Evildoers in Colt City beware! The city is under the protection of... The Black Beetle! I got this from Netgalley. Thank you, Netgalley!Without giving too much away, The Black Beetle is a throwback to the pulps of the 1930's and 40's. While visually he looks like a mix of Batman and Blue Beetle, The Black Beetle most resembles Norvell Page's The Spider in my mind. Or early Batman stories where he gunned people down fairly regularly. He goes out of the frying pan and into the fire so many times h...

A vigilante hero wearing a beetle-helmet, vicious Nazis, organized crime, night clubs, a damsel in distress, an ancient amulet, black magic, explosions, backpack helicopters... Another homage to the pulps of the 1930's, you get the picture, and Francesco Francavilla ensures that the picture you get is a pretty one indeed. There are many beautiful panel compositions and inventive page layouts to be admired, and if that is all you are looking for in a comic book you will likely be very satisfied w...

Harken back to the days of radio serials, when real men tangled with Nazis bent on world destruction, smacked around mobsters, and rescued good looking dames with nice gams. This is an atmospheric throwback to pulp stories of the thirties and forties, without most of the redundancy and camp.The Black Beetle is Colt City’s strong armed sleuth/vigilante; quick on his feet and adept at getting out of the most precarious situations.The artwork is a stylized mixture of expressionism, shadows and prim...

Set in the 1940s, a vigilante wearing an insect-like helmet and calling himself the Black Beetle is taking on organised crime and Nazis. That’s pretty much it, and if I don’t seem that interested in the plot, it’s because I’m not. I feel like I’ve read this story at least half a dozen times in the last year or so. Black Beetle is superhero-ish (as in dresses the part but doesn’t have superpowers) noir in the vein of Mike Mignola’s last Lobster Johnson book, the Marvel Noir line, Green Hornet, Ma...

The point of this book is nostalgia, to reclaim the Golden Age of comics, to in a sense have you imagine what it might have been like in the forties to invent a superhero to save the day. The Black Beetle is set in 1941, the war years, in the U.S., and further imagined by a wannabe Stan Lee Italian comics guy. The writing isn't good. The dialogue is stilted, nothing is surprising about it at all, it's all canned Golden Age plot and resolution. The art is, however, both homage to the era and ener...

Stylish and fun, Black Beetle is a pulpy, 40s superhero mystery comic. The title character reads as a tribute to really old Batman stories, when Bruce still carried a gun around. It's a hugely entertaining read, though I felt like the main storyline might have been too short. It was only four issues, and one or two more wouldn't have hurt. That said, I love the art, which reminds me a big of Mignola, and I admire the care that was put into the title. The covers, for example, look perfectly vinta...

Yes, Yes and Yes!Pulpy goodness with FF art! While the story doesn't really break any new ground(yet) the art is just fantastic. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm kind of over the moon with Francavilla and his artwork. I became aware of him several years ago when his name started popping up and loved the work he did on Comic Twart and his gorgeous vintage movie posters. In other words, I'm probably a little biased but if you like artwork with lots of blacks and heavy color contrast (think Frank Mi...

As the comic moves on to the main story we see that this guy has no luck; he gets blown up, breaks a few ribs, gets saved by uncleared up trash in an alley, tries to break into the predecessor of Alcatraz and gets caught by the guards while the real criminal escapes. I have left out the really good parts from that brief description because I do not want to spoil the story, but I can say that there is a really fun passage of pages where he is searching for someone, and the comic shows only brief

The Black Beetle (not to be confused with the DC Comics villain) is a pulp noir modern graphic novel by Francesco Francavilla. This volume collects comics 1-4 of the No Way out arc. The story continues in the next arc: Necrologue.The Black Beetle is a 1940s masked superhero somewhat reminiscent of hard boiled superheroes like the Punisher. Although we aren't told much of his background or history (true to the genre), we know he has martial arts training and that he is very good with inventions.

In a great homage to pulp heroes, Francesco Francavilla's Black Beetle is a cinematic hero in a graphic novel filled with eye popping art. Panels careen around the page. Action swirls amongst sheet music. You can almost envision it as animated.Sometime in the 1940s in Colt City, a masked hero with bulging red goggles and an array of cool gadgets fights crime. His real identity remains a secret, even from the reader. His true face is never seen.As I mentioned, the art is the real star here. Color...

The artwork is phenomenal, and there is a great mix or standard story telling and unique full page spreads. The story is a bit simplistic, but that is standard for a pulp, and also with the limited size of the story (only 4 issues). That being said, there is good suspense elements, gadgetry, sex appeal, and action sequences. there really isn't much that this story misses out on. Definitely a story worth reading, and if you can't wait for the collected edition to come out, the single issues are s...

So much pulp, if it was orange juice it would not be considered a liquid anymore. Love it.

Pulp noir superhero action of the highest caliber. Stunning art, the moods, colors, linework - all are beautifully executed. Highly recommend

I'm really getting into these "masked" hero tales and this one interested me from Dark Horse, a publisher I always seem to be pleased with. This time we are in the time period of the Nazi's but pre-WWII so sometime in the 1930s. The art is absolutely gorgeous. Using techniques of the old 30s/40s movie posters & lobby cards (in fact these have even been added as extras!) the book has a real old-timey pulp look to it and is a visual feast for the eyes. I wasn't, however, as taken with the story. T...

My first introduction to pulp style comics, and I'm VERY impressed by it. The story is a well told classic tale of mystery that introduces the character of Black Beetle like a hero in a black cape wielding a couple of colt .45's, an archetype that feels very familiar (since this is my first pulp, that's just fine by me). But what really puts it way up in my comic list, is the art of Francesco Francavilla wich is just fantastic. If every artist would invest as much talent and work in their books

The Black Beetle Volume 1: No Way Out (Dark Horse) collects Francesco Francavilla's brilliant neo-pulp. Clad all in black save for red eyepieces and a red chest insignia, the mysterious Black Beetle battles Nazis, super villains, and even the police on the streets of Colt City, an obvious paean to Will Eisner's Spirit. Drawing inspiration from The Shadow, The Spider, and their ilk plus artists such as Eisner, Alex Toth, and Darwyn Cooke, Francavilla produces a dazzling new addition for the long

I am not familiar with pulps, but I love everything about this title. I read the entire thing in one sitting (a rarity these days), but it wasn't for lack of content. The story moves along quickly without feeling rushed, and at the end I felt excited for future installments, without feeling like I didn't get a complete story. As wonderful as the writing is, I think the art is even better. I rarely noticed panel structure/layout, but here I get the feeling that Francavilla spent just as much time...

Excellent and evocative recreation of pulp-era storytelling! This is brand new, but feels classic. Francavilla's artwork evokes Alex Toth and Dan Spiegel among others. We don't learn the Black Beetle's secret identity or anything. He's a masked man with a gun, in the tradition of The Shadow or The Spider or other such heroes of the era. This is only volume one, so there are hints of great things to come. I really like what I've seen of this series so far.

Read in single issues. I heart Francavilla's art and layouts, but the story is a bit humdrum. I like noir, and I liked the way this drew on those familiar hard-boiled tropes, but I really wanted more characterization of the lead. The mystery would have had to be a lot more clever to carry the story on its own.