Customer Reviews

The Black Diamond Detective Agency

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nothing Campbell does is boring and this is no exception. Like Chris Ware, Campbell employs the utmost creativity with his layouts, the irregularly sized frames in The Black Diamond Detective Agency take the predictable flow of your average comic book and toss it out the window (but it's a good thing) and help move a dense plotline along at a brisk pace. In my opinion this is Campbell's most impressive narrative yet. This is his second book with First Second (The Fate of the Artist, also amazing, was the first) and if you ask me they are a publishing house to watch. They've obviously got a great team over there b/c the books are gorgeously produced and reasonably priced - no easy feat!

19th century America and a seemingly normal day is upended when a train full of passengers is blown up on the tracks. In the fallout, the Black Diamond Detective Agency is hired to hunt down the bomber and bring him to justice. But with a trail that leads them up and down the country and leads to a coal mine in the middle of nowhere, the chase will be deadly and fraught with enemies.

Eddie Campbell draws/paints the book beautifully and the artwork is of the highest anyone could hope for in comics but the story is what lets the book down. It's overcomplicated and thoroughly convoluted with new characters being introduced before old ones are properly established, and then the ones that are introduced end up putting on disguises, and... well it's hard to keep track of them after that.

The story lurches from plots and conspiracies from one group of bad guys to another to the point where I couldn't be bothered to pay attention and just waited until the book was over. Turns out someone they thought was good was actually bad. Ho hum. Boring story aside, the artwork is top notch and that's what the two stars are for. It's definitely not a must-read by any stretch and only fans of Eddie Campbell should seek this out.

"The Black Diamond Detective Agency"
by Eddie Campbell
(First Second Books, 2006)
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I have been a fan of Eddie Campbell's work for a long time -- I first discovered his Bacchus stories via the "Eyeball Kid" adventures in the early 1990s and have enjoyed everything he's done ever since. This graphic novel was a bit of a departure for Campbell: other than his work with Alan Moore ("From Hell") I haven't seen many other works where he's adapting another writer's story, but as with "From Hell," the results are top-notch.

Here Cambell works from an unproduced movie script about a man at the turn of the Twentieth Century (1899) who is accused of blowing up and robbing a freight train and who has to outwit the Pinkerton-like detective agency that has been hired to capture him. The economy of Campbell's style is impressive -- the book flows quickly and many key points are communicated through images, not words. The evocation of the still-wild West and the gilded age is delightful -- Campbell perfectly captures the flavor of the time with a laconic charm that is very reminiscent of films such as "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid." It is not until the epilogue at story's end that a distinctly Campbell-like tone is struck, with some minor characters standing around hashing over the events of the book, like a Greek chorus on a cigarette break. This was a good, fun read, recommended to fans of westerns and of Campbell's work, or anyone else who enjoys a good story. (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain book reviews)

It starts with a literal bang and keeps going. A very good period piece that has a lot of twists and turns that keeps you guessing to the very end. Great holiday reading.