We should start a fundraiser to buy Juan José Guarnido out of his contract with Disney and make him draw more BLACKSAD. Six albums a year would be acceptable. Yes, it is that good. But who is this guy, and where has he been all those years? Let's start from the beginning.

Guarnido is a Spaniard, and he started his career in the late 80s. He was then a budding new artist, drawing pin-ups and covers for Marvel's Spanish publisher, Planeta de Agostini, along with buddies Salvador Larroca and Carlos Pacheco. Both Larroca and Pacheco were headhunted by Marvel UK, alongside other Spanish talents like Pascual Ferry and Oscar Giménez, to work on series such as DEATH'S HEAD and DARK ANGEL; but bizarrely, Guarnido was not.

Despite that failure, Guarnido kept trying to establish himself in the comics industry, without any significant success, until he was accepted as an animator for Disney's European branch in France. Now a minion of Uncle Walt, Guarnido worked on several TV projects, drawing thousands of sketches and learning to master every part of the craft. In time he graduated to the post of chief animator and took charge of the animation for the main baddie in TARZAN, the leopard Sabor. Guarnido was now in a strong position within the mouse house, but thankfully it did nothing to quench his thirst for comics.

BLACKSAD was the brainchild of writer Juan Canales, another Spaniard, and a former colleague of Guarnido on the fanzine scene. A project dating from ten years earlier, BLACKSAD was a noir where animals took the lead and the author used them as archetypes, providing a short cut to characterisation. Guarnido took a look at his friend's project and asked him if he could be the one to draw it. Canales agreed, and they soon started work on a short story to shop. But the project started growing, and what was at first intended as a mere twelve pager grew to full graphic novel size.

The result was BLACKSAD: A PLACE AMONGST THE SHADOWS, now available in English through IBooks; the second volume, the even better ARCTIC NATION, will be available from the same publisher in February.

BLACKSAD is an old school thriller. It draws its inspiration from Hammet and Ellroy, and in the first volume, all the genre staples are present. But in some ways it's a disappointment. That it's Canales' first serious work is all too apparent, and he lets Guarnido steal the show. The story is a by-the-numbers period thriller, and its biggest mistake is that it fails to surprise the reader. But the artwork is so stunning that it doesn't really matter.

Let's make this clear; Guarnido is currently one of the absolute best artists out there. There's no 'maybe' or 'perhaps' about it. Guarnido has been animating and drawing cartoons continually for the last ten years, and it shows in the accomplishment of his work. He can draw seemingly anything, his range of character expressions appears infinite, and his storytelling and exposition are flawless. Just when you think he can't surprise you anymore, he pulls out another jaw dropping camera angle, to knock the reader off his feet. The whole comic is a textbook on high comic art, and it's no surprise that it earned nominations for best new series and best new artist at Angoulême.

Such a strong debut planted quite a few seeds of doubts, though. Would Guarnido be able to keep the art as strong as in the first volume? Is Canales ready for the big leagues? Is the concept strong enough to support multiple volumes? The answer is in ARCTIC NATION, and it's an unwavering 'yes'.

ARCTIC NATION is astonishingly good. Canales delivers a solid thriller exploring themes of racism, wrapped over a split-personality murder mystery. While in the first volume the plot looked like little more than an excuse for the artwork, here there's a real story behind it. Every character is perfectly sketched, and nothing is left to the animal-stereotyping. The plot is tight and the pace, perfect.

It's still not a masterpiece, but for a second effort, it's an exceptional piece of work. Again, the main problem comes from the predictability of the main plot. We've seen this story many times before. This is the Spillane road, down on Hammett street. But this time, such predictability is offset by the quality of the pacing and dialogue. Canales is clearly improving, and all he really needs now is some fresh air in his plotting.

But frankly, it would take a lobotomised monkey on writing duties to ruin Guarnido's art, which is simply out of this world. From the extremely detailed architecture of the town were the action is set to the endless parade of character expressions, Guarnido owns the show.

Thanks to his position at Disney, Guarnido doesn't really need to draw comics to make a living. He does it purely out of love for the medium, and it really shows. It also shows that he's invested real time and effort into every panel and every page; with only two albums produced in the past few years, it's clear that this is no rush job. The result is breathtaking. Usually, the more detailed and the more accurate an artist is, the more problems he has with storytelling, while the more kinetic and energetic an artist is, the less realistic his art seems.

But BLACKSAD has it all. Instead of taking the sort of liberties with physics that the anthropomorphic characters and fantastic settings afford him, Guarnido takes the other road, and turns up the level of detail of its art. The world does not seem real. It is real. Guarnido's experience as a cartoon animator allows him to make every expression and every movement seem natural and lifelike, despite the cartoony origin of the characters.

I could keep going on and on about these two volumes, but it's up to the readers to discover this work for themselves. Volume one of BLACKSAD is already in stores, and volume two is on its way, so there's no excuse to miss out on one of the best comics out there.

Marcos Castrillón is a translator and interpreter, and a freelance writer for the Spanish magazine NEMO.

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