Last year Shannon O’Leary put together a small comix anthology about the Bay Area’s “true pet crimes,” including the infamous dog mauling case that featured every element of a true San Francisco story: sex, death, and politics. Sensing the theme’s potential, local publisher Manic D asked her to expand the book for a second edition of Pet Noir: An Anthology of Strange but True Pet Crime Stories, which they released late last year.

On Thursday, O’Leary appears at 6:30 PM at the Main Library with several artists and writers whose work appears in the book for a reading/slide show/book signing. I grabbed a few minutes of her time and asked her about the book.

First, give me the short description of what Pet Noir is, in a couple of sentences.

Shannon O’Leary: Pet Noir is a comics anthology of strange but pet true crime stories that are illustrated by some of the finest emerging comics artists today.

How’d you start the project?

I initiallly made a self published comic with three stories about crimes involving pets, as an ironic take on the media’s fascination with true crime by looking at some of the odder crimes in recent times.

After that comic came out, Jennifer Joseph of Manic D Press became interested in doing a longer book of pet crime stories. She thought it would be a great book for their catalog — which is edgy and experimental. So with the help of the case files of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, I added new stories and opened up the theme to some great local cartoonists like John Isaacson and Melanie Lewis to tell their own stories about more personal pet crimes.

You certainly haven’t lacked for material. Was it easy to get other comix artists interested in this theme?

Yes. People love their animals — even cartoonists! Me and the artists have all tried to be aware of the public’s sympathies for animals. The book makes fun of human folly more than it does of animals.

What’s it been like promoting the book at comic conventions and such events? How have people responded? it’s not exactly your usual comic book subject.

I think most comic geeks are interested in reading comics that touch on larger social issues. A lot of the comments I’ve seen on some of the bigger comics blogs and message boards about it have been from readers saying that they find it clever and fun.

Have you gotten any unexpected reactions? Any unintended consequences?

When we were researching the story “A Tiger’s Tale” (illustrated by me and written by local artist, MariNaomi, Mari contacted an organization that had done a website informing the public about the case requesting additional facts. It’s a really sad story about a man who basically hoarded exotic cats like tigers and neglected them while they were in his care.

They were really offended that someone would want to make a comic out of the case. I think their perception was that comics are always funny. Hopefully, however, with the popularity of books like American Born Chinese by Gene Yang (colored by Lark Pien, a Pet Noir contributor) which was the first graphic novel ever to be nominated for a National Book Award, comics will start getting more respect!

So what’s the event on Thursday going to be like?

The event at the library on Thursday is going to be a slide show, reading and discussion of some of the Pet Noir stories by some of the contributors. Lark Pien, MariNaomi, John Isaacson and Trevor Alixopulos will all be discussing their Pet Noir stories and reading some of their other works. Then I’ll be talking a little bit about the Animal Legal Defense Fund involvement in the book as well.

Everybody should come on out! It’s the only reading we have scheduled in the Bay Area.