Personal blog - and temporary home page until new website is finished - of writer, editor and graphic artist Christopher Mills


Sunday, July 13, 2008

More Noir

I just found out about another good review (scroll down) of Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries #1 at the Comic Pants website (Thanks for the head's up, GrayPumpkin!) Now that the book's finally out there on the shelves, I hope that there will continue to be positive word-of-mouth.
There’s no shortage of noir crime in comics these days, but fun, pulpy crime books like Femme Noir are less common. Mills serves up three potential origin stories (each serving as a self-contained pulp adventure to boot) for his mysterious blonde avenger, and even if a two-gun toting, trenchcoat-wearing tough dame is not the newest concept in the book, Mills captures exactly what’s fun and alluring about this type of character.... Even better, it features some of the best art I’ve ever seen from longtime comic book artist Joe Staton, paired with relative newbie inker Ottolini and colorist Melissa Kaercher to paint a detailed, shadowy picture that reminds me in style of Will Eisner’s work.

New review at Comixtreme: "Done in One Reviews" as well;
It was a dark and stormy night in the naked city...Visually that is how this story opens. It has an intrepid reporter trying to break the story of a lifetime: The identity of Blonde Justice, a vigilante hero who has been taking down some of the worst criminals in the city of Port Nocturne. This is a fun book. It runs the gamut of every hard-boiled pulp cliche imaginable. Even the names of the three suspects the reporter has for Blonde Justice are priceless. There's the ex-mob Princess, Vanessa DeMilo, the sultry chanteuse, Dahlia Blue and my personal favorite the ace reporter, Laurel Lye. Okay things are laid on pretty thick, but darn it all, its fun. Even the art is perfect for the story; the lines are clear but rugged and exaggerated, it also has an almost Will Eisner feel to it. So if you like your dames armed to the teeth, togged to the bricks and dirty as all outdoors then this here book is for you, buddy ghee.
Rating: 4/5 --Terry Verticchio

4 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

"The Evil DM" had a nice review over at his blog.

laughingwolf said...

good stuff, chirs, but 'comic pants' link is a dud....

Christopher Mills said...

Link fixed.

laughingwolf said...

thx, works for me now :)