Architextuality in Blacksad: Somewhere within the Shadows

Gerard Genette's architextuality is one of the relationships a text has to other texts; specifically, it is a texts genre. Genre, as a classification, only makes sense through its connections to other texts in the same genre. These connections then create a set of expectations for texts in any given genre. Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido’s Blacksad: Somewhere within the Shadows has two architextual classifications, that is genres, Funny Animals and Film Noir. Each of these genres have their own set of expectations, which Canales and Guarnido intermingle, they play with these interpretive frames by both breaking and fulfilling these expectations.  

As you can see, all the characters in Blacksad are animals, anthropomorphised animals but animals all the same, which is what classifies it as a ‘funny animal’ comic. However, it breaks the expectations of this genre pretty much immediately by introducing a murder on the first page, which is a significantly heavier subject matter than what you would find in something like Donald Duck. However, this isn’t the first time a creator has used funny animals to tackle harder subjects, Spiegelman’s Maus being the most well-known. Like Maus, Blacksad uses the genre for the benefit of animal stereotypes. In Blacksad we see an untrustworthy and traitorous snake, a cold-blooded killer frog, and the loyal dogs of the police force (see above panel). Of course, understanding these references depends on a person’s resources for design, but when they are understood it gives the reader instant insight into the character’s personality. This use of stereotype actually gives the creators more room for storytelling, because there is less need for in-depth exposition in terms of character, no need to show personality traits when they are understood a first glance.

Where Blacksad breaks from the expectations set out by Maus, is in the art style. Spiegelman’s art style was more simplified than Guarnido’s. Guarnido’s art style is more detailed, closer to a realist style. This art style is more in-line with Blacksad’s other genre, Film Noir. Elements of Film Noir are also found in aesthetics of the setting and era: a gritty city in the late 40s/early 50s. More importantly though, is the plot, which firmly places it in the Film Noir genre; the story follows a somewhat shady private detective who is trying to solve the murder of his former flame (in the above panels you see Blacksad in a dive bar looking for information). This narrative fulfills the expectations of the Film Noir genre and therefor makes meaning making easier for the reader. Indeed, despite breaking expectations of funny animal comics, the use of animals also aids in meaning making, as I mentioned above, it gives the reader instant access to the characters and their world. In this way Canales and Guarnido truly blended architextual frames in order to create a unified whole. 

Nathanya Barnett