Topic Explicate (connect topic with visuals/text

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on page). Make sure you indicate the
All must be name(s) of the characters and how/why
commented the topic connects/is valid in association
on. to the visual/text on the page. You may
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9 Unsuccessful/ ● Blacksad recognizes the woman on the bed
Successful who has died
relationships ● Blacksad recognizes her because he refers to
her as an “old flame… the remains of a
beautiful dream”
● An old flame can be taken into perspective as
someone who you may have had a romantic
connection with
● This relationship can be seen as unsuccessful
because an old flame would be referring to a
time in the past.
10 Antihero ● Blacksad shows antihero behaviour when
Behavior talking to Smirnov about the situation they have
● Smirnov is trying to figure out a case of the
dead woman and tells Blacksad off
● Blacksad doesn’t want to back off from the case
but does so anyway
● Blacksad appears to not really get along with
Smirnov and shows signs of an upcoming rebel
or disobedience from Smirnov’s orders
11 Psychological ● We see Blacksad in his office that appears to
Breaks be thrown all over the place
● There is no kind of organization in his files or
his desk, there’s dirty coffee cups and plates
● Blacksad himself states that when he’s walking
through his office he thinks he’s “walking
among the ruins of a lost civilization”
 ● The woman in the case’s name is Natalia, and it
appears that because of her downfall, it has
affected Blacksad's way of living causing that
psychological break
12 Male ● Blacksad shows male dominance because
Dominance/F when he see’s that Natalia was hurt over her
emale supposed “fans” cards and flowers, he instantly
inferiority wants to show dominance to protect her and
win over her heart after showing this protective
side
● Natalia shows Female inferiority because the
moment she sees Blacksad approach her, she
immediately gives in and talks to him about
what happened to her, therefore showing
submissiveness which counts as being inferior
13 Symbolism ● In this page, we see roses and flowers
everywhere therefore making a symbolic
reference to the idea of love and romance.
● Roses refer to romance and in this scene is
elevates its meaning because of Blacksad and
Natalia’s sexual and romantic interest in each
other
14 Unsuccessful ● It is revealed that Natalia and Blacksad’s
Relationships romance came to an end because every
relationship has their problems
● It appears to seem that Natalia would get very
close to people she knew or worked with and
that would make Blacksad feel jealous
● This probably lead to an argument that both
characters couldn’t fix therefore leading to their
split
15 Power ● Blacksad is shown rising into action to avenge
Physical/Ment justice for Natalia
al ● This rising action shows that both mentally and
physically, Blacksad feels powerful and believes
that he will be able to avenge justice for
someone he once cared about
16 Physical ● We are introduced to a new character, Jake,
Aggression who is a boxer
● The readers could assume that Jake is an
aggressive and strong character given the fact
that Blacksad comments on his strength and
even in the rink, Jake was able to knock his
opponent to the ground and win.
17 How females ● Jake makes a comment towards the way
are Natalia acted after she and Blacksad broke up
represented and parted ways
and defined ● Since Natalia moved on to someone else
named Leon in a short period of time, Jake
paints her as someone who is unloyal, as
someone who doesn’t seem to care about how
she will be painted.
● In society, when a man moves on quickly from
a relationship, they are praised and seen as
someone dominant. When a woman moves on
quickly from a relationship, they are seen as
disloyal, they is called many harmful names
and told that they belongs to the streets.

18 Consequence ● Blacksad sneaks into Leon’s home and

s analyzes the scene and the state of how he
left his house.
● He hears a noise meaning the house isn’t left
alone and now suffers the consequence of
having to explain why it is that he is in
someone’s house, even when he doesn't know
them personally

19 Color ● Although the whole comic tends to have the

schemes same colors, this scene appears to be brighter
● This brighter scene happens because of
Blacksad’s sudden change in personality
● After Blacksad speaks to the cleaning woman,
the bright ambiance is interrupted by a shadier
ambiance because of the mysterious figure
above the stairs.
20 Verbal ● The new character on the phone appears to
aggression be very aggressive towards the other person
on the other end.
● He doesn’t appear to have much patience with
people even if they make a small simple
mistake like getting a saxophone and a
xylophone mixed up.

21 Identity ● Here we are revealed many identities

through throughout the dialogue between Blacksad
Dialouge and Mr. Zenuck.
● Natalia was a main actress who was murdered
● Leon was a scriptwriter for the movie
● Mr. Zenuck is the director of the movie
● Blacksad puts on a fake persona as J.H.
Blackmore who works for “Smoke Agency”,
Debt collectors.

22 Suspicion ● Blacksad is someone who is very aware of

what goes on around him
● He was suspicious about the character behind
him while he walked the streets but he knew
exactly what was bound to happen
● His suspicion is like his extended sense or like
a third eye

23 Hierarchy ● In the animal world, it is known that a cat

would not win against an alligator or crocodile.
● It would explain why Blacksad was inable to
win against this new alligator-looking character

24 The ego ● The alligator has reported back to another

character who appear to have power over him
● This person who has power shows a very high
ego through his hobby because he believes
that it’s “satisfying to put things in their place”.
This saying could also refer to people.

25 Hierarchy ● There is some kind of gang-related hierarchy

going around in this scene where one person
 is being bossed around, the other gives the
orders and the other is just the right-hand man

26 Male ● In this scene we see a bunch of iguanas and

representation the alligator character interact. It can be
concluded that males are the type of people
who can easily get along and dont take long to
get comfortable with each other.

27 Disturbance` ● We can see a disturbance in the atmosphere

from making a deal between characters and
then having another character barge into a bar
with a good ambiance.
● This disturbance causes a shift from calm to
filled with adrenaline

28 Physical ● When the character barges through into the

Appearance bar, we can see that he is not reptile related,
everyone else in the bar is either a lizard, turtle
iguana, etc.
● Because of this difference in physical
appearance, the character is not welcome and
tensions rise

29 Identity ● Everyone who has been asked about Leon

Through has been able to recognize Natalia more
Dialogue because of how beautiful she is.

30 An eye of an ● It appears that when Blacksad gets closer to

eye finding Leon's location, he needs to do
something for someone else to get what he
needs. In this case, a deal needs to be set in
place for him to gain what he wants.

31 Color Scheme ● The setting switch affects the color scheme.

● Since the setting is a graveyard, rather than
there being bright popping colors everything
switches to being dull and faded. Even the
flowers that are set down on the grave are
dull.
32 Hero and ● Everytime Blacksad gets a step further into
Villain cracking his case, everyone else appears to
Representaio stop him or push him three steps back
n ● Everyone can be seen as a villain because
they wont let Blacksad get his closure

33 Physical ● All the bigger characters in this comic appear

agression to be stronger and more physically aggressive
just as they would be in real life.

34 Psychological ● Blacksad slowly starts to accept his defeat

Breaks after the beating he receives but even then he
still wants to figure out the full story behind
Leon and Natalia's death.

35 Sarcasm ● Behind the situations that Blacksad is in, he

still manages to show his sense of humor and
his sarcasm.

36 Politics of this ● The political system in the comic in

Society comparison to in real life appear to have
differences.
● Blacksad is thrown into jail just to be spared
for problems. In real life, jail isn’t really a place
where they would spare your problems.

37 Perception ● In the beginning of the comic, we think that

Smirnov is someone uptight, he doesn’t want
people to get in the way of his work or in a
case that doesnt quite involve them.
● Now, we see that Smirnov isn’t able to finish
the job on his own and now we see a new side
of him that he calls naive.
● The reader can tell that Smirnov just wants
whats best for everyone

38 Social ● Blacksad always tries to take a moment to

Constraints relax and think but those who are against him
(Rejection) just wont accept or allow him to win.
39 Ego ● The lizard shows a high ego because he was
able to achieve Blacksad’s goal before him
and he rubs it into Blacksad’s face

40 Consequence ● Because of the lizards ego, he loses his

awareness around him and gets shot by
someone. Blacksad is able to take advantage
of the gun the lizard has dropped and shoots
him a second time.

41 Animals and ● Blacksad’s dialouge reveals a lot of sayings

their that are usually stated by people.
symbolism/me ● Cats usually dont get along with rats and in
anings this scene we see one of the rats dead on the
porch because Blacksad knew that he couldn’t
let him stay alive.
● It is also seen that he states cats have nine
lives and he has never wanted to find that out
but throughout the entirety of the comic, it
really is seen that he has nine lives because
he’s faced death many times.

42 Truth ● We finally learn the truth behind Natalia’s

death and what Leon did to her
● It is said that Leon was taking Natalia on dates
and the Lizard was in charge of taking her to
wherever the date’s location was at to avoid
the public eye
● Leon hired the rat to spy on Natalia and Leon
found out that Natalia had been snooping
around with other men, she had options and
Leon was a jealous man so he killed her to
show her the consequences. And he killed
himself to cover it up.

43 Self ● The lizard believes that he himself is a sore

Perception loser, he doesn’t think high of himself and we
see this because he worked for other people,
one of them being Leon. He doesn’t think he’s
worth anything and would rather take orders.
44 Closure ● We see Blacksad laying on the couch simply
thinking about the new information he was
revealed. With this information, it can be
semi-concluded that Blacksad now has
closure on what happened.

45 Life goes on ● This saying can be interpreted in multiple

ways. Even though Blacksad learned the truth,
he didn’t choose to just stop there. We still see
him trying to complete the mission he received
from Smirnov, even though he doesn’t have to.

46 Physical ● In the past, Blacksad wasn’t able to defeat the

Agression rhino or the bear because of how little or weak
he was but after learning the truth his
aggression is stronger and he is able to face
the giants despite his size or strength.

47 Anti hero ● Blacksad’s actions in these scenes really

shows that he is the anti hero because he isnt
sparing hte life of anybody even when they
didnt have anything to do with the problems
between Leon, Natalia and himself.
● Even though Blacksad has closure, it can be
interpreted that he is still trying to avenge
something.

48 Identity ● Even if Blacksad wanted to kill everybody, it is

through shown that he is someone who does care for
dialouge others.
● Mr. Statoc even shares that Blacksad’s morals
aren’t lining up with his actions.
● Vengeance can’t truly be achieved through
someone else’s death because it wont bring
them back to life but Blacksad still wants to do
anything to make himself feel better.

49 Psychological ● Blacksad takes a close listen to Mr. Statoc’s

break words but even then they still lead him to a
state of mind where he himself is starting to
lose all control.
50 Power ● Even though Blacksad committed a crime, he
thinks about the power that Smirnov has and
how he could cover anything up with a suicide
regardless of its background story.

51 The ego ● When Blacksad walks past by the bear and

the Rhino, you could see how his ego has
been lifted up and he’s now seen as someone
stronger than who he once feared. Now those
who were stronger than Blacksad fear him

52 Truth/Lies ● Even when the rhino and the bear are telling
the truth about who killed who, Smirnov
uncovers more truth and this leads the two to
not believe him.
● Even if they try to defend themselves, the truth
is already out because Smirnov and Blacksad
were working together.

53 Identity ● Smirnov is a good person because we see

through that regardless of him closing the case full of
Dialouge lies and he knows the consequences, he
doesn’t feel like a good person because his
conscious knows that he isn’t telling the truth.

54 Closure ● Even though Blacksad knows the truth and

has uncovered everything. He is unable to live
life in a brighter path. His world is still dark and
there’s not much he could do about it.