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


Sunday, August 03, 2008

New Femme Noir #2 Reviews

The second issue of Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries came out last week, and a few reviews of that installment have hit the interwebnet, including a very nice write-up from Eric Lindberg at Broken Frontier:
Christopher Mills makes no apologies with Femme Noir. An homage to two-fisted detective stories and 1940s film noir, the series wears its influences on its sleeve and revels in every classic cliché and trope of the genre. Rather than seeming too cute or trite however, Femme Noir achieves its goal of invoking the moody atmosphere of its source material... The art by veteran comics artist Joe Staton is also a major factor in capturing the desired feel. Staton’s somewhat stylized cartooning—all rounded curves and sharp angles—has many echoes of the classic comic strips of the 40s era , right down to the title being visually (and dramatically) incorporated into the opening splash. His design for the unnamed blonde anti-heroine, with her thick ringlets of hair and swirling miasma of cigarette smoke, creates an equally memorable visual.
And Comixtreme reviewer Terry Verticchio covers the issue in that popular website's weekly "Done-In-One Reviews:"
This issue is filled with hard-boiled, two-fisted, two gun action, cats and wrens. The atmosphere is so thick in this book it’s like a pea-soup fog has fallen over your glims, but of course that’s its charm. I’ve always enjoyed this genre, either in books or film, so this comic is fun for me, and of course having a lead character always walking around in fishnet stockings and sporting a hairdo that even Veronica Lake would envy doesn’t hurt either.

1 comment:

Charles Gramlich said...

I finished issue one just the other day and it was really fun. I haven't had a chance to review it publically yet. Just so much going on right now I can barely find time to breathe. Good stuff, though.