Sam Noir is a comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 mini-series

Limited series

A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....

 written by Eric A. Anderson/Manny Trembley and illustrated by Manny Trembley, first published in September 2006

2006 in comics

-January:*January 1, 2006: Newsweek offer a look back at 2005 through editorial cartoons. *January 2, 2006: The Cincinnati Enquirer cartoonist Jim Borgman starts a blog to detail his creative process...

.

Rendered in grayscale

Grayscale

In photography and computing, a grayscale or greyscale digital image is an image in which the value of each pixel is a single sample, that is, it carries only intensity information...

, the comic is a fusion of hardboiled

Hardboiled

Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined...

 noir fiction and a samurai adventure tale. While originally a three-issue mini-series, the comic's popularity and critical acclaim caused it to continue, with another 3-issue "Ronin holiday" mini-series getting published by Image

Image Comics

Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...

's ShadowLine

ShadowLine

Shadowline is a partner studio of Image Comics established by Image co-founder Jim Valentino. The name is an homage to Valentino's character, ShadowHawk.-History:...

 imprint

Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...

 (the last page indicates another mini to be published in June 2007

2007 in comics

-January:*January 10: Superman & Batman vs. Aliens & Predator released.*January 24: The Boys is canceled with issue #6.-February:*February 2: Newsarama reports that The Boys has been picked up by Dynamite Entertainment....

 but as of early 2009

2009 in comics

-January:*January 1: The direct-to-DVD movie Hulk Vs was released.*January 6: The third and final volume of Hollow Fields has been released.-February:...

 no new series has been announced).

Plot

Sam Noir, a ronin

Ronin

A or rounin was a Bushi with no lord or master during the feudal period of Japan. A samurai became masterless from the death or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege....

 detective

Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

, is paid to track a young woman named Jasmine, and after watching her for a while begins to fall in love with her. After Jasmine's murder by ninja

Ninja

A or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...

s, Sam starts to look for "Master Fuyu", the man who ordered her assassination

Assassination

To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

.

Reception

Comics Bulletin

Comics Bulletin

Comics Bulletin is a website with an emphasis on the American comic book industry, updated daily with news, reviews, interviews, and editorial content. Coverage ranges from mainstream to independent/small press comic book and graphic novel publishers.-History:...

 calls Sam Noir's art "fantastic", but the story "more than a little derivative". Broken Frontier stated that "Anderson knows his hard-boiled style ... [making] the reading itself compelling—not to mention witty at times," while the art's "lyrical framing, evocative panel constructions, light and shadow effects [are] so well executed they’re like characters in the story".

Conversely, The X-Axis found the series "frustrating", stating that "it feels like there are two completely different, and better, comics struggling to get out - one which is much more funny, and one which takes [itself] entirely seriously".

Collected editions

• Sam Noir: Volume 1. Image Comics
  Image Comics
  Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...
  
  2007-06-13. ISBN 1582407584 ISBN 978-1582407586

External links

• Full Issue: Sam Noir: Samurai Detective #1, Image Comics
• PandaXpress! Anderson and Trembley's ongoing webcomic