Boston Blackie: Bloody Shame (Moonstone Noir) [Paperback]

Stefan Petrucha (Author), Kirk Van Wormer (Illustrator), Chris Burnham (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 10, 2009

Suave safe-cracker/ex-con, Boston Blackie is misunderstood... a lot. This new TPB contains two full-length features: A jewel heist goes horribly wrong, and a five-year-old boy disappears and is presumed dead. All fingers point to Boston Blackie. The body is never found, and seven years later, BB is still haunted by what happened that night. A woman from Blackie's past comes to him for help. Her son is sitting on death row for a murder she knows he did not commit. Quickly getting himself some short time, Blackie finds that the rotten warden may have a hand in the man's execution.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Moonstone; Squarebound edition (February 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933076003
• ISBN-13: 978-1933076003
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,250,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stefan Petrucha has written twenty novels and scores of graphic novels. His most recent work includes the parody Harry Potty and the Deathly Boring, the vampire novel Blood Prophecy, and the nonfiction Paranormal State: My Journey into the Unknown. He does not want to tell you where he lives. Gragg and Petrucha are co-authors of What the (Active Verb) Is Wrong with the Right?: A Fill-in-the-Blanks Game for the Rest of Us.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two Very Good Noir Crime Tales, January 31, 2008

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Boston Blackie: Bloody Shame (Moonstone Noir) (Paperback)

I'd never heard of "Boston Blackie" until picking up this collection of two graphic stories, but he's apparently a quite old and popular character, dating back to the pulp magazines and silent films of the 1910s. The ex-con safecracker with a heart of gold was then revived for fourteen B movies and around 200 radio shows in the 1940s before moving into the new medium of TV, where "The Adventures of Boston Blackie" ran for almost sixty episodes in the early 1950s. After lying fallow for about fifty years since then, he now appears in his sixth format with these graphic stories, which are set in Blackie's original pre-WWI timeline.

In "Black Out," Blackie sets out with a partner to steal the fabulous "Black Diamond" during a costume ball. Unfortunately, while skulking around the mansion, he encounters a child and blacks out. When he wakes, he's covered in blood and winds up in jail for a seven year stretch. While no one can prove he killed the child since the body was never found, the police (including a blonde dame detective) are still eager to pin the crime on him. This leads him into to the past to find his old partner and try and figure out just what happened that night. It's a pretty good noir story, full of all the elements one expects, plus a few stronger ones such as opium addiction and rape.

The second story, "Inside Out," finds Blackie in jail once again -- this time on purpose. A woman from his past has come to him to help him exonerate her son, who is on death row for killing a prison guard. Blackie must try and stay alive in the brutal prison, run by a psycho warden who has it out for Blackie. There are a few twists and turns, and action, all leading to an appropriately glum noir ending.

As a fan of the crime genre and the graphic format, I quite liked the two stories. They felt true to the character's pulp origin and yet are gritty enough for modern sensibilities. The black and white artwork is generally quite good, although a little cramped by the book's small (5 1/2 x 8) format. Some of the pages are quite cluttered with panels and text, and when the artists get a chance to use a full page, the results are quite striking. I would definitely check out further of Blackie's adventures.