Sam Noir Samurai Detective

Sam Noir #1-3

by Eric A. Anderson, Manny Trembley

On the third floor of a cluttered low-rent office, Sam Noir met his destiny. Destiny wore a dress, and she was the best thing to walk into Sam's life... right up until they snuffed her out, that is. They nixed his betty, and now he's gonna nix them. Once he finds out who "they" are.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Mystery

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 27, 2007

Reviews

[Juho Pohjalainen]

It's always a neat idea to mix out two entirely unrelated concepts, but execution is something else. Sam Noir doesn't cut it.

[Tony Laplume]

I became a huge fan of Anderson and Trembley through their webcomic PX!, so when Shadowline took them on I was eager for their talent to find a wider audience. When I read Sam Noir originally I liked what I saw. It does not stand up to further scrutiny. I don’t know what Anderson does these days, but Trembley pursued his own comics for years. I’ll always have PX!

[RoRo]

If you like Noir and you like Samurai and have read/seen a lot in those genres, I think this comic book will largely disappoint you.

Pros: The digital art has depth, the right balance of sharpness and blurriness, and an intriguing high-contrast greyscale look. It is visually a successful samurai noir.

Cons: The characters are flat, the inner-monologue/first-person narration of the main character is awful and makes both detectives and samurai warriors as unintelligent as possible. There are too many plot moves and interactions that are highly predictable and superficial for this to have either the sophistication and tension of samurai loyalty or the mystery and ambiguity of noir. Spoiler alert: the main character basically just slices and dices his way through the world whenever any sort of challenge arises.

[Sebastien]

Not bad but not great either, it is bard not to compare it to sin city, visually ok but the story is very simple there is no depth to it .

[victoria.p]

Possibly I am the wrong audience for this, though the fact that the very title made me excited when I first read about it (A SAMURAI DETECTIVE! HOW IS THAT NOT AWESOME?) and yet I can't say I actually enjoyed it or was emotionally engaged by it.

I am not sure if it's the tongue-in-cheek-ness of it or the fact that it's a comic made the writer feel okay about going completely over the top, but I found it really hard to take seriously, even as comedy, and thus, really hard to invest in emotionally. The artwork is gorgeous, in a very shadowy black and white can't quite tell what's actually going on way, which, well, I am not one to read comics for the artwork, because I find it completely unintuitive - I am a big fan of text. Reading pictures isn't my strong suit.

I don't know if I'll pick up the next volume whenever it comes out, if it comes out. This ended on a cliffhanger, which I didn't expect - I thought it was a self-contained story - so I might just to find out what happens, and there is some amusement to be gleaned from such gems as, "He's fast as a barracuda riding a gazelle. And that's super fast. But the thing is, I don't mean to boast...but I'm fast like a cheetah riding a bolt of lightning. You don't even know I'm gonna strike until you've got four fangs in your neck and a million volts runnin' down your spine."

So we'll see.

[Morgan]

Fantastic artwork, actually the whole reason I picked it up off the shelf a year ago (that and the ridiculous awesomeness that is the idea of a samurai detective).

I'm sorta wondering if, at the conclusion of the series, you learn that Jasmine isn't dead, and that she faked her death all along. Otherwise, can't wait to find the next issue.

[Andrew Uys]

A fun discovery from my book shelf of Many Unread Graphic Novels, I really Eric A. Anderson's writing - the protagonist's narration was beyond pulpy, and when mixed with the samurai plot threads made for a fun, action-packed read. Reminded me of those dubbed Asian-action-films my buddy always watched in university. Definitely a back-issue/discount bin gem!

[Lin]

Okay I don't even know what to rate this book. Is it supposed to be serious, or funny? If the former, then I can't say I enjoyed it. If it's the latter, then at least it made me laugh. Either way, it's a pretty ridiculous book. But not necessarily ridiculous in a bad way? I don't even know; this book confuses the hell out of me.

[Nick]

A great read for the art and short story. A samurai detective on a quest of vengeance in comic book form; can you really ask for more? The story reads like a samurai version Deadpool. A good read to pick up if your into comic art with witty one liners everywhere.

[Brian]

Trite and uninteresting. The art looks cool but is not emotive enough to make up for the flat text. Didn't finish it.

[Emily]

The samurai detective angle doesn't--quite--work. I actually stopped about 1/3 of the way in. It just didn't catch my attention at all.