Noirlem: The Long & Short Of It is a comic created by JP Plack. After a series of murders seem to follow a pattern a detective and a teacher join forces to catch the culprit before they strike again. Taking place in late 1920’s Harlem and starring a white detective and a black educator, this is a story that involves a lot of interaction and clashing between different worlds. The educator in question is a man named Coleman Carmichael, a guy who knows just about everything about everything and works at a local school. The detective is Jay Baldwin, a man who isn’t technically a detective yet as he’s still in training. The plot plays out like your average mystery; there is investigating, backtracking, questions, arguing, and monkey wrenches thrown into the works. I will say that it is a good mystery with logic making a strong appearance. This isn’t action-packed but there are suspenseful moments and palpable drama. This is a well-paced comic; things don’t drag on nor move too fast. The dialogue here is very good. Lots of back-and-forth, realistic dialogue, and a few spurts of humor. Now it can get hammy from time to time but overall it’s a good read with a few wordy pages but it shouldn’t bog you down. This is great, thick mystery comic that’ll make you see things from different perspectives while trying to put the clues together.

            The art style here is a one focused on realism. It doesn’t look cartoonish at all. A lot of the coloring is various browns and there is an overall drabness that fits the era. You won’t see anything bright here. Locations are a big deal as this is a mystery that has these sleuths traveling all over town. And these areas are more than just quick shots to set the scene; they persist through the panels and sometimes set the tone. When it comes to expressions this comic does a above-average job of it. When the faces are closer to the screen they have good details that help us glean emotions but it becomes more difficult to do it when they are further away. Faces of relevant characters are unique enough but the extra characters tend to blend together. Though light on action what we do see is easy to follow and not confusing.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like mysteries set in the distant past being solved by a team of people from vastly different backgrounds this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

PG-13. Deaths.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Relax, thanks to the rats this’ll be in the paper tomorrow same as the others.”

 

Purchase Link: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/noirlem-j-p-plack/1142889709

Indiegogo Link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/noirlem-the-long-short-of-it/x/26236710#/

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 80

Violent Pages: 4, for 5% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 2

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 2

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 3

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”