Yakari and the White Buffalo

By Derib & Job, translated by Erica Jeffrey (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-90546-004-5

Western yarns have always captivated consumers in Europe, and none more so than the assorted French-speaking regions who also adore comics. Historically we Brits have also been big fans of sagebrush sagas and the plight of the â€œnoble savageâ€â€¦

In 1964, French-Swiss journalist AndrÃ© Jobin founded the children’s magazine Le Crapaud Ã lunettes and began writing stories for it under the pseudonym Job. In 1967 he hired fellow French-Swiss artist Claude de Ribaupierre, who had started out as an assistant at Studio Peyo, (home of Les Schtroumpfs) where the lad had worked on a number of Smurfs strips for venerable weekly Spirou.

As â€œDeribâ€, Claude co-created with Job The Adventures of the Owl Pythagore for Le Crapaud Ã lunettes and two years later they struck pure gold with their next collaboration.

Launching in 1969, Yakari whimsically and enchantingly related the life of a young Sioux boy on the Great Plains; sometime after the introduction of horses by the Conquistadores but long before the pillaging advent of the White Man to North America.

Derib, equally adept in both the enticing, comically dynamic â€œMarcinelleâ€ big-foot cartoon style and devastatingly compelling meta-realistic action-rendering, went on to become one of the Continent’s most prolific, celebrated and beloved creators with such groundbreaking strips as Celui-qui-est-nÃ©-deux-fois, Jo (the first comic on AIDS ever published), Pour toi, Sandra and La Grande Saga Indienne).

A large proportion of his stunning works over the decades reverberate with western themes and magnificent geographical backdrops and landscapes – and Yakari is considered by many to be the feature that catapulted him to mega-stardom.

Yakari et le bison blanc was the second collected European album, published in 1976 as the strip continued rapidly rising to huge prominence and critical acclaim. In 1978 the feature began running in Tintin, subsequently spawning two animated TV series (1983 and 2005), all the usual merchandising spin-offs and achieving monumental global sales of the 38 albums (in 17 languages) to date.

The most recent, Yakari et la tueuse des mers was released in 2014.

In 2005 the first translated volume – Yakari and Great Eagle – was part of Cinebook’s opening salvo in converting British audiences to the joys and magic of Euro-comics – and is still readily available for you and your family to enjoy.

Yakari and the White Buffalo begins one cold day on the plains with the winter snows still heavy on the ground. With Spring delayed, animals and humans are all going hungry and when the boy and his pinto mount Little Thunder return to camp they find his father Bold Gaze has decreed they will move south in search of better prospects.

As the tribe progress across the prairie the buffalo that should form the major part of their diet are nowhere to be foundâ€¦

Then one day scout Grey Wolf furiously rides in. He has seen the herd. Soon they will all be enjoying the nourishment of Great Spirit Wakonda‘s gift and that night the braves dance in honour of the moving mountains they will soon hunt.

Not permitted to join the men, Yakari wanders off with his pony and meets his totem spirit Great Eagle in a lush clearing. The noble bird warns him that the hunt will not go the way it should and the glum boy heads home with Little Thunder buckling under the weight of firewood the worried yet diligent lad has gatheredâ€¦

Far away the braves are baffled and still without meat. The night sky is riven with terrifying lightning and a furious storm. Back at the main camp Yakari is scared and worried but soon soothed by elderly Quiet Rock. Eventually the boy sleeps and is once more visited by prophetic dreams. After tracking the buffalo over boiling sandy wastes and through a strange horn-like rock formation, the vision ends with Yakari leading the herd and a great white bull back to the peopleâ€¦

As his mother wakes him in the morning, elsewhere the braves have reached a great desert and, with no sign of the great herd, are forced to split into small scouting parties. With little to do Yakari and Little Thunder indulge in a race with boisterous older boy Buffalo Seed and gentle Rainbow. The chase takes them to the top of a hill where he sees the rocky prominence of his dreamâ€¦

His friends cannot deter Yakari from riding right out into the vast empty plain in his quest and before long both boy and pony are suffering the harsh trials of scorching heat and burning thirst. Determined to go on, they are both near death when Great Eagle arrives and teaches them the secret of getting water out of the tall cacti around them.

Fortified and reinvigorated they push on into the sandy wastes and the next day are confronted by a towering wall of rock. Unable to climb the forbidding massif, Yakari discusses the problem with his pony and the wise steed suggests that every fence has an opening somewhereâ€¦

At last their patient search reveals a deliciously refreshing waterfall and a tunnel into a lush hidden oasis where the missing buffalo herd is grazing in total secrecyâ€¦

As they innocently approach the massive ruminants a young bull furiously attacks but his charge is intercepted by an immense white buffalo who then takes the intruders aside for a quiet discussion.

The wise beast explains the nature of the hidden pasture and listens with great care to the tale of woe that has left the Sioux starving. The white buffalo understands the role of all creatures in the grand scheme of life and was already preparing to lead the migration back to the plains when the boy arrivedâ€¦

By the time horse and rider have led the herd to the spring plains the adult hunters have returned home, but the snowy bovine mountain sagely advises Yakari and Little Thunder to ride away before the braves can arrive to fulfil their role in the eternal cycle of life and death on the plainsâ€¦

The saga of the valiant little brave who can speak with animals and enjoys a unique place in an exotic world is a decades-long celebration of joyously gentle, moving and inexpressibly entertaining adventures honouring and eulogising an iconic culture with grace, wit, wonder and especially humour. These tales are a masterpiece of kids’ comics literature and Yakari is a series no fan of graphic literature should be without.

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