Blacksad is a difficult comic to explain. Blacksad is a Spanish comic album written by Juan Díaz Canales, with some of the most beautiful art in a comic provided by Juanjo Guarnido. The comics follow John Blacksad, a cat man detective, through a new story with each comic that focuses on different themes. Every character is portrayed by an anthropomorphized animal. While it is a Spanish comic, its main audience is the French market. It’s usually released in Spanish a month after the initial French release. I can’t understand Spanish or French so I get to read the English translations, the first story, Blacksad: Somewhere Within the Shadows, was published in America by iBooks about a decade ago but they went bankrupt a few years ago and now Dark Horse publishes the English translations. I don’t know how it compares to the original translation, but Blacksad is an absolutely fantastic read in English thanks to the fantastic language throughout.
The use of anthropomorphism in this comic is extremely unique to any work I’ve read in the past. It’s not uncommon to see animals used for the sole purpose of attracting children, essentially adding nothing to the narrative. This is not the case with Blacksad. While everyone is very aware that they are an animal, they seem more human than any animal story I've seen before. The same story could be told with humans, though there would be far less animal jokes. What really separates this from animal stories and human stories is the choice of animal for each character. It’s not hard to tell that a rat, especially one with dirty fur and a disheveled appearance, can’t be trusted or that a rhinoceros is tough as nails and will kick your ass. The character choices, along with the writing, give the reader the right amount of information to understand what’s going on without characters giving unneeded exposition. The choice to use animals actually enhances the storytelling. This makes it one of, if not the best use of animal anthropomorphism in fiction.
The cover page makes it very clear what this first story is all about without saying a word. Blacksad stands in a trench coat, a cat woman on his left, a gun in his right hand with his finger on the trigger. The woman has a very old style of beauty straight out of classic Hollywood. Right away the reader knows that this is an homage to classic noir films, and it is not afraid to feel like Hollywood cinema. The voice of the writing seems like it came straight out of old Hollywood noir. The muted colors and use of shadows perfectly captures the feel and look of classics such as The Third Man.
The story starts with the death of the woman on the cover. Blacksad and police commissioner Smirnov, a German shepherd (the perfect choice of animal for a police commissioner), are looking over her dead body lying almost completely nude in her bed, wearing nothing but a see through nightgown. The cause of death is a bullet right through the middle of her forehead. Blacksad previously had a fling with this woman, Natalia, and takes it upon himself to uncover the mystery against the advice of his friend Smirnov. As this story is a mystery, I will not spoil much else. Blacksad, like many other noir protagonists, must see how far he is willing to go to solve this case. If you've seen even a couple of noir films in the past, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect in terms of plot for this story.
What’s very surprising about this series is the adult nature. In most comics, since they are geared towards a younger audience, sex happens but it is never shown and nudity is a blanket covering the woman’s torso. Blacksad is not afraid to get dirty as nipples from Natalia’s dead body are one of the first things you see. This is very strange and somewhat off-putting since the characters are animals. While sex is present, it is never pornographic. It’s handled extremely well and I would call the sex “mature,” not “adult.” If the initial nudity bothers you, I strongly urge you to keep reading. It’s well worth it in the end.
Somewhere Within the Shadows is only the first of four volumes currently released in the Blacksad series. Its story is not much more than a classic noir story but it is handled extremely well and has some of the best art I’ve ever seen in a comic. I highly recommend it to everyone who likes comics, cats, or noir. If there is something wrong with you and you don’t like any of those things, I still recommend it.
Final Purrdict: Very Pawsitive
