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Title: Mediocre writing but amazing and nuanced art
Review: This is the first time I've across Guarnido's art and I'm very impressed. His characters have such mobility of expression, such humanity of every variety, such plain veracity, . . . you forget they're actually animals. The storyline, unfortunately, isn't really anything out of the ordinary. John Blacksad is a black cat private eye (emphasis on "black") hired by a school teacher from the wrong side of town to locate a missing student. This gets him caught up in local race politics and in family secrets, centering on Chief of Police Karup, a very large, very dangerous, very white polar bear with an embarrassing past, and he likes things run his way. Much good it does him, though. Think small-town Alabama in the 1950s. Now I'll have to try to find Book 1 of Blacksad's saga.
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