Blog

Blacksad: Collected Stories
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Story: Juan Díaz Canales
Artist: Juanjo Guarnido
Cover: Juanjo Guarnido

As someone who came to Blacksad coincidentally, by word of mouth, it has always seemed so strange to me that a pair of supremely gifted storytellers from Spain would center their creative energies on a hardboiled Yankee detective. Flaunting ironclad noir trappings dripping with incisive Americana, Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido breathed life into a resplendent contemporary deconstruction of the U.S. of A, replete with anthropomorphized characters that seem more human with every turn of the page. For his uncanny perception, Canales jumps in with both feet, tackling untouchable upscale elites, inexorable social stigma, overt white supremacy, and even fanatical McCarthyism with aplomb. Each of the five cases featured in Blacksad: Collected Stories touches on different aspects of the social and political landscape, shining a light on the underbelly of a period many consider to be the height of American prosperity. 

Thinking back to Mirka Andolfo’s Unnatural, with her approach I wondered whether the anthropomorphic basis for the character designs was devised as a calculated tool to distance the reader from existing racial nuances and make the characters more immediately accessible. In effect, any preconceptions or biases could be shed unconsciously and the material engaged more directly. With Blacksad, Canales and Guarnido lean into those same preconceptions and biases instead of shedding them, aligning character design intentionally with animalistic traits like strength, aggression, cunning, and submissiveness. We are given clear indicators of who are the alphas, who cannot be trusted, and who is a material threat, but in a way that is wholly organic and engrossing. 

Though few of the twists and turns are truly surprising, there is no faulting narrative or design in precipitous revelation. We learn what we expect to learn of these characters based on their environments, predispositions, and patterns by following our deductions to their logical conclusions, without the offense of hackneyed plotting. As readers, we feel empowered to assess individuals and events based on attention to superlative detail. This is a product of masterful narrative execution, particularly in this medium. To not be coddled or overexplained to, but gently reminded of details previously eclipsed by the urgency of imminent catastrophe, we are afforded identification with our introspective gumshoe. We come to inhabit his procedural discovery and share in his eventual elucidation.        

At NYCC 2020 I missed an opportunity to interview Canales and Guarnido to discuss the impending release of Blacksad: Under the Skin, but I was profoundly thrilled to know that the world they created would be expanded into a new medium, potentially reaching a new audience. This duo has painted a broad and rapturous canvas with the living, breathing denizens of urban enclaves and backwater counties, imbued with uncommon vitality by Guarnido’s exquisite panel compositions. His facial expressions and emotional articulation are truly second to none in this collection. That the objective quality of Blacksad’s masterfully cinematic execution seems entirely effortless is truly telling of the fine granularity in Canales and Guarnido’s synchronicity. To borrow from legendary Jim Steranko’s apt introduction, “…the easier it looks, the more study, the more practice, the more dedication it takes.” Blacksad: The Collected Stories is a titanic effort in exquisite, often heartrending storytelling and one well worth the price of admission.

Christian Davenport
cable201@comicattack.net