Reviews

Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics by Jeff Lemire, Ed Brubaker, Brian Azzarello

peyton_'s review

3.0

This is a collection of crime comics from various authors. It’s a good selection with a variety of stories. I wanted to see if noir was a style I could get in to and this provided a perfect taste of the genre. A good read for anyone who likes or is interested in the genre.

literaryfeline's review

4.0

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first began reading this collection of graphic short stories. There are thirteen stories in all, each of them dark and gritty. And I loved just about every one. The first story left me stunned. The second, about a man with an ill wife who is about to lose his farm, is probably my favorite. It was called "The Silo" and was written and drawn by Jeff Lemire. Another one of my favorites was called "The Albanian" by M.K. Perker about an immigrant janitor who stumbles upon a murder-suicide in the office building where he works. I had to read the story called "Fracture" by Alex de Campi, Hugo Petras, and Clem Robbins twice because I hadn't realized the first time there was a special way to read it. The author and artist were quite creative with the set up of the story. I think it is pretty ingenious now that I better understand what they were aiming to do.

My experience with crime fiction short stories is hit and miss. Too often I find that characterization is sacrificed in the name of plot. Although I have read crime fiction graphic novels before, this was my first experience reading crime fiction shorts in graphic form. I was really impressed with how well done each of the stories were. So much is said within each pane and so few words are needed to get the entire story across (except in one case which was a short story, "Trustworthy" by Ken Lizzi and Joëlle Jones, written in words with a few art drawings to go along with it). I think readers of noir and who don't mind a lot of grit in their crime fiction should give Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics a try.

cemeterygates's review

4.0

All collections like these will have their ups and downs, but overall these dark and amusing crime stories are pretty wonderful. Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire and Ed Brubaker all make some pitch perfect short noir stories.

thetarantulalounge's review

2.0

The art was almost uniformly fantastic. The stories were too bleak for me so I wouldn't recommend this one.

sarajojojo's review

dark mysterious slow-paced

mizzelle's review against another edition

2.0

I found this a mixed bag of stories with some good some bad. Most seemed to prefer the twist/shock ending where you think you have everything figured out until... The art styles vary widely. Most favor either what I think of as more indie art style or the more realistic style. Hugo Petreus' art really stuck out in a bad way for me. I really liked "21st Century Noir", Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips' Criminal story and "Trustworthy" by Ken Lizzi and Joelle Jones. What surprised me was how I much I loved Brian Azzarello's "Bad Night" -- it handled the twist very cleverly -- it seems like an simple crime setup on the surface until/unless you start to recognize the pop culture reference, a nice nod to the superhero fans.

laureng's review against another edition

4.0

This is a pretty slim volume of 11 comics and one short story. It's quite good. My favorite stories are Stray Bullets: Open The Goddamn Box, Trustworthy, and of course the final piece The Bad Night (which is fantastic).

I liked that not all the stories were obvious, cliche noir.