Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics

This slim book contains thirteen black and white short stories of remarkably consistent quality.

The 'noir revival' of recent years in comics has been a very welcome thing.  Books like Criminal have reinvigorated interest in the genre, and many top talents are beginning to write and draw stories that can be considered 'noir'.  This book is not simply an attempt to cash in on the whole thing (like Marvel has with their Noir line), but is instead a sampling of creators already working in the genre, or are otherwise up and comers or big names in the crime comics category.

This book does feature some established properties, such as a Criminal short by Brubaker and Phillips that is completely stand-alone in terms of characters and plotting.  There is a Mister X story by Dean Motter, a Kane story by Paul Grist, and a Stray Bullets story by David Lapham (featuring Virgina Applejack, no less!).

The rest of the book features work by personal favorites such as Jeff Lemire, who returns to a farm setting for a dark-hearted little tale; MK Perker (from Air); and Brian Azzarello, Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá retell a familiar story about a heist and a necklace from the thief's perspective.  

Also included in the book is a story by Rick Geary (of course - it wouldn't be a Dark Horse compilation if he wasn't in it) and Eduardo Barreto, Stefano Gaudiano, Kano, Gary Phillips, and others.  This book makes me pine for the days of Dark Horse Presents (the non-Myspace version), where I could revel in a collection of short stories that were almost always at this level of quality.

This book is only $13 - that's one dollar per story.  I highly recommend picking it up, and hope to see more produced in this fashion.