Blacksad VOL. 2 – ‘Artic Nation’

European Comics
Blacksad VOL. 2 – ‘Artic Nation’
By El Yanosh
December 17, 2004 - 13:43

Dupuis SA
Writer(s): Juan Dìaz Canales
Penciller(s): Juanjo Guardino
54 pages, color

So. In an attempt to lend you folks a slight amount of European culture, I’ve agreed with Hervé on a few occasionnal reviews of a variety of French comics (in exchange for a free meal and beer on sundays). Some of them aren’t quite the newest apple in town, but they’ll be those I deem worthy of sharing. I’ll start with Blacksad #2, Artic Nation.

Following the first tome’s conclusion of the anthopomorphic dark-mooded crime-solving hero, Blacksad finds himself pitted in a story meddling with murder, racism and (as usual) injustice. Blacksad– and his newest yet smelly acolyte, Weekly – will have to face a place where racism is deep, and where differences isn’t welcome by the white mainstream. Artic Nation is about saving a girl from the clutches of a white-suprematist clan (very remniscient of the Nazis, or the klux-klux-klan) and their very own internal struggle for power.

One major point for this serie is the art. Guardino’s vaguely disney-ish art is simply a marvel, by all standards wheter they be american, european or japanese. The life the artist places into his scenes, characters and details is astounding – check out those scenes involving crowds. Every single individuals in there are actually DOING something. His composition remains rhetorical, but extremely efficient.

The story, on the other hand, althought not bad, isn’t living up to the art’s standards. The artist’s composition is probably what makes this noir tale so fluid, since the story arc itself is fairly classic. An accessible story paired with great, efficient art, I’ll give two milkshakes out of three for this already-made classic.