Found In Translation: BLACKSAD

Found In Translation: BLACKSAD: "

Blacksad's creators, Juan Díaz Canales (writer) and Juanjo Guarnido (artist), are Spanish and the book has was published in French before being translated into English by Dark Horse Comics.



The edition that I have is a nice hardback volume containing the first three books in the series (there is a fourth book available in French that has not yet been translated).

The titular main character is a cat who is working as a private detective. In fact, the series can best be summed up as anthropomorphic animals (so-called “funny animals,” if only because “anthropomorphic” is such a pain in the ass to type) in a hard-boiled noir setting.





The story in the first book starts with Blacksad sniffing around the death of a famous starlet that he had a passionate affair with in the not-too-distant past. It takes some fairly predictable turns as it works it’s way through the plot, but there are some nice touches along the way that use the conceit effectively – the cold-blooded bar full of reptiles, for example.

The second Blacksad book is easily the best of the bunch.



Where the first was a relatively straightforward mash-up of “funny animals” in a noir setting, the second book takes the conceit a step further and uses the premise to ask some hard questions about race and identity.



A “white power” organization – complete with Nazi-esque armbands and white hoods – is gaining social and political strength in Blacksad’s town. In this milieu, these advocates are arctic animals with pure white fur – polar bears and so forth. As Blacksad is a black cat with a white muzzle, he’s on the “wrong” side of their ideology.



On the flip side are the animals with black fur, who are depicted as armed radicals, a la the Black Panthers (although there are no panthers presented).

The fact that the creators were able to play with such charged concepts within this context makes this work absolutely worthwhile. There’s a mystery behind the scenes as well – Blacksad's angle into the whole affair.



The third Blacksad story in the anthology is a lot more wide-ranging than the other two, mixing Las Vegas, Beat poetry, modern art, McCarthyism, repentant ex-Nazi scientists, nuclear secrets and car bombs.



The individual elements work, but the creators tried to shoehorn a lot of different things into this particular story, which suffers for the lack of focus.



If you like “funny animals” or hard-boiled noir or both, Blacksad is absolutely worth your time and effort.



After the jump check out four pages of the English edition published by Dark Horse Comics

Click to embiggen

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