Juan Díaz Canales

A very cool graphic novel! Sort of like if Philip Marlowe was snooping around the back streets of "Zootopia"! I love this kind of noir, and the three stories in here do it justice! The artwork is crisp and engaging and the characters own their roles! The white vs. black "animals" is pretty deep, especially when a young zebra is shown in one of the panels. And any graphic novel that includes an excerpt from "Howl" has got my vote! This is one beautiful collection!

A collection of three trope-filled mysteries with the gritty and grizzled PI, John Blacksad, a black cat with a grim outlook. Go with John as he hunts thugs, solves murders, seeks revenge, saves children, and eventually the free world.

The main conceit of a world inhabited by talking animals is interesting and the artwork is beautiful. However, the way the artists design all the women in the novel is frankly gross and sexist. While the men have most of the facial features of animals, the show more women are essentially playboy bunnies. The end result lends every sex scene a flavor of bestiality. It's also just plain confusing design because often the animal features of the women is so indistinct that you can't even tell what they are supposed to be.

Overall I enjoyed the book and the stories. The animal artwork lent itself well to character building. show less

A terrific read. I'd procrastinated on checking out "Blacksad" for nearly a decade -- really, there are so many highly recommended comics out there, you can't get to it all -- but man, was it worth the wait. The first story in this three-story colelction is at the face of it very basic noir fare -- an old girlfriend turns up dead and the sullen private investigator can't help but get to the bottom of it -- but it still gripped me due to the fantastic artwork and great execution. The other show more two stories -- a child kidnapping in the middle of a small town race conflict, and a conspiracy amid Cold War paranoia and prosecution -- are much more inventive and complex, and in particular the middle story makes use of the anthropomorphic animal world in surprising ways. I've been trained to expect fiction that uses animal people like this to rarely if ever really reference that the characters are all (different) animals, but "Blacksad" does so frequently and with impressive effect. I will definitely be buying the fourth and fifth volume as well, and no doubt join the eager wait for the long-delayed sixth and seventh, the first of which is currently rumoured to finally be due in October 2021. Fingers crossed. This is great stuff. show less

¡Este volumen es una maravilla! Cada viñeta de Guarnido es como un pequeño cuadro en el que perderse. El dibujo es estupendo, pero el color es increíble. En cuanto al guión de Díaz Canales, destaca por la voz en off del protagonista, que tanto recuerda al buen cine negro. Pero las historias no desmerecen. El formato es grande, y el desembolso económico también, pero en este caso ha merecido la pena con creces.

El volumen recopila las cinco historias de Blacksad, este gato detective de show more los años 50 del pasado siglo, además de incluir un par de historietas breves y un buen montón de bocetos. Una cosa que no había mencionado es que los personajes son animales antropomórficos, lo que no deja de ser una mera curiosidad.

¡Imprescindible! show less