2 out of 5

This was actually one of the better CMYK entries – which isn’t saying much, since they were pretty unfocused – although I think ‘black’ is a more general mood / color and so a bit less forced of a theme for the writers / artists.  Unfortunately, the hunky dory nature of the entry is dragged down by an insulting fucking editorial from Managing Editor Sara Miller.  And I know I’m being very judgmental about this, but part of the job of the editor should be oversight of the book, and this editorial’s placement just doesn’t make any sense.  I hear your question from here: what horrid infraction could have been committed to send our level-headed reviewer into such a frenzy?  Well my dears, Ms. Miller had the gall.. to pitch the very book we’re reading to us.

…

Okay, right, that doesn’t sound so bad.  But it’s not just an editorial saying that Black is a good book – it’s an editorial written as though you’ve never heard of Black before.  Telling you to buy it.  It’s written as though it’s a stock commercial to put into the back of several books, and there’s already one of those types of hocks on the back page, for Fables; the editorial about which I’m complaining is actually the page before that… which makes it seem even more wrong.  For an imprint that’s struggling to make itself seem relative, this was just a very… mm… distracting and fumbling move.  Mountains out of molehills, but if I’ve already spent money on the book, don’t include a page that tells me to spend money on the book, and again, because this is buried a page in (and under the ‘process’ banner, which has been used in each CMYK to talk about what you’ve just read, not ‘previewing’ it for you), it makes this slight more notable.

You probably want to know about the content.  It’s the usual average.  Francesco Francavilla does his horror shtick in space, with distracting non-black colors and a sort of pointless plot.  Gene Luen Yang has an interesting concept about a phone app that lets you black things out; it’s a bit simplistic, but he’s one of the few in the book to explore things conceptually and not just toss the color in there.  Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth entry feels like it’s probably better if you read Sweet Tooth, otherwise it doesn’t have much impact.  Steve Seagle’s Fade is as overwrought as most Seagle.  David Baillie’s Night of the Black Stant has intriguing art from Will Morris and a valid stab at compressed world building going for it, but the main conceit just doesn’t make much sense.  Mary HK Choi’s American Gothic and Si Spencer’s Black Heaven are about the norm for these CMYK’s, somewhat vague, low stakes bits that are appreciated for their approaches to the theme but need to be surrounded by more solid stories to work.  Tom King’s Black Death in America is a perfectly paced adaptation of a book excerpt, well matched to J.P. Leon’s art.  And Fabio Moon concludes his autobiographical stuff with the same pleasantness as before.

King’s story stands out, and nothing is outright annoying as some previous entries have been.  Three stars, minus one for editorial stupidity.