"I had wrapped myself in a vicious atmosphere made of hate, vengeance, and corruption. From that day on, this would be my world. A jungle where it's survival of the fittest, where people act like animals. I had chosen to walk the darkest path in life... And I'm still on it."
Blacksad is a series of (four so far) comic albums created by Spanish authors Juan Díaz Canales (writer) and Juanjo Guarnido (artist), and published by French publisher Dargaud. Though both authors are Spanish, their main target audience for Blacksad is the French market and thus they publish all Blacksad albums in French first; the Spanish edition usually follows about one month later. Because of this is considered both a Spanish and French comic book.In an anthropomorphic rendition of America in the 1950sprivate investigator John Blacksad, a black cat, is embroiled in stories of mystery and intrigue. The albums come critically acclaimed and are a dedicated homage to the film noir genre. There have been four albums published so far (and only the first three in English):
Somewhere Within The Shadows (French: 'Quelque part entre les ombres', 2000) has Blacksad investigating the murder of an old flame.
In Arctic Nation (2003) Blacksad is hired to investigate the disappearance of a young girl in a racially charged atmosphere.
In Red Soul ('Âme Rouge', 2005) Blacksad watches over an old friend in the midst of the red scare, and falls in love.
The Hell, The Silence ('L'Enfer, Le Silence', 2010), sets him in New Orleans trying to track down a musician, before assassins do.
Animal Motifs/Animal Stereotypes: Obviously and so much. All the cops are canines - nearly all of them dogs, with at least one fox on the force. The hitmen are reptilian. The 'Arctic Nation' includes an arctic fox and a polar bear. Otto Liebber is an owl and Lazslo Herzl is a monkey: both are scientists. The Joseph McCarthy expy is a cockerel. Also, the beautiful women tend to be cats or dogs; dignified ladies tend to be birds. The authors state that the species of each individual character was carefully chosen to represent who the character really is, and that the connection between the animal chosen and the personality of the character isn't always as obvious as the "cops=dogs" example. In the second album there is possibly a Lampshade Hanging. Blacksad is at a drive-in, watching an awful B-Movie about killer giant ants. In this film, the scientist is a giant anteater, the chief of the military forces is a lion and the President of the USA is an eagle.
Batman Gambit: A character in Artic Nation is in the middle of one several decades in the making. A key factor in this plot is marrying her own father, while keeping him from discovering this particular bit of information. She succeeds at most of her goals, but her sister is killed in the process and her niece rendered an orphan.
Call Back: In Red Soul, Blacksad is sufficiently annoyed when he has to attend a Natalia Wilford Look-A-Like contest when doing bodyguard duty for a rich client.
Carnivore Confusion: Unless those were vegetarian sausages we see Karup grilling in an old photo...
Double Entendre: Ivo Statoc has 'cold blood' in a literal sense and figuratively he professes a cold detachedness.
Expressive Ears: Like their real-life animal counterparts characters ears will go back when they are threatened (or are being threatening), they'll droop when they are sad, and perk up when excited. Blacksad often swivels his ears like a cat does to hear things better.
Flashback Effects: Usually, flashbacks are shown in some kind of monochrome - sepia tone or blue-based - to distinguish them from the present. Special mention, though, goes to the effects towards the end of Arctic Nation. The oldest flashbacks look like pure sepia tone photos, but as they approach the present day, they gradually become more and more colored like reality.
Funny Background Event: In Red Soul, when Blacksad goes to visit Liebber at Columbia he walks past a row of couples. All the girls instantly take notice of him and when he walks by them a few pages later they're all arguing with their boyfriends for taking such obvious interest in him.
When Blacksad visits the Cypher Club we see a baboon and leopard arguing in the background.
Furry Confusion: There are many anthropomorphized species in the series, but apparently insects and aquatic species (such as fish and sharks) are not among them as Ivo Statoc collects non-anthro insect specimens and there are aquariums.
Gender Equals Breed: Although it appears that most romances are between members of the same species, this still holds true to a certain extent. For example, Smirnov looks like a German Shepherd, and his wife is some kind of collie. Their children - a little boy and a girl — follow their parents' breeds. And the same for Sebastian and his wife, Hannah - their son looks far more like Sebastian. Another example is Karup and his first wife, a dog, whose daughters are both dogs.
Good People Have Good Sex: When Blacksad has sex it's implied to be very romantic and fulfilling. Whereas when we see Huk and Jezebel having sex it's shown to be much less wholesome.
The Grim Reaper: Death himself doesn't show, but Faust LaChapelle dons a costume in his image to go around incognito. Death apparantly looks like a man with a goat skull in the Blacksad universe, merging some of the imagery with that of traditional Western depictions of Satan.
Humanoid Female Animal: Men look like bipedal animals, many female characters almost look like normal humans only with more fur and ears on the head. But only the beautiful women follow the trope — the rest have more variety, like the mouse cleaning lady of the first album, the doe teacher in the second, or the old lady ape in the fourth.
In Spite of a Nail: Despite (almost) everyone being anthro animals, and having many specific issues due to that fact, general history seems mostly unchanged, what with World War II and the Red Scare...
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: At the beginning of Arctic Nation Blacksad is writing and monologuing about how he should publish his memoirs. Then he looks in the readers direction and mentions that he "Wouldn't be surprised if it ended up published as a detective novel." He was looking at a hanging body, but the 'Leaning' effect is there.
Plus, considering Blacksad himself is a black cat...
More a black and white cat. Which explains why neither the 'Arctic Nation' nor 'The Black Claws' can stand him.
He even makes a smart-ass comment about it; when the Arctic Nation first comes around to harass him, he points to the white patch on his face and says, "What, isn't this enough white for you?"
Mr. Fanservice: Blacksad walks down a university hallway to very admiring glances from the female students, and extreme disapproval from their boyfriends. When he comes back, the couples are in full argument mode.
A Nazi by Any Other Name: Arctic Nation, an organization of white furred animals who want all the other colors to disappear in "a blizzard".
They're a lot like the KKK too.
There also seems to be a burgeoning Black Panthers expy.
You can see pictures of actual nazis in the third album.
Murder by Mistake: Intending to assassinate Otto Ribs kills a similar looking owl, Otero.
No Export for You: Originally, only the first two albums were released in the US (the first even had Stan Lee's comment!), but album three didn't make it. Later, Dark Horse Comics published a collected version of the three albums, though the newly released fourth album has yet to be published outside France, Spain or Belgium.
The fourth album was translated to finish in 2010.
Odd Couple: Big and stoic Blacksad with excitable and relatively small Weekly. Also the literal cat and dog combo of Blacksad and Smirnov.
Oh Crap: In Album one where Statoc's mammal henchman follows the lizard henchman into a predominantly reptile bar. As the reptiles are happy to illustrate: Hairy guys like him are NOT welcome there.
Once an Episode: Except for the first album, every story has a classic American song in the background ("Strange Fruit," "That Old Black Magic Called Love," and "Summertime.")
One-Hour Work Week: When he first meets Blacksad, Weekly claims that his articles are of such superior quality that he can get away with only showing up at the office once a week or so, which is how he got the nickname. Later on, he 'fesses up that it's actually because of an office rumor about his bathing habits. Since it's never established one way or the other whether his claim about the amount of time spent in the office is true, it's possible he's encouraged to stay away to save his coworkers from dealing with his...distinctive odor.
Pedophile Priest: Karup is the director of the church's children choir. He may or may not be a pedophile... point is, by the end all the townsfolk believe it.
Pretty Little Headshots: In the first story, even though Blacksad's old flame was murdered via a shot to the head, there's only a bit of blood and a small hole instead of brains and stuff being splattered all over the wall…
… which might be explained by the fact that she was lying down on her bed and the shot was downwards. The nastiness would have splattered the pillow under her head rather than the wall.
Redemption Equals Death: When Cotten threatens to tell the rest of Arctic Nation about the kidnapping he is promptly shot.
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Played straight in the first album; one of Ivo Statoc's henchmen is a lizard. He does get something of an Alas, Poor Villain moment though.
Stout Strength: Ted Leeman, the hippo detective in the fourth album.
Swiss Cheese Security: Statoc's building seemed pretty easy to break into. Although this may reflect Statoc's confidence that he could sway Blacksad with money.
You Dirty Rat: The shady rat from Somewhere Within The Shadows
You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Statoc says this to Blacksad. He is quickly proven wrong. Blacksad also notes that without the jolt of contempt he felt from Statoc's upfront taunting, he probably wouldn't have pulled the trigger.
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