Customer Reviews

Noir

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love comic anthologies. Remember the anthology boom from Vertigo comics...Weird War Tales, Weird Western Tales, Gangland? I remember them. Now not all the stories in anthologies are winner but I enjoyed the collaboration of so many different writers and artists. "Noir" from Dark Horse continues in the same vein.

"Noir" features stories by the best comics writers in the business today, Azzarello, Lemire, Brubaker, Lapham, Grist and Motter to name a few. Also features art by Risso, Phillips, Lemire etc. You get 13 stories in total and each story on average is about 6-7 pages. Also, the art is black and white similar to the Vertigo Crime Lines books. Now that the semantics are out of the way, I wanna talk about the stories themselves. All of them in my opinion are winners. Lapham's story in particular was a little disturbing simply because the characters were so messed up to begin with. Brubaker turns in a solid presentation as do Lemire and Grist. I thought the weakest was Motter's Mister X story. Azzarello turns in a tongue-in-cheek story that has a surprising twist (I am not gonna spoil it).

Overall, the collection is solid with very little to complain about. The price is more than reasonable for a collection of short stories featuring the best in the business. I felt that the work here was stronger than the Vertigo Lines entries and is cheaper. My recommendation--definitely pick this up.

This slim, black-and-white Dark Horse paperback collects thirteen short modern crime comics from a wide cast of creators. The pages are smaller than those of a normal comic book/TPB, and the stories each are about ten pages in length. Highlights include Jeff Lemire's "The Old Silo", which could have been a dark segment from his "Essex County" graphic novel trilogy. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' six-page collaboration resembles their monthly "Criminal" comic book series. Other highlights include the stories "The Last Hit", "Blood On My Hands", "The Albanian" and "The New Me". Most of the remainder of the anthology was disappointing, ranging from overly disturbing (Lapham) to nearly incomprehensible (DeCampi/Petrus). Limited by this volume's emphasis on brevity, some of the fragmented plots and characters might benefit from a longer treatment. Crime comic fanatics will undoubtedly want this, but for most other I recommend instead trying a full-length TPB from one of these creators.

I am a fan of both Brian Azzarello and Ed Brubaker's work. This collection failed in my mind because many of the pieces did not live up to either the 100 Bullets writer's work or the Incognito writer's. That said, Azzarello's story in this collection is perhaps one of the best pieces of writing I have seen this year because of the surprise ending.

Looking through this thing, I see some fine storytelling - The Albanian is M.K. Perker's story about a janitor who comes across a frustrated disgruntled office worker who has just killed everyone else in the office and he is trying to get out. There's a story about people fantasizing about pushing each other into the subway cars. Rick Geary gives a suitably creepy story about a man who hires a hit man to kill his wife and her lover. The stories rely on twist endings and horrible people doing horrible things.

However, three days after reading the book, I have forgotten almost every story except for the one in which two boys kidnap a girl and she turns them against each other before getting away. It takes place in the suburbs and the girl is happily manipulative. For some reason this story sticks with me where the other ones fade away.

This is probably a better book to borrow from a library than buy.

This is an anthology of crime comics by some of the best writers and artists working in the comics field today. Like most anthologies it's got some good stories and some poor ones but I think it's a pretty decent roundup of crime noir and an enjoyable, if brief, read.

"Stray Bullets" creator David Lapham contributes the story of a kidnapped girl stuffed into a box "to be raped later" by a couple of teenage nutcases, only it ends with the boys being tricked by the girl and their own stupidity.

Jeff Lemire contributes a story that feels like it came straight from the 50s and the pen of Jim Thompson with the story of an elderly farmer in need of cash being visited by a bank robber with a bag full of money and a body full of bullets.

Rick Geary tells the story of jealous love, a man hires a private investigator to follow his wife and see if she's cheating on him. And then he hires an assassin, but somehow it all goes wrong.

No anthology of noir would be complete without the current masters of noir comics weighing in and Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips contribute a short story from their amazing "Criminal" series called "21st Century Love" and manages to pack so much intrigue and story into a few short pages. This was definitely the highlight of the book and showed why Brubaker & Phillips are so successful.

There's a Twilight Zone-esque tale of an out of shape housewife going to the gym to tone up and winding up with a new husband. I won't say anyone but it's kind of bizarre and was the only story here that I don't think was exactly "noir" but was still entertaining nonetheless. The story is "The New Me" by Gary Philips and Eduardo Barreto.

Finally Brian Azzarello teams up with artists Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba to tell what seems to be a mundane crime story until the reveal on the final page. "The Bad Night" is a prelude to the origin story of Bruce Wayne.

There were other stories in this collection but I decided to only highlight the ones I thought were any good. It's a good collection and certainly lives up to the title of "Noir". Crime comics fans will enjoy it and it's fun enough for casual comics fans to get into.

`Noir' is a collection of crime comics, with black and white art, from many of the best comic writers. Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets ) if one of my favorites, but I was intrigued by Chris Offutt (True Blood (HBO Series)) The Last Hit and wasn't disappointed.

There is a definite dark side to each. My Top three favorite short stories were The Bad Night, Brian Azzarello and awesome twist to a great story, quite unexpected, The New Me, Gary Phillips just the right amount of twisted wit and Trustworthy, Ken Lizzi.

Overall this is small, 104 pages, anthology of short crime stories is worth the read.

Crime comics have made a come back over the past few years, what with great talents like Ed Brubaker, Brian Azzarello, and David Lapham among others making their marks. All three writers, along with a bevy of other talent as well, contribute to Noir: a graphic novel from Dark Horse that features 13 black and white shorts. The best of the bunch are by and far Lapham's Stray Bullets tale, "The New Me" by Gary Phillips and Eduardo Barreto, and the Fillbach Brother's "Lady's Choice"; but what is really worth the price of admission alone here is Brubaker and Sean Phillips' Criminal tale "21st Century Noir" and "The Bad Night" by Azzarello and Umbrella Academy artists Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, which you absolutely have to read. Some segments, such as Ken Lizzi's prose-powered "Trustworthy" and Dean Motter's Mister X tale "Yacht on the Styx" aren't all that special, but the good definitely outweighs the bad here. All in all, if crime comics appeal to you in the least, you need to check out Noir.

Especially Brubaker's, Lapham's and Azzarello's stories are good. Its not always noir, but definitely dark and criminal. So pretty good.

Noir: With writers like Brian Azzarello doing their best to reinvigorate the crime genre, and publisher Vertigo dedicating an entire imprint to such books, it is no wonder that "noir"--the oft-misunderstood French term used to describe a particular breed of crime drama laced with cynicism and sexuality--is making a major comeback.

Noir: A Collection of Crime Stories is the latest anthology in an ongoing Dark Horse series, and it comes just in time to capitalize on that noir momentum with an unlucky 13 short stories collected in a sexy, thin paperback at the reasonable price of $12.95, less than $1 per story.

The cover is pitch black, except for the off-center lettering of the title, which is in white. A gray cityscape is seen in the letters, which cast shadows leading to the subtitle. The book features established writers the likes of Brian Azzarello, Dean Motter, and Ed Brubaker along with up-and-comers M.K. Perker and Jeff Lemire, highlighted by the India ink artwork of Eduardo Barreto, Gabriel Bá, and Fábio Moon.

As to be expected with any wide-reaching collection of comics creators, Noir is a mixed bag. Some stories are exceptional, while others read as though they were written by a creative but still inexperienced high-school student. The art, however, never falters in the collection. There is a wealth of styles on display, but all of them serve their stories and bring something fresh to the table.

Starting backward, Azzarello's short closes the collection and is easily the best written of the bunch. Without spilling the beans, the ending of "The Bad Night" offers a great twist. The story starts with a conversation in a bar between a lowly con and his boss. It seems they are planning a simple heist. The ending may seem dull to readers wholly unfamiliar with comics, but for those with even the slightest inkling of comics history, especially of one of its biggest heroes, it is an incredibly sinister twist that makes for a great way to end the book. The unique art of Bá and Moon elevate it as the best short in Noir.

Brubaker's "21st Century Noir" is incredibly well-drawn with dynamic shadows by Sean Phillips. But that's only the first thing the comic has going for it. Brubaker and Phillips construct a tale that incorporates all of the key points of noir--sexual deviancy, manipulation by a bombshell, and an ultimately violent twist to send it off. And the results are fantastic.

"Tru$tworthy," written by Ken Lizzi and drawn by Joëlle Jones, offers a nice break from the traditional comics comprising the rest of the book. Lizzi's story is mostly pages of prose, with only limited illustrations by Jones. It is a nice change for the collection, and also takes the traditional arc of "guy meets gorgeous woman, woman uses him" and twists it in a different way. It is fun, though the explanation of things at the end is a bit too procedural to flow really well.

On the other end of the spectrum of Noir is Alex de Campi's "Fracture." In little boxes drawn by Hugo Petrus, de Campi unfolds a mind-boggling story of "what if" fantasies in layered scenarios of a very likely deranged girl standing in a subway station. The problem is, little makes sense by the end of it and it seems to serve no purpose other than an experiment in muddied storytelling. Dean Motter's "Mister X: Yacht on the Styx" also falls flat. It may hold some relevance for fans of Motter's series, but it doesn't have the legs to stand on its own.

Everything else lands somewhere in between, with both problems and standout elements, much like the collection as a whole. Luckily, the positives of Noir far outweigh the negatives. Even the low points are introductions to new writers, artists, and techniques. Fans of crime fiction and great art should not hesitate to pick up the latest anthology from Dark Horse.

-- William Jones

This anthology is a collection of original crime comics. Some of the best business are here: Azzarello, Brubaker, Lapham (although I am disappointed because I thought that Bendis was part of this project).

A few of the stories are a bit uneven and feature characters with whom you may not be familiar, but do not let that stop you from reading. After a page or two the characters become familar.

My personal favorite story was the Azzarello story, which in my opinion is almost worth the price of the book itself. Very enjoyable.