Editing Blacksad (section)

===''A Silent Hell''===
{{Long plot|section|date=April 2025}}
The fourth ''Blacksad'' album is a murder mystery set in the jazz scene of [[New Orleans]]. It has been translated into several European languages and released in the United States by [[Dark Horse Comics]] as ''Blacksad: A Silent Hell''.

Notably, the story of the album unfolds in [[Nonlinear narrative|non-chronological]] order. The story alternates between day scenes and night scenes: the night scenes take place during a single night and are the culmination of the story, and the day scenes depict events that took place over several weeks before that night.

Blacksad and Weekly travel to New Orleans to meet Faust LaChapelle, a [[goat]] musician who found success signing more talented yet less fortunate musicians to record labels. They learn that LaChapelle has terminal cancer, and is being treated by Ms. Gibraltar, a ''[[Haitian Vodou|vodou]]'' priestess. LaChapelle begs Blacksad to find Sebastian "Little Hand" Fletcher, a [[Boxer (dog)|Boxer]], who – despite having one arm smaller than the other – was the most successful musician he ever signed. Fletcher has gone missing, and LaChapelle is concerned that his addiction to heroin has something to do with it. Blacksad and Weekly accept the case.

The pair soon meet Leeman the [[hippopotamus]], who is the last detective who was hired to find Fletcher. He proposes they all work together, but Blacksad is put off by his reckless driving and alcoholism. Blacksad tracks down and roughs up Fletcher's drug dealer, who admits that a masked individual paid him to sell poisoned heroin to Fletcher. Later, Blacksad meets LaChapelle's son, Thomas, who has formed a friendship with Fletcher's pregnant wife, Hannah. The two get on well until Thomas asks Blacksad to give up the case for his father's sake; he believes Fletcher is a bad influence, and his father is wasting his money trying to find him when he could be saving it for his cancer treatment. Disappointed, Blacksad walks out. The conversation does lead him to ponder if Thomas cares for Hannah as more than a friend and may be jealous of Fletcher's attentions.

Later, Blacksad finds Thomas and Hannah as she gives birth to Fletcher's son. Despite Thomas' insistence that he leave her alone, he questions her as to her husband's whereabouts. Hannah states that Fletcher had been supposed to perform his newest song that night, but that LaChapelle was enraged when he found out. Meanwhile, Weekly discovers that some of Fletcher's friends seem to have been mysteriously murdered in staged suicides, causing Blacksad to fear that someone might be after Sebastian's life as well.

At a [[nightclub]], Fletcher performs his new song, detailing how he had become [[Congenital disorder|congenitally deformed]] and many others had died due to a [[carcinogenic]] flu balm that was being sold in his hometown by the mysterious "Dr. Dupre", and how bureaucratic payoffs kept Dupre from prison once he was found out. LaChapelle saved them from poverty by signing them all to a successful band. However, the conditions eventually caught up with them, leading them to lives full of addiction and death; now, only Fletcher is left to tell the tale.

Blacksad discovers that Leeman is responsible for killing Fletcher's friends, who had planned to blackmail LaChapelle with the truth of what happened in Fletcher's hometown. When Blacksad confronts LaChapelle in his house, the latter confesses to being Dupre and admits that he has a rare [[genetic disorder]] rather than cancer. He has been investing money in medical research to find a cure, so that his son might one day have healthy children to carry on his legacy. It is also implied that he had the drug dealer poison Fletcher to prevent him from performing the new song that would ruin LaChapelle. Weekly appears and urgently informs Blacksad of Fletcher's whereabouts. Blacksad arrives to find that Fletcher has died of the [[strychnine]]-laden heroin. It also appears that LaChapelle's plans may go in vain as Fletcher was able to perform the new song (though it is unclear whether anyone will connect the story to LaChapelle or not). As for Thomas, he has no interest in his father's money nor in having any children, and thus the bloodline will most likely end with him.

Afterwards, Blacksad sees Thomas and Hannah at Fletcher's funeral, and they nod to each other in respect. It's revealed in his conversation with Weekly that Blacksad gave Thomas their payment for the case; Blacksad says, "he'll need it". It is unknown whether he is referring to Thomas's genetic disorder or predicting that LaChapelle's deeds will come out in the end.