there is also good characterisation in expressions and movement.

Somewhere within the Shadows

The first story in the collection however, aside obviously from having animal characters, does feel like it pushes a little too close to the standard noir storyline template. PI John Blacksad is saddened to witness the discovery of the body of Natalia, a famous movie star, murdered in her bed. The detective has seen many such crime scenes, but takes this one personally, as he once worked for Natalia and as was her lover for a brief happy period before she became too much to handle. And too much for someone else apparently, the few leads Blacksad follows taking him to some dodgy places, sustaining a few heavy beatings and landing himself in jail. It's not difficult to see that there is a cover-up in high places and police chief Smirnov more or less confirms it, suggesting that Blacksad is going to have to do this one unofficially. The detective is happy with that. There may not be a great deal of originality in the hard boiled storyline, no new twists on the genre, but it's stylishly illustrated and superbly paced, establishing the period and the tone well, before moving on to other aspects and features of this period in American history.

Arctic Nation

The second Blacksad story makes more use of the US post-war background, the growing race problems and the economic problems. A missing child has been reported by a school headmistress suspected taken by a group known as the Black Claws, but Blacksad strikes up an acquaintance with a reporter Weekly, who points to rumours connected with white supremacists, of which the chief of police is a member. The series takes an interesting turn here, moving the story forward further away from the standard PI thriller, or perhaps just going deeper into the social issues and the political corruption underlying many of the problems and attitudes that are taking root. There are lots of new animal types introduced to distinguish between white fur animals and black (Blacksad is a black cat) and it works well. Juanjo Guarnido takes advantage of the situation to again depict some dynamic action scenes.

Red Soul

The third Blacksad story really digs deeper into many aspects of the the culture and conflicts of the US of the 1950s. Art, culture, Communism, nuclear testing are all added into the gradual worldbuilding of the series. Blacksad is on an assignment as a minder, a goon for hire accompanying a rich client in Las Vegas. It's not his kind of thing, but he is soon back in New York where things are starting to heat up. Ginsberg, Rothko, Los Alamos, McCarthy witch hunts are all referenced for their importance to new ideas circulating in this period, but where there are ideas there are differences, even between a group of intellectuals like the Twelve Apostles group that include scientists with links back to Nazi Germany, and there s a clever plot point where hidden meanings or messages can be found behind the canvases of a Rothko-like painter, Litvak. The growth of the series to this point is impressive for the range and scope of its combination of genre with alternate history and movie tough guy action. It's all done in a glamourised way of course, but you can't argue with the effectiveness and beauty of the painted artwork, which seems to grow more impressive with each book.

Reading notes: The hardcover collection of the first three volumes of Blacksad by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido was published in the US in English language translation by Dark Horse Comics. Although the creators are of Spanish origin, both are based in France, with the artist Guarnido indeed having worked for Disney Studios there. The original French language editions were published in individual volumes in France by Dargaud in 2000, 2002 and 2005. The series - which now has quite a few more volumes in France and in English translation including a 'Weekly' spin-off - is highly acclaimed in France and was an Angoulême International Comics Festival award winner.