Foreign comics: Blacksad

Foreign comics are sometimes harder to approach, especially when in their original language. That's how I felt when clicking through the various links on the resource page. In the beginning, I just gawked at how beautifully some of them were illustrated. Blacksad was my favorite. I was immediately taken by the moody yet detailed watercolor backgrounds. The compositions of each panel were very dynamic, and I felt as if I were looking at a film. Something about its overall look and how each panel flowed to each panel was just so poetic.
I also found the character design to be both appealing and functional. The overall style skewed more realistic, but the animals were drawn with clean lines that made for a pleasing caricature. While the bodies were drawn to realistic human proportions, I thought it was great how the faces of the animals were more cartoony and read for clear emotions. I found Blacksad's use of animals also very clever. Though in a humanesque world, animal qualities were brought into the character emotion and personalities, depending on what species that character was. Being written in French, Blacksad passed the ultimate test for non-French speakers: the drawings were so clear that they could convey the emotions of each character, without even reading the text. Overall, form and function are executed perfectly for this film noir-like story.
After admiring the visuals for as long as I could, I tried my best to delve into the story. I had to type in the text of every blurb into google translate and turn it from French to English. It was very labor intensive, so I wasn't able to get very far. However, what I did manage to understand made for a story as well written as the characters were drawn. The pace of the story and the amount of information leaked to the reader made for a suspenseful read which I wish I could've completed. Having to stop and type in every piece of narrative blurb or dialogue made for a somewhat jarring experience that prevented me from getting lost in this comic. I will definitely try to find an English publication in the future so that I could properly enjoy this quality piece of work.