I Read Comic Books discussion

This month's anthology pick as voted on by the group is Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics, which features stories from authors like Ed Brubaker, Jeff Lemire, and Brian Azzarello!

What did you think of this book?

As always, this thread is FULL SPOILERS for this book!

If it's ok to read your comments on the show, please include "OK TO AIR" in your post!

Looks like Hoopla /just/ added this book! If your library offers Hoopla, you can find the book here: Noir on Hoopla

You can also purchase it for $11.99 here: Noir on Comixology

I love anthologies. You know that most of them won't be any good, but you can usually find a few good stories that make them worth reading. The short story nature means that creators have only a little bit of room to establish their characters, lay out the plot, and hopefully have an interesting twist or quirk to it that makes the story memorable. What I'm not usually a fan of is Crime and Noir. I love me some Brubaker/Phillips as much as anyone, and there are certainly Noir comics I do enjoy, but I don't often seek it out. Which is nice for a Book Club that the chosen Book of the Month is something outside my usual wheelhouse!

I was disappointed in most of these stories. A few, like Trustworthy, The New Me, and Mister X: Yacht On the Styx, had some weird superscience thrown in at the end out of nowhere to make the plot possible. And that didn't work for me, it seemed too out there for how grounded the rest of the stories seemed.

I did like Criminal: 21st Century Noir, it was probably my favourite. Of course, Ed Brubake and Sean Phillips' Criminal stuff is always fantastic. It was short, it was to-the-point, and the changing narrators found new ways to come up with interesting twists and variations on the single story that looked simple at first. I like that it was dark, and filthy, but didn't get particularly violent until the last panel.

I didn't much care for The Bad Night until that ending twist, which was hilarious. It was certainly memorable, which I can say is better than most of the stories in this book. I like that the creative team used this as an opportunity to play with an existing property and tell a different side to it. Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba are incredible creators, any any work with them on it is usually worth reading no matter what the story is.

And then we get more Jeff Lemire solo stuff to start the book, I love everything about his art style and this farm story was like a return to Essex County so I was happy. I love how it wasn't violent, either, you don't see the actual violence happening. It's focused on the old man, and his relationship with his wife, which made this dark story actually very wholesome.

I also found myself enjoying The Last Hit. I hated it at first, that whole "soul of the city" thing felt like generic no-name noir stuff. The kind of stuff I always dislike reading noir for, so full of itself and waxing off about the earthy tones of the city's asphalt or whatever the narrator wants to drunkenly complain about. But I loved the ending where it gets flipped around on him entirely- maybe because I hated the character and wanted to see him fail, maybe because that was the point. He puts this grand fiction about the importance of experience and how god damned great he is only to get taken out because he thought himself too good to be beaten. Keep your eyes on the goal, not the medals.

Overall, that's four stories out of eleven that I enjoyed. Which isn't that bad, but I certainly expected more from it. Maybe if you're a big noir fan you'll get more excitement out of it.

OK TO AIR

Sorry this review is so late - took me a while to get the book from the library.

I'm not a fan of crime/noir and while there are some huge creators, I left with about the same interest in noir as when I started it. My favorites were The Old Silo, The Last Hit, and The Bad Night - you'd think a certain origin story can't be flipped on its head, but, well done Azzarello.

Otherwise, it all felt pretty standard and as Brandon said, a few stories introduced weird scifi stuff at the end that didn't seem believable. Ironically the collection might have been better if some stories were twice as long, if only to give creators the room to build out the stories a little bit. (My favorites didn't need to be longer.)

At some point the black and white art is what kept me around. While that isn't a surprise when it comes to noir, I love how artists used black and white so differently in each story.

Also have to mention that there's only one woman creator in this whole book, Joëlle Jones - who doesn't even fully illustrate a story, just a few pages for the prose one. (Where is Nicola Scott??) Even though there's a lot of talent in this book, it's a lot of white male talent - and that was disappointing to me. Maybe that's a part of why so many of the stories felt standard. (Note: I read the new edition without Stray Bullets - had I read that story first, I probably wouldn't have finished the book.)

Ok to air

Lenny wrote: "Sorry this review is so late - took me a while to get the book from the library.

I'm not a fan of crime/noir and while there are some huge creators, I left with about the same interest in noir as ..."

I am wrapping the book up for review tomorrow- and I have to agree with many of your points. Stray Bullets with the raping was a horrible way to start off this book and I almost put it down. I don't blame them for taking it out in newer editions.

I love noir, crime thrillers, short stories, and graphic novels- so I was sure this anthology was going to be a winner. While not bad as a whole, the first story was terrible and disturbing. I really wish a warning had been given, as there are several women in this group, and a suggestion to read a newer edition that didn't include Stray Bullets would have been the right thing to do.

My favorites stories were Old Silo, The New Me and 21st Century Noir. A few stories had a sci-fi underpinning that for the most part didn't appeal to me. I enjoyed the black and white art, it fit the noir theme and gave the graphic novel consistency. I think most people will find some stories that appeal to them from this collection, as some twists were unexpected in good ways.

I typically don't put in my entire reviews on this site, as my reviews tend to be long, but if you'd like to read a longer review with a small synopsis of each story check out my blog: https://graphicnovelty2.com/2021/02/2...

Ok to air

I'm realizing the one I got from Hoopla doesn't have Stray Boolets, wow. Sounds like everyone hated that, maybe I would have been more negative in my review if that story was included. The first story in the one I read was Lemire's story so Nancy saying "the first story was terrible and disturbing" confused me. The Lemire story was so good!

Brandon wrote: "I'm realizing the one I got from Hoopla doesn't have Stray Boolets, wow. Sounds like everyone hated that, maybe I would have been more negative in my review if that story was included. The first st..."

Yes, Old Silo was excellent! It prevented me from quitting the book and let me find some other gems in the collection.

Finally got through this one! Like all anthologies it's a mixed bag in terms of quality. As a devoted Lemire stan I of course loved his story, and like everyone else I liked Bad Night as well: (view spoiler)[I didn't peg that it was a Batman-related story until they mentioned a kid being with them for the robbery (hide spoiler)]

Does anyone know of any good comics that are ~noir~ish? Because I've read this which was just ok, and Spiderman Noir which was also just ok (at best). I will say I read #1 of the 'new' Spiderman Noir series and enjoyed it, I'll need to hunt down the trade eventually and give it a shot!

Lenny wrote: "... There's only one woman creator in this whole book, Joëlle Jones ..."

I believe that Alex de Campi is a woman.

I didn't really understand her story. Part of that may be that I read it digitally and the app showed me each panel individually. Usually I like that, but in this case I didn't realize until flipping through page-view later that many of the panels were tiny and probably meant to indicate things happening "at the same time" or alternate versions of reality.

Erin wrote: "Does anyone know of any good comics that are ~noir~ish? Because I've read this which was just ok, and Spiderman Noir which was also just ok (at best). I will say I read #1 of the 'new' Spiderman Noir series and enjoyed it, I'll need to hunt down the trade eventually and give it a shot!."

Mike Mignolia's Joe Golem series and Fred Van Lente's Weird Detective: The Stars Are Wrong is good noir mixed with the supernatural.

Any of Dynamite's The Shadow series will fit the bill too.

Nancy wrote: "I really wish a warning had been given, as there are several women in this group, and a suggestion to read a newer edition that didn't include Stray Bullets would have been the right thing to do."

Agreed. Of course it's possible folks weren't aware but a good suggestion for books moving forward (including those posting nominations).

Ed wrote: "I believe that Alex de Campi is a woman."

Oops I missed her, thank you Ed! This doesn't change the diversity problem for the book, though - not to me at least.

Erin wrote: "Does anyone know of any good comics that are ~noir~ish?

Darwyn Cooke's Richard Stark's Parker series is straight up noir. It's worth it just because it's Darwyn Cooke.

Erin wrote: "Does anyone know of any good comics that are ~noir~ish? ..."

Tons of them. Though not everyone may define "noir" in the same way.

I agree with Chad about Weird Detective: The Stars Are Wrong.

Similar, and also good is Abbott.

The team Ed Brubaker and Sean Philips has a large body of crime stories including Fatale and The Fade Out, Act One.

Anthropomorphic animal noir: Grandville.

Batman/Elmer Fudd Special #1 is a dark hoot.

Britten and Brülightly is a depressing noir where one of the detectives is a literal tea bag.

Feminist noir in Franco-era Spain: Ghostwriter.

Lenny wrote: "Darwyn Cooke's Richard Stark's Parker series is straight up noir. It's worth it just because it's Darwyn Cooke.."

The Parker comics are a good call. Those books are great. Parker is a real cold-hearted bastard. Every page of Cooke's art looks like an old movie poster.

Thanks for everyone's recommendations for other noir genre books! I felt about this one the same way a lot of you did--there were a few stories I enjoyed but overall this collection wasn't for me. Part of the reason I love this group is that it gets me to try new things, so it does make sense that not all of the chosen books would be for me.

I'm sorry to anyone who read the edition with Stray Bullets. I definitely didn't know there were multiple editions of this book out there and that one had such a triggering story. I'm glad the edition that's on Hoopla doesn't have that story.

I'm a couple of weeks late, but here's my review