NOIR AS DARK AS IT'S PAINTED by Ken Bruen

(Ken Bruen writing about NoirCon 2008)

NOIR

AS

DARK

AS

IT’S

PAINTED.

Noir continues to be the bête noir if you’ll forgive the pun, of the Mystery community.

Debate as to what exactly is noir is as diverse as it is convoluted.

I think Jon Jordan of Crime spree has put the final flourish on this never ending search for the precise definition.

He said that he doesn’t have a ready made description but he knows it when he reads it.

No truer words.

As it hits you like a Mack truck between the eyes.

Read

Megan Abbot

Vicki Hendricks

Al Guthrie

Ray Banks

Duane Swiercynski

Jason Starr

And trust me, you’ll know you haven’t accidentally stumbled into a cosy.

Cosy it ain’t.

But memorable, phew-oh.

Despite the reams written as to the division between Noir and other mystery genres, I don’t hold with that for one minute.

The more variety we have, the healthier the whole genre becomes.

Which leads me to the dark if not necessarily holy trinity.

Lou Boxer, Deen Koogan and the quite extraordinary Greg.

Their work to make Noir con happen is exhausting to just read about.

And in common with most advocates of Noir, here is the wondrous contradiction..........nicer, more warm hearted people you couldn’t meet

They ensure that yes, it is, as the T.V show proclaims..............Always sunny in Philadelphia.

Noir con has a program for three days of all things noir that is.........to die for.

Panels consisting of the best talkers in the biz, movies, tours and names you’d travel a continent to meet.

Among the many treasures, you get a chance to meet the most colourful publisher of all

Dennis Mc Millan..............here be legend writ huge.

His beautifully editions of the very best writers are a joy and a wonder to behold and he is essentially a one man operation and never..................never..........deterred.

He has the secret of sartorial elegance in clothing down cold if not indeed noir.

I think David Goodis would have been well pleased to hook up with Dennis

Lou Boxer has uncannily managed to channel David Goodis, to the point that Lou published his newspaper column with D.G. as the column’s photo and is still trying to persuade readers that it’s not Lou.

The t-shirts, badges and other gems readied for the convention are art in themselves.

Already the buzz is out and years down the pike, the boast will be

‘Noir con 2008, I was there.’

With the unspoken riff

‘Where were you?’

The Noir Woodstock and without the mud.

What’s not to love.

The spectre of David Goodis will of course loom large and iconic and as the best noir is full of contradictions, I think David Goodis will finally step into the light.

How perfect is that.