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narrnaul's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
3.75
boring. cool art style though
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Racism, and Torture
leandrathetbrzero's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
John Blacksad, P.I. 🐈
John Blacksad is a private investigator. He’s also a black cat. Set in the 1950s and heavily inspired by hardboiled detective fiction (and, adjacently, film noir), this anthropomorphic world mirrors the dark realities of our own. Paired with gorgeous illustrations, Blacksad’s cases cover themes of race-related tension and violence, deep-seated corruption, and gray morality.
I’m getting more into graphic novels this year! And I’ve been on the lookout specifically for those in the mystery genre. I found this 3-volume edition at my local library, and it was a pleasant bonus to discover it happens to be a translated work as well! As someone who continues to be wary of the classic hardboiled variety, I found Blacksad to be far more palatable as a historical mystery clearly written in modern times. With that said, misogyny and the objectification of women—an unfortunate habit in classic hardboiled—shines through in this graphic novel. It’s more subtle, but even the illustrations depict the anthropomorphic women characters with bodies that mirror the human body, while men characters had the bodies of the animals they represented.
This was a fascinating graphic novel to read, for sure, with a likable BIPOC protagonist investigating these cases. If only the hardboiled genre could *finally* be rid of misogyny and sexual objectification of women, I would have liked this more.
Content Warning: illustrated depictions of s*x, heavy physical violence and blood, depictions of white supremacy and racism, gun violence
John Blacksad is a private investigator. He’s also a black cat. Set in the 1950s and heavily inspired by hardboiled detective fiction (and, adjacently, film noir), this anthropomorphic world mirrors the dark realities of our own. Paired with gorgeous illustrations, Blacksad’s cases cover themes of race-related tension and violence, deep-seated corruption, and gray morality.
I’m getting more into graphic novels this year! And I’ve been on the lookout specifically for those in the mystery genre. I found this 3-volume edition at my local library, and it was a pleasant bonus to discover it happens to be a translated work as well! As someone who continues to be wary of the classic hardboiled variety, I found Blacksad to be far more palatable as a historical mystery clearly written in modern times. With that said, misogyny and the objectification of women—an unfortunate habit in classic hardboiled—shines through in this graphic novel. It’s more subtle, but even the illustrations depict the anthropomorphic women characters with bodies that mirror the human body, while men characters had the bodies of the animals they represented.
This was a fascinating graphic novel to read, for sure, with a likable BIPOC protagonist investigating these cases. If only the hardboiled genre could *finally* be rid of misogyny and sexual objectification of women, I would have liked this more.
Content Warning: illustrated depictions of s*x, heavy physical violence and blood, depictions of white supremacy and racism, gun violence
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Sexism and Antisemitism
Minor: Toxic relationship and Alcohol
rhi_'s review
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual content, Blood, and Kidnapping
Minor: Child abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Antisemitism, and War
lela's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
4.0
The art in this book is gorgeous. I am a sucker for comics done in this watercolor style and Guarnido absolutely killed it - the dynamic angles and coloring of some of the panels made it feel so cinematic and gave such a strong mood and tone to the book
The stories themselves are pretty conventional noir mysteries without much nuance but I don't think that detracted from the book too much as the narrative voice was so specific and fitting
Really my only problem with this book is its relationship with female characters - with such interesting and creative anthropopathic character designs for the male characters the fact that all the women that appeared in more than a single scene were drawn in the same hyper-sexual way that lacked the diverse array of animals that male characters were base on (also the fact that they looked so much more human than any of the men) is at worst sexist and objectifying and at absolute best just plain lazy.
All in all - liked the film noir vibes but could have done without the 50s treatment of the female characters... I am interested to see if that changes at all in the more recent issues of this series
The stories themselves are pretty conventional noir mysteries without much nuance but I don't think that detracted from the book too much as the narrative voice was so specific and fitting
Really my only problem with this book is its relationship with female characters - with such interesting and creative anthropopathic character designs for the male characters the fact that all the women that appeared in more than a single scene were drawn in the same hyper-sexual way that lacked the diverse array of animals that male characters were base on (also the fact that they looked so much more human than any of the men) is at worst sexist and objectifying and at absolute best just plain lazy.
All in all - liked the film noir vibes but could have done without the 50s treatment of the female characters... I am interested to see if that changes at all in the more recent issues of this series
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Gun violence and Racism
aus10england's review
I don’t think this one is for me! I didn’t really understand the story, it seemed very complex, but I can see many people liking this! Plus the art style is STUNNING.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence and Murder
Moderate: Sexual content
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