If there’s one thing the people over at Dark Horse love, it’s anthologies. The publisher’s initial title and signature series for many years was an anthology series titled, appropriately enough, “Dark Horse Presents.” Many of its signature series got their start here including “The Mask,” “Sin City” and “Hellboy.” I believe “The Goon” also had its Dark Horse debut in the series, but as creator Eric Powell pointed out in the fine print of vol. 1, the series ended with that issue #150. Pure coincidence, I’m sure. Since then, the publisher has put out a number of anthology titles, but not one that I felt compelled enough to pick up. Until now, that is. “Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics” boasts an all-star list of creators that includes the likes of writers Ed Brubaker and Brian Azzarello, artists like Sean Phillips and Gabriel Ba, and writer/artists such as David Lapham and Paul Grist. That’s not the entire list, yet while some of these stories show how familiar “noir” tropes can be the fact that it contains new “Stray Bullets,” “Criminal,” “Kane” and “Mister X” stories will make the purchase worth it for fans of these series.
