[Week 9] Blacksad

So for this week, I read the three available versions on the course share of Blacksad. Well, rather I read two of them, but Arctic Nation was pretty easy to understand, despite being in French! The extra book about the watercolor thumbnailing process was really awesome as well, even though it was also in French.

First off, the art of these comics is absolutely incredible. The realistic detail with the wonderful use of watercolor and lighting is just an absolute joy to read through. I kept going back to panels just to look at how the lines and colors were handled, especially so in A Silent Hell. The art also really helped sell the realism of the tense racial issues of the 1950's, even with everyone being animals-- the racism was still pretty stark and clear. Again, even though the characters are represented as animals, their writing and the way they're drawn just gives every character that you see such rich character-- even background characters I found myself wanting to know more about.

Secondly, for story content, it definitely didn't shy away from the gritty realism of what was going on during the 1950s, with that added flare of hollywood-esque mystery and murder solving. The interactions between all these different characters in the stories, especially with A Silent Hell and Amarillo are so scarily genuine and real feeling, despite the characters being animals. The plot "twist" in A Silent Hell was really good too.

Overall, Blacksad was probably one of the top comics that I've read so far this year, and I would gladly recommend it to people I know, if only just for the art its self.