'Blue Note: The Final Days of Prohibition Volume 1' by Mathieu Mariolle with art by Mikael Bourgouin is a tale about a down and out ex-boxer making a comeback in the final days of bootleg booze.

Irish boxer Jack Doyle thought his boxing days were through, but he takes one last fight for the memories. It turns out the result of the fight gets him in trouble and he has to fight his way back out again. He finds himself with a shady manager he can't trust, a troublesome mobster on his case, and a lady reporter he can't seem to forget.

I liked the story, but it feels pretty basic. I was hoping for a bit more jazz in the story based on the title. It's there, but just as a cameo more than anything else. The art is actually really nice. I love the cover and it's very indicative of what you'll find inside.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

As other reader noted my copy of this book did not have the script only the images which are well-done.

The story looked good, the graphics were excellent the only problem for me was that the copy that i received did not have any words in the story boxes. Good book other than that.

Interesting enough art, but painfully slow and tedious story.

A jazzy tale that brings you back to the genre of classic noir.

Your standard boxer won't take a dive and gets in trouble affair. All of the boxers looked the same. I couldn't tell which was our hero during the boxing sequences. The very end was confusing and left me in the dark as much as it did our boxer hero.

A nice throwback to the hardboiled literary genre and the film noirs that marked American cinema of the 1940s. A classic tale of an underdog who seeks redemption only to learn that everything and everyone is against him.

Honestly, I didn’t finish it. I tried very hard, because after all this is a short graphic novel, but one third in I was completely lost.

The characters were two-dimensional and I still had no clue what the conflict for the protagonist was. In fact, I wasn’t sure what all the story was about.
The plot had concerned itself with Prohibition far more than with story building, so at that point I could only see a few characters go around speakeasies and doing little more than speaking about Prohibition.
Not very interesting. In fact, not interesting enough to read on.

Pity.

A very competent graphic novel - the only real flaw is the artwork doesn't differentiate the boxers at times. There are many plusses therefore - the way the end of Prohibition is a factor, but not a deadline urging the narrative on unrealistically, the gritty milieu of the American city has found these (French? Belgian?) creators on very good form, and the story is suitably self-contained, even while it is merely volume one. Yes, there is a bit of cheese to be had with the dame, but this is well worth a look, and the artwork certainly is better than most. Roll on the chance to read the other half of the story!

I always love a dark and gritty graphic novel. This was no exception.

Lovely and gritty. Gripping story and incredibly moving.

Drawn in a noir style with Art Deco elements in the lettering, this comic depicts the return of boxer Jack Doyle to New York City just prior to the end of prohibition.