Writer – Eric A. Anderson & Manny Trembley
Art – Manny Trembley
Publisher – Image
Price - $2.99
Sam Noir is a three issue mini-series coming out of Jim Valentino’s Shadowline imprint at Image. While the creative team of Anderson & Trembley have published a number of online comics, including the fairly popular Pandaxpress.com, this is their first foray into printed comics, and on the whole it’s a pretty successful one.
The protagonist of the story, Sam Noir, is a masterless Samurai who has taken to working as a private dick. The title’s a give away really. The issue opens with a pretty lengthy narration from Sam himself, which fills us in on the dame of the story, Jasmine. There’s always a dame in a noir detective story, and in that respect this one’s no different. Sam has been employed to follow Jasmine, and has been doing so for several months. During this time he has fallen in love with her, despite never speaking a word to her. The narration comes to an end as the lady in question walks into Sam’s office. So far, so noir. It’s at this point however that things move a little off the beaten track as Jasmine, who only has time to speak a couple of sentences, is murdered before Sam’s eyes by contract killer Ninjas.
I won’t ruin any more of the story other than to say that what follows for the rest of the issue is the beginnings of Sam’s journey to track down the killer of his love. Judging by the body count at the end of the issue it’s gonna be a pretty bloody journey. The pacing of the story is pretty good, and within the space of the issue we have moved through introductions and are nicely immersed in the ongoing detective story. The majority of the book is told through Sam’s narration, which some people will find a turn off, but I think actually works pretty well for this kind of detective story. What dialogue that does occur between characters is used to good effect, and has more punch because of its sparseness. Some of the writing is a little stilted, but for the best part that’s a deliberate thing and simply works to ape the noir genre that inspired this work.
Where Sam Noir really shines is the art. I’m pretty sure Trembley’s work is pencilled traditionally and then finished digitally, and it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s all rendered in black and white, which is a very intelligent choice for a piece of this tone. The initial pages express Jamsine’s beauty and the lonely, grim nature of Sam’s universe perfectly. When the action kicks in the art moves fluidly to convey the pace and nature of the confrontations. What really makes this book stand out though is the panel compositions and the page layouts. Each panel has obviously been thought about carefully with respect to the story and exactly what mood and image the writers wish to convey, and this is not just in terms of content, but shape, size and arrangement. If I’m honest I’ve rarely seen panel composition that worked so well for me.
Sam Noir was a refreshing change for me. Since the launch of the new Vertigo titles earlier in the year there hasn’t been much in the way of fresh and original non-superhero stuff coming out, and what with Civil War, 52 and OYL the market was beginning to feel a bit flooded with capes. So when you go down to your LCS this month branch out a bit. Sam Noir is a quality product that the creators clearly care about, and they deserve some support for doing something different and doing it well. What’s more it’s just a good comic, and you’ll enjoy reading it.
Having recently finished a PhD in Immunology Ross is currently working for a UK biotech company. He lives in Cambridge where he reads comics, spends too much money on music and attempts to learn Portuguese. He owns at least 7 lightsabers, yet still manages to have a very attractive girlfriend who he misses very much, thus proving anything really is possible.