Animal Noir

Life in the African Serengeti is currently civil between predator and prey. But when giraffe detective Manny Diamond is hired to recover a stolen video, the PI will learn just how close the land is to falling back into chaos. The case will take Diamond to the seedy snuff theatres; a taboo dungeon where carnivores act out their savage natures to films of antelope mutilation. Then there's his distraught wife who turns to a doomsday cult for solace after the loss of her child. And just what is the mystery behind the illegal ELF matches just beyond the mountains to the north?

Animal Noir is a gruff and gritty take on classic film noir and the comic book genre of funny animals. These great beasts of the plain, drawn by Izar Lunacek, might look adorable. But inside each character lies a fierce killer waiting for the chance to pounce.

This collection of the four issue miniseries by Njec Juren are what I imagine the works of Dashiell Hammett would be like if the famed mystery writer was an orangutan. It also could be compared to how the Disney film Zootopia would have turned out if directed by Roman Polanski. The world of Animal Noir is dark and dangerous. What I don't think this IDW miniseries is is finished.

Animal Noir is only four issues long- just over 100 pages collected. There's just so much going on in this story that I really didn't feel satisfied when the book ended. I was both exhilarated and disappointed by the ending. I was even more put off to learn that there wasn't a second volume in the works. Animal Noir is just like the 1970s noir classic Chinatown as there's an ending. But it's far from happy or satisfying.

Considering how awful Chinatown’s sequel The Two Jakes was, I might have to be content with what I read. To demand more adventures of detective Diamond might ruin this amazing story. I just feel like there's more to this. To paraphrase the final scene of Chinatown: Maybe its best to forget about it. After all, it's the Serengeti...

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Review originally published October 17, 2017 on outrightgeekery.com.