Blacksad v6: “They All Fall Down, Part 2”

(I reviewed part one of this album last month.)

Things really shift into gear with this second half of the first album of this diptych.

Yes, it’s confusing and it’s unnecessary. Splitting a Blacksad album into two digital releases and releasing them a month apart is ridiculous. Just charge more money and get it all done in one book. There’s absolutely no good common sense reader-friendly reason to release this album like this.

None.

Zero.

The only reason to do it this way is to effectively double-dip. Get two charges out of the reader instead of one.

The only non-cynical reason to do it this way is to be attempting to keep a lower price point to draw more readers in. In the end, those readers would get half a story with fewer pages and feel ripped off, anyway.

Somehow, I bet this is a plot to make sure the digital book cost is closer to the print book cost. It’s stupid for the American Direct Market, and I’d hate to see it happen with European comics, as well.

:: ahem ::

Sorry, that still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Luckily, this half of the first half of the story is so ridiculously good that I almost forgot about the release schedule for a moment.

All the things missing from Part 1 are in Part 2, and the danger doubles quickly. Plus — that last page!!!

No, I won’t spoil it for you. But I loved it.

Credits of the Second Quarter

What’s Going On?

So much stuff. This is the second of the book. Normally, I wouldn’t talk about this in great detail because it’s all spoilers at this point. That’s why releases like this are so bad.

Sorry, I’m still fuming.

Let’s see how general I can be about the whole thing here:

Solomon continues to make his moves to make sure he has power in the city and that he’ll get what he wants by any means necessary. If someone needs to be bumped off or framed or made disappear, he’ll do it.

In fact, he does most of that in this book.

Meanwhile, Weekly’s chummy relationship with Solomon is putting him in the dog house with his romantic interest, Rachel. He’s going to prove her wrong, though!

Iris is doubled up in mourning and Blacksad sees something of a kindred spirit in her. I’m placing another bet on that “long-missing” husband of hers being a major part of the second book in this story. I’m not saying he’s alive and hiding, though I wouldn’t be surprised. I just mean the true story behind what happened to him is bound to come out, and it might have some link to something else in the story we’re not able to predict yet.

The mysteries continue to pile up. You can see Díaz Canales putting his pieces into place, and more hints come of the interrelationships between characters. He’s not showing his cards yet, but there were several moments in this half of the book where I recognized the poker dealer placing the cards face down on the table. You know there’s something there, but you don’t know the hand everyone else is holding.

A Few Random Notes

I like the shoeshine kid whose help Blacksad enlists in this book. He reminds me of a more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Weekly. He’s a cute and well-drawn raccoon who is eager to help. I hope we see more of him in future books as Blacksad’s street-level advisor. He could be the Baker Street Irregulars of the Blacksad Universe.

There’s a great scene at a fundraiser where Rachel is being the obnoxious hipster who hates all the rich people. She makes some good points, though, and that level of disagreement and keen observation of “the truth” makes her eminently likable.

I learned what the word “cofferdam” is, which then drove me down a Google and YouTube rabbit hole for a good period of time.

And this barkeep might be the breakout star of the book, just for being a grumpy guy.

I want a spin-off series of him kicking people out of his bar at the end of every night.

The Two Shockers

There are a couple of moments in this book that made me audibly gasp.

The first is when one character, in particular, walks into a trap. You see it coming a few panels in advance, and even that character is a bit wary of the whole thing but needs to go through with it for various reasons.

Still, when the trap is sprung, there’s a moment there where you’re not sure if the trap was deadly or not. Canales could go either way with it. It’s left hanging for a couple of pages before being confirmed in an even more twisted fashion.

The other gasp is the final page turn. Blacksad fans are going to love what they find on that last page. It is a call back to an earlier book, so you won’t get it if you aren’t all caught up on the series.

The ending to this book, overall, is the strongest, most cinematic ending to any Blacksad album so far. Diaz Canales’ script brings so many things together all at once, and Guarnido does a masterful job of intercutting between two different events at the same time. I can hear the background music in a minor key playing as I read the scene.

There’s no conversational dialogue in the moments, just some actors reciting “MacBeth”. Those silent panels are deafening, the sudden weather is ultra-dramatic, and the events themselves are real exclamation points at the end of the book.

This is how you do a cliffhanger.

Then there’s a little note that says, “To Be Continued in Part 3” and my blood pressure beings to boil again.

Recommended?

Yes. Now more than ever. You can read parts 1 and 2 together to get the album the way it’s meant to be read, you lucky dog, you.

The next book won’t be out until 2023, so I have time to think about it. But I do think I won’t be reviewing part 3. I’ll review the combination of books 3 and 4 as album 7 (the numbers coincidentally add up) when everything is out. I hope that won’t confuse people too much, but it’s too late now.

Buy It Now

• Izneo
• Amazon