Blacksad is also more morally principled than many pulp protagonists. Canales digs in at complex issues with a careful hand that is still entirely in keeping with noir conventions. This comes out as each story tackles blatant sexism in the form of patriarchal power, racism in the form of small-scale fascism, fear and hate-mongering during the Red Scare, and classism through nuanced examples. Aside from obviously being a cat and living in a world full of anthropomorphic animals, Blacksad is set apart from his inspirations by his affiliations, his code of honor, and distinct motivations that are caused by these two elements.īeing a comic, Blacksad is allowed to be more obviously political and mature than most of its classic noir inspirations. Detective John Blacksad is obviously inspired by Golden Age noir icons like Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum, but he’s not in any way derivative.

Fortunately, somehow series writer Juan Diaz Canales is enough of a genius to put all this together in an immensely effective collection of short stories. If Howard Hawks and Will Eisner were to meet in the 2010’s, read up on issues of class and race, then decide to go watch Zootopia together, then I imagine Blacksad would be the result. Be it solving the murder of a famous actress or keeping nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands, Blacksad’s grim work often provides a mirror for real-world conflict and human issues, never turning a blind eye to racism, political tensions, or brutally sudden violence.” Writing & Plotīlacksad has already received mountains of praise for its creative, modern pastiche noir storytelling direction, and I’m going to be upfront about just adding onto the pile. Sticking his nose into mystery after mystery, often getting involved with women almost as dangerous as the criminals he thwarts. “Blacksad is constantly up to his ears in trouble.

If you’ve never gotten your hands on this beautiful and poetic pulp hit, this is now the best way to do it. This new paperback edition collects all the stories from the first Blacksad graphic novel collection, as well as “A Silent Hell,” “Amarillo,” along with additional sketches, short stories, and an introduction from industry legend Jim Steranko. The pulp neo-noir tales of feline detective John Blacksad have become a contemporary classic in the comics medium, and now they are all collected for the first time in Blacksad: The Collected Stories.

Twenty years ago now, creators Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, both storytellers in comics and animation, released the first installment of Blacksad to critical acclaim.

Blacksad canales