Noir is just as powerful in comics as it is in films: dark angles, shadowy, high contrast images, moody lighting, an anti-hero that struggles with moral conflicts: all these elements work to create a somber, dark tone. In How to Draw Crime Noir, Martinbrough walks the reader step-by-step through layout, thumbnails, staging the action and working with actual scripts. Martinborough's art is cutting edge, has a 1940's vibe, but comes across contemporary, complelling, dramatic and urban. The book also contains twenty-two page original graphic novel, written and illustrated by Martinbrough.