Posted in: Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Review | Tagged: Blacksad, Blacksad: They All Fall Down • Part One, dark horse comics

Blacksad: They All Fall Down • Part One Review: Lands On Its Feet

Published Sun, 21 Aug 2022 13:33:10 -0500

by James Hepplewhite

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In Blacksad: They All Fall Down • Part One, there is finally a challenger for the most gorgeous comic of 2022. The two front runners, at least in the western mainstream, are Wonder Woman: Historia #2 and Starhenge #1. In both cases, the respective artists turned in career-high watermarks, and it didn't appear that anyone would dethrone them.

Blacksad: They All Fall Down • Part One Review: Lands On Its Feet — The cover to Blacksad: They All Fall Down • Part One © Dark Horse Comics

Enter, of course, Blacksad: They All Fall Down • Part One. This panel from the subway scene alone, where detective Blacksad fights off an assassin, would be mind-boggling if a western comics artist put that many characters in the panel. But in Blacksad: They All Fall Down • Part One, artist Juanjo Guarnido does that, and in watercolor too!

Auto Draft — A panel from Blacksad: They All Fall Down • Part One © Dark Horse Comics

As for the story, you know what you're getting: A period noir about money and power with complex characters drawn as animals. The series won multiple Eisner and Harvey awards, and it's not a stretch to think this one will win next year's awards to boot.

In short: Blacksad: They All Fall Down • Part One is the good stuff. Savor it. Dark Horse hosts a preview here.

In this exceptional noir tour de force from writer Juan Díaz Canales and artist Juanjo Guarnido, the hotly anticipated worldwide bestseller returns to American shores after a seven-year hiatus with a brand-new two-part storyline! Following its chart-topping 2021 release in Europe and now translated for English-language readers by the team of Brandon Kander and Diana Schutz, this volume features feline private eye John Blacksad as he tangles with the unions, the mob, and mid-century construction magnate Lewis Solomon, who plans to pave New York City's green space, come hell or high water. From soaring heights to terrifying depths, Blacksad must steer the right course between the lofty world of Shakespearean theater and the seedy nether regions of the city. Towering above it all is the foreboding figure of Solomon, who will let nothing thwart his dream of power.
With three prestigious prizes from the Angoulême International Comics Festival as well as multiple Eisner and Harvey awards, the Blacksad series of graphic albums is a global success story, now published in thirty-nine different countries. Writer Juan Díaz Canales and artist Juanjo Guarnido have crafted a master class in comics storytelling for a worldwide audience.

Blacksad: They All Fall Down • Part One