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Posted by:

Femme_Noir

Date:

June 9th, 2008 5:29 PM

Header:

The Reviews Are In!

Bulletin:

The first issue of FEMME NOIR: THE DARK CITY DIARIES is only weeks away, and the critics have spoken:

"It hits you like a kick to the solar plexus, or a pistol shot hours into your worst hangover."
– USA Today

"For those who love old movies, radio shows, pulps, or simply crime & detective dramas ... A city on the edge of darkness has an angel of hard justice."
- Tonya Crawford
Broken Frontier

"...a serious comic, but serious fun, of a kind you don’t see anymore on the shelves... giving the reader dark mysteries and action with a feminist and contemporary twist on a retro backdrop."
- Andrea Speed
Comixtreme

"...a hard hittin', tough talkin' dame who's nobody's sweetheart. If you like your thrills hardboiled and your action neat, then check this out..."
– Chuck Dixon
Writer: Nightwing, Birds of Prey, El Cazador, Iron Ghost

"FEMME NOIR: THE DARK CITY DIARIES is a .45 caliber fueled ride into the dark heart of the city in the arms of a nightmare blonde who'd just as soon kill you as boink you. Christopher Mills and Joe Staton have given us a stunning new take on the noir landscape. Femme Noir is as hard hitting as a psycho wielding a baseball bat."
– Paul Bishop
Author of the Fey Croaker LAPD novels

"Christopher Mills and Joe Staton's FEMME NOIR is a tasty stir fry of pop culture touchstones: The Spirit, Batman, The Shadow, Black Mask, Dime Detective, Raymond Chandler and about a zillion RKO B-films; the perfect meal for those of you not getting enough good old high-fiber pulp in your diet.

"You want it? They got it: mean streets, treacherous back alleys, cold-blooded bad guys, slimy gang lords, killer robots, big city corruption, and a mysterious crime-fighting avenger who definitely knows how to fill out a pair of fishnets, and isn't above serving up her own kind of justice. Blonde justice."
– Kevin Burton Smith
Thrilling Detective website

"That’s what I’ve come to expect from Mills though. He’s always figuring out ways to liven up traditional concepts by looking at them from a different way or exploring corners that we haven’t been into before. Even that first issue of FEMME NOIR: I don’t want to call it a set-up issue, because – like “pulp” – I have a knee-jerk, negative reaction to that term. Mills certainly sets up his series, but he does it in an exciting way that works as a complete, stand-alone story and doesn’t make you sorry that you didn’t just wait for the trade.

I’ve neglected to mention Joe Staton’s illustrations before now and that’s as criminal as anything FEMME NOIR’s characters are up to. Staton is a legendary artist who’s clearly still in the game and is very comfortable with the series’ noir setting. Staton is too “Staton” to suffer comparison with any other artist, but damn if I wasn’t constantly reminded of The Spirit the whole time. In fact, if you’re at all enjoying DC’s current Spirit series and would enjoy reading more like it, you really need to give FEMME NOIR a try when it starts in June."
- Michael May
"Fringe Benefits," Newsarama Blog

"Femme Noir, as the name would imply, is solid gumshoe-goodness filled genre entertainment. The book and style clearly pay homage to Will Eisner, but it doesn't get lost in that feel. Writer Christopher Mills has clearly found his own back beat as the characters rampage through witty dialogue, fun action and the occasional elements of suspense. Here, there are loads of atmosphere and I found myself enjoying the hard boiled storytelling panel after panel."
– Chuck Moore
Comic Related

"Mills really pulls out the old-school hardboiled vibe with this book. Moreover, he overlays it with a 40s/50s detective comic mien. Women with alliterative double entendre or punning names. An amorphous, timelost town. Rain literally drips off the panels. Sure, it wears its Paul Cain and Will Eisner roots on its sleeve. What it doesn't do, however, is simply ape those templates. Mills and Staton take their work that one step further. Like Rick Veitch's Greyshirt, what could easily become pastiche is instead rendered as something unique that can stand on its own.

"I have long been an admirer of Joe Staton's art. His broad stroke characterizations and thick lines mix perfectly with Mills' story – his women are bold, his men are square-jawed. Everything is so angular. Sharp and distorted. Deep dark shadows. I found myself staring at the first page of issue one, mesmerized."
– Joe Hilliard
PopThought

"This book has it all: mobsters, tough guys, tougher gals, no nonsense cops, and lots of gunplay! Everything you'd expect from a book titled FEMME NOIR. Christopher Mills' story has a great feel for the time period, and is very engaging. Each of the three sub-stories leaves you saying, "It's gotta be her!!!" until you read the next one, which is exactly the way it should be. The art is expertly executed (what you'd expect from and Eisner award winner) and compliments the story perfectly. Staton hits the mark of bridging everything you love about old crime/noir stories and gives it a slight modern sheen. It's safe to say that everything really comes together, and the noir vibe is in full effect!"
-Mistah Z
Project Fanboy

"Overall, FEMME NOIR: THE DARK CITY DIARIES #1 takes a relatively underutilized genre in comics and makes it a viable one. The action is fast and the women look even faster. And while the story concludes without the big reveal of the title character, it does whet the appetite for the next issue, which is what any good introductory issue should do."
- Britt Schramm

"There is more than one tip of the hat to Will Eisner’s work on The Spirit but there is also a wittiness and sneaky satire that Raymond Chandler would have appreciated and slam bang action that Dashiell Hammett would have loved. Mills makes no bones about his sources of inspiration but the way his stories are told, his setting, and his tough, no nonsense heroine all make it seem fresh and new and most of all thrilling."
-Tonya Crawford
Broken Frontier

"This plays a bit like a distaff Spirit, with a proto-feminist spin on a typical hard boiled pulp style mystery/thriller, and it’s a slick, entertaining read."
-Andrea Speed
Comixtreme

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THE THIRD ISSUE OF FEMME NOIR: THE DARK CITY DIARIES IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW IN THE CURRENT (JUNE, 2008) EDITION OF DIAMOND COMICS' PREVIEWS CATALOG. IT CAN BE FOUND ON THE BOTTTOM OF PAGE 206 UNDER "APE ENTERTAINMENT," AND THE DIAMOND ITEM CODES ARE: JUN083647 FOR COVER "A" AND JUN083648 FOR COVER "B" BY PHIL HESTER!

Check out the official FEMME NOIR website or visit FEMME NOIR on MySpace!

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