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The classic hardboiled noir series featuring beloved anthropomorphic cat detective, John Blacksad, celebrates its twentieth year. Readers will now be able to experience five of Blacksad's biggest cases in a single comprehensive volume with new sketchbook material never published in English. Blacksad is constantly up to his ears in trouble. Sticking his nose into mystery after mystery, often getting involved with women almost as dangerous as the criminals he thwarts. 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. Canales and Guarnido redefine the standards for graphic storytelling, carving striking characters that are both animalistic and intimately human. Guarnido's sumptuously painted pages and rich cinematic style bring the world of 1950s America to life, earning high praise from comics legends like Will Eisner, Stan Lee, Jim Steranko, and Tim Sale! This volume collects the following Blacksad stories: Somewhere Within the Shadows, Arctic Nation, Red Soul, A Silent Hell, Amarillo; and the comic shorts "Spit at the Sky" and "Like Cats and Dogs.… (more)
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There's nothing wrong, per se, with the story or the writing; the story is effective over it's short length, and the translated dialogue fits in well, with only minor hiccups. It's just that it's nothing more than a well-told, simple story, and the art demands more in a standalone volume like this. The space to flesh out characters is limited, and not that much is done.
The animal nature of the characters is primarily used as character shorthand and commentary; and for it's visual power. The expressions and movement Guarnido gets out of his characters is amazing. Guarnido and Canales just need to work with plots a little longer and more involved than here.