Day Two: A Review of Blacksad: A Silent Hell
Disclaimer: As mentioned on Day one, the Blacksad series is incredible and is created with the mature reader audience in mind. If you have any affinity for mysteries, detective/noir stories, you will not go wrong with this series. The art alone, from Guarnido, is worth the price of admission. I wanted to start the review with a similar blurb as the first review because I will have minor spoilers peppered throughout this review. If you do not mind the spoilers, please continue. If you do, please check this story out and come back to my review. Thank you and back to the second day of Blacksad reviews...
A Silent Hell
Summary:
In the second volume of Blacksad series, we are presented with a single storyline that takes Detective John Blacksad to the Bayou. New Orleans is known for the music, food, and to some, drugs and voodoo. The South of Louisiana is known for it's merging of African and French culture. The author decided that it was time that we took a stroll through the streets of Cajun town.
A former band leader and record executive Faust LaChapelle is looking for Sebastian "Little Hand" Fletcher. Faust is dying from cancer and want John Blacksad and Weekly to find Sebastian before he finds himself following victim to his personal demon: heroin. After taking the case, John comes across Ted Leeman, a local PI that was originally on the case but expressed how Faust may not be the most trustworthy individual.
As we continue to read through the story, we start to realize that Sebastian has also been absent from home. Hannah, his wife, is pregnant and struggled to find her husband. As Faust continues to draw closer to death, Thomas tried to close the case with John and secure his father's remaining fortune. What is really going on with Thomas? What does Faust really want Sebastain? What horrid truith is haunting Sebastain ?
Thoughts on A Silent Hell:
Even though this volume is smaller than the first, it does not lack the depth of the stories that came before it. Diaz Canales continues to put John in scenarios that doesn't simply end after the crime is solved. Similar to stories like Arctic Nations, John enters a situation that involve family drama that goes far into the past. The variety of characters in the story continue to be individuals who have a gray moral compass. While some characters may be harden criminals, others may cause you to second guess their integrity.
After the end of the story, we are presented with a few fun extras. As an artist, I love seeing the process from artist I appreciate. Juanjo Guarnido provides insightful commentary of his thought process with framing and creating the work that we love in Blacksad while discussing how we dealt with looming deadlines for his work. When you open the book, you notice that the art has a different feel from the first volume. Guarnido shares that he decided to use different supplies and work with watercolors as his main medium. Another element that he tackled with planning the art is for some artists is setting up a scene to show part of the story without using words. From the positioning of characters to the color palettes used, we see how they chose to use certain design choices to fit the mood of each scene.
Final Thoughts
Diaz Canales and Guarnido continued their streak of amazing stories with the A Silent Hell. The story reminds you that so many have demons that they battle with on a daily basis. Even though the story is placed in a different time, the issues the characters experience is similar to today: estrangement of family members, battling with drugs, loving someone who is fighting a battle you can't help them with. Soon, we are going to wrap up our three day review of the Blacksad series. If you are interested in the second volume in this series, check your local bookseller. The regular price is $19.99 and, similar to the first volume, is worth the price and the time that you will invest diving into the dark backstreets that John Blacksad tries to uncover.