Noir Is the New Black: Noir Stories from Black Creators

Curated by editors Sapolsky (Spider-Man Noir) and Harris (RetrEoN Media Alliance blog), these 16 stories serve up cynical characters facing love, work, and relationships gone sour, as well as other 1930s-era scenarios through Afrofuturism. A current-day detective reunites with a previous lover through time-traveling to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre; a 1980s Little Rock, AR police officer confirms his kid sister’s conspiracy ravings; a World War II veteran avenges a lynched friend; entertainer Josephine Baker, heading off to speak at the 1963 March on Washington, defies a threat against her; a heroin-fueled pulp fiction writer gets a finale he could have written himself. Running only six-to-eight pages, each story resolves with a twist while whetting appetites for more. The realistic color art is all very good or excellent. However, a prose selection and a concluding preview-excerpt need work.