Category: European Classics

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Afrika


By Hermann (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-59582-844-6 (HC) eISBN: 978-1-62115-865-3

Hermann Huppen is a master of comics storytelling, blending gritty tales of human travail and personal crisis with astoundingly enticing illustration and seamless storytelling. His past masterpieces include Bernard Prince, Comanche, Jeremiah, Towers of Bois-Maury, Sarajevo-Tango, Station 16 and many others.

Far too little of his work exists in English translation but this brief yet potent contemporary excursion into the Heart of Darkness is unquestionably one of his most evocative. Delivered in an oversized full-colour hardback edition, stand-alone tale Afrika is set on a Tanzanian Wildlife preserve, tracing the final fate of irascible man of mystery Dario Ferrier.

This passionate and dedicated preserver of the continent’s most iconic animals is facing the prospect of outliving the magnificent creatures under his protection. All his team’s efforts mean nothing in the face of the constant sustained depredations of well-funded poachers and the callous indifference of world governments.

Their slide into extinction is inexorable and the battle all but lost, yet Dario carries on day after day, bolstered only by the passionate attentions of “his” woman Iseko and the dogged determination of his comrades-in-arms. However, even they are under constant pressure to abandon him…

When a headstrong but gullible European photo-journalist is foisted upon him, Dario sees the end in sight. Charlotte dogs his heels and challenges his cynical macho assumptions all across the veldt, but when she accidentally films atrocities and war crimes perpetrated by unassailable people of wealth and authority, the stunned “whites” quickly find themselves the quarry in a pitiless hunt through the bush.

Sadly for the pursuers, they have no conception of how dangerous Dario truly is…

Determined to get Charlotte to safety, the world-weary guardian knows his own life is over; all he wants now is to go out his way…

Plotted with deceptive subtlety, packed with visceral, uncompromising action and painted with breathtaking skill, Afrika is a truly perfect adventure comic and a phenomenal personal vision of modern infamy and the oldest of motivations: more potent and relevant now than it was on its initial release nearly two decades ago…
© 2007 SAF Comics.

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Papyrus volume 1: The Rameses’ Revenge (The Revenge of the Ramses)


By Lucien De Gieter, translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1- 905460-35-9 (Album TPB/Digital edition)

British and European Comics have always been far keener on historical strips than our American cousins, with the Franco-Belgian contingent in particular making an art form out of combining a fascination with past lives with drama, action and humour in a genre uniquely suited to beguiling readers of all ages and tastes. Papyrus is an astoundingly addictive magnum opus and life’s work of Belgian cartoonist Lucien de Gieter. Launched in 1974 in legendary weekly Le Journal de Spirou, it eventually ran to 36 adventures in 33 albums and spawned a wealth of merchandise, a TV cartoon series and video games.

De Gieter was born in Etterbeek, Belgium on September 4th 1932 and, after attending Saint-Luc Art Institute in Brussels, worked as an industrial designer and interior decorator before moving into comics in 1961. Initially he worked on promo inserts (fold-in, half-sized-booklets known as ‘mini-récits’) for Spirou, such as little cowboy Pony, and produced scripts for established TJdS creators like Kiko (Roger Camille), Jem (Jean Mortier), Eddy Ryssack and Francis (Bertrand). He then joined Pierre “Peyo” Culliford’s studio as inker on Les Schtroumpfs – which you’ll know as The Smurfs – before soloing as the latest creator on long-running newspaper comic cat strip Poussy.

After originating Tôôôt et Puit (starring a young pearl diver and a mermaid) in 1966 and subsequently seeing Pony graduate to the full-sized pages of TJdS two years later, De Gieter relinquished the Smurfs gig, but kept himself busy producing work for Le Journal de Tintin and Le Journal de Mickey. From 1972-1974 he assisted Flemish cartooning legend Arthur Berckmans (AKA Berck) on comedy science-fiction series Mischa for Germany’s Rolf Kauka Studios anthology magazine Primo, all whilst preparing the strip which would occupy his full attention – as well as that of millions of avid fans – for the next four decades and remainder of his life.

The annals of Papyrus encompass a huge range of themes and milieu, blending Boy’s Own action/adventure with historical fiction, fearsome fantasy and interventionist mythology. The enthralling Egyptian epics gradually evolved from standard “Bigfoot” cartoon style and content into a more realistic, dramatic and authentic iteration with each tale also deftly incorporating the latest historical theories and discoveries into the beguiling annals.

Papyrus is a fearlessly forthright young fisherman favoured by the gods and chosen as their earthly agent who advances against all odds to become a dauntless champion and friend to Pharaohs. As a youngster the plucky Fellah (peasant or agricultural labourer, fact fans) was singled out and given a magic sword courtesy of the daughter of crocodile-headed Sobek before winning similar boons and blessings from many of the Twin Land’s potent pantheon.

The youthful operative’s first accomplishment was liberating supreme deity Horus from imprisonment in the Black Pyramid of Ombos, thereby restoring peace to the Double Kingdom, but it was as nothing compared to his current duties: safeguarding Pharaoh’s wilful, high-handed, headstrong and insanely danger-seeking daughter Theti-Cheri – a dynamic devils-may-care princess with an astounding knack for finding trouble…

The Rameses’ Revenge was actually the seventh collected album, originally released on the Continent in 1984 as La Vengeance des Ramsès and finds Papyrus on a royal barge en route to the newly finished temple at Abu-Simbel. He is merely one small part of a vast flotilla destined to commemorate the magnificent Tomb of Rameses II.

Although his sedate Nile voyage is ruined by appalling dreams, great friend and companion Imhotep tells him not to worry. Nevertheless, the boy hero dutifully consults a priest and is deeply worried when the sage declares the dreams are a warning…

Tension only grows when impatient Theti-Cheri informs him she has permission to go on ahead of Pharaoh’s retinue in a small, poorly-armed skiff. Unable to dissuade her, Papyrus is furious when the princess imperiously orders him to remain behind. As they set off, the brat and Imhotep are blissfully unaware that a member of her small guard has been replaced by a sinister impostor…

The vessel is well underway before they discover Papyrus has stowed away, but before furious Theti-Cheri can have him thrown overboard, their boat is simultaneously hit by an implausibly sudden storm and attacked by a brace of monsters.

Although Papyrus valiantly drives them away with his magic sword, the princess sees nothing, having been knocked out. Still seething on awakening she refuses to believe the hero or Imhotep and orders the expedition onward to Abu-Simbel. Next morning Papyrus and the guards are missing…

Pressing on anyway, the princess and her remaining attendants reach the incredible edifice only to be seized by a band of brigands who have captured the site. They want the enormous treasure hidden within the sprawling complex and already hold Papyrus prisoner. If Theti-Cheri or the hostage Temple Priests won’t hand over the booty, the boy will die horribly…

The repentant princess cannot convince the clerics to betray their holy vows, and in desperation declares that she will instead surrender herself. Appalled and moved by her noble intention, High Priest Hapu determines that only extreme measures can avenge the bandits’ sacrilegious insult and calls upon mighty Ra to inflict a vengeance of the gods upon them…

The astounding, spectacular, epically terrifying result ideally concludes this initial escapade and will thrill and delight lovers of fantastic fantasy and bombastic adventure no matter how many times they re-read it.

Papyrus is another superb addition to that all-ages pantheon of European icons who combine action and mirth with wit and charm, and even though UK publisher Cinebook haven’t released a new adventure since Sekhmet’s Captive in 2022, anybody who has worn out their cherished Tintin, Spirou and Fantasio, Lucky Luke and Asterix collections would be well rewarded by checking out the magnificent seven sagas still available (in paperback or eBook editions) before harassing the publishers to start translating the rest of the fantastic canon…
© Dupuis, 1984 by De Gieter. All rights reserved. English translation © 2007 Cinebook Ltd.

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Asterix and the Picts (Asterix album 35)


By Jean-Yves Ferri & Didier Conrad, coloured by Thierry Mébarki, Murielle Leroi & Raphaël Delerue: translated by Anthea Bell (Orion Books)
ISBN: 978-1-44401-167-8 (Album HB) 978-1-44401-169-2 (Album TPB) eISBN: 978-1-4440-168-5

Asterix the Gaul is probably France’s greatest literary export and part of the fabric of French life. The feisty, wily little warrior who fought the iniquities and viewed the myriad wonders of Julius Caesar’s Roman Empire with brains, bravery and – whenever necessary – a magical potion imbuing the imbiber with incredible strength, speed and vitality, is the go-to reference for all us non-Gallic gallants when we think of France.

The diminutive, doughty darling was created at the close of the 1950s by two of our artform’s greatest masters, with his first official appearance being October 29th in Pilote #1, even though he had actually debuted in a pre-release teaser – or “pilot” – some weeks earlier. Bon Anniversaire mon petit brave!

His adventures first touched billions of people all around the world for five and a half decades as the sole preserve of originators Rene Goscinny and/or Albert Uderzo. After close on 15 years as a weekly comic serial subsequently collected into book-length compilations, in 1974 the 21st saga – Asterix and Caesar’s Gift – was the first to be released as a complete original album prior to serialisation.

Thereafter each new album was an eagerly anticipated, impatiently awaited treat for legions of devotees, but none more so than this one which was created by Uderzo’s handpicked replacements – scripter Jean-Yves Ferri (Fables Autonomes, La Retour à la terre, De Gaulle à la plage) and illustrator Didier Conrad (Les Innomables, Le Piège Malais, Tatum, Spirou) – who had taken up a somewhat poisoned chalice on his retirement in 2009. And began the further adventures of truly immortal French heroes. Happily the legacy was in safe hands, especially after this first book was meticulously overseen by Uderzo every step of the way…

Whether as an action-packed comedic romp with sneaky, bullying baddies getting their just deserts or as a punfully sly and witty satire for older, wiser heads, the new work is just as engrossing as the previously established canon, and English-speakers are still happily graced with the brilliantly light touch of translator Anthea Bell who, with former collaborator Derek Hockridge, played no small part in making the indomitable little Gaul so palatable to English-speakers around the globe.

As you surely already know, half of these intoxicating epics are set in various exotic locales throughout the Ancient World, whilst the rest take place in and around Uderzo’s adored Brittany where, circa 50 B.C., a little hamlet of cantankerous, proudly defiant warriors and their families resisted every effort of the mighty Roman Empire to complete the conquest of Gaul.

Although the country is divided by the notional conquerors into provinces Celtica, Aquitania and Amorica, the very tip of the last named regions stubbornly refuses to be pacified. The Romans, utterly unable to overrun this last bastion of Gallic insouciance, are reduced to a pointless policy of absolute containment – and yet these Gauls come and go as they please. Thus a tiny seaside hamlet is permanently cut off (in the broadest, not-true-at-all sense) by heavily fortified garrisons Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium: filled with veteran fighters who would rather be anywhere else on earth than there…

Their “confined detainees” couldn’t care less: casually frustrating and daily defying the world’s greatest military machine by simply going about their everyday affairs, untouchable thanks to a miraculous magic potion brewed by resident druid Getafix and the shrewd wits of diminutive dynamo Asterix and his simplistic, supercharged best friend Obelix…

Astérix chéz les Pictes was released in October 2013, simultaneously hurtling off British shelves as Asterix and the Picts. It opens in February with snow piled deep in the village and all around its weathered stockade. Eager to avoid the usual spats, snipes and contretemps of their fellows, doughty little Asterix and his affable pal Obelix go for a bracing walk on the beach and discover lots of flotsam and jetsam: Roman helmets, old amphorae, a huge cake of ice with a strange tattooed giant inside…

Carrying the find back to their fascinated friends, the duo are informed by Getafix that the kilted chap appears to be a Pict – another tribe ferociously resistant to Roman rule – from distant Caledonia on the other side of the sea. The find polarises the village: the men are wary and distrustful but women seem to find the hibernating Hibernian oddly fascinating. So great is the furore over the discovery nobody bats an eyelid when Limitednumbus the Roman census-taker sidles into the village eager to list everything going on and everyone doing it…

Soon Getafix has safely defrosted the giant but the ordeal has left the iceman speechless. That only makes him more interesting to the wowed womenfolk, and when a smidgeon more Druid magic gives him a modicum of voice (very little of it comprehensible), before long Chief Vitalstatistix orders his mismatched go-to guys to take ship and bring the bonnie boy back to his own home, wherever it is.

… With the gorgeous tattooed giant gone, the bedazzled women will go back to normal again. At least that’s the Chief’s fervent hope…

After tearful farewells (from approximately half of the village) the voyagers head out, greatly encouraged as the Pict suddenly regains his power of speech. In fact he then can’t stop gabbing, even when the Gauls meet their old chums The Pirates and indulge in the traditional one-sided trading of blows.

The reinvigorated refrigerated hunk is called Macaroon and is soon is sharing his tale of woe and unrequited love even as the little boat steadily sails towards his homelands. Macaroon lived on one side of Loch Androll and loved Camomilla, daughter of chieftain Mac II. Sadly, ambitious, unscrupulous rival chieftain Maccabaeus from across the water wanted to marry her too and cunningly disposed of his only rival by lashing him to a tree trunk and casting him into freezing coastal waters…

Meanwhile in Caledonia, a Roman expeditionary force led by Centurion Pretentius arrives and makes its way to a rendezvous with a potential ally: a chief of clan Maccabees willing to invite the devious, all-conquering empire into the previously undefeated land of the Picts…

Once Macaroon and his Gallic guardians reach home turf they are feted by his amazed, overjoyed kin, whilst across the loch the traitor seeks to placate his own men who have witnessed the giant’s return and believe him a ghost. Villainous Maccabaeus is only days away from becoming King of all the Picts. He even holds captive Camomilla – whom he must wed to cement his claim – and with Romans to enforce his rule looks forward to a very comfortable future. He will not tolerate anything ruining his plans at this late stage…

Things come to crisis when Macaroon has a sudden relapse and the Druid’s remedy to restore him is lost at the bottom of a loch thanks to the playfulness of the tribe’s colossal and revered water totem “the Great Nessie”. When Asterix & Obelix helpfully offer to retrieve it, they find a tunnel under the loch leading into the Maccabees fortress, and which is simply stuffed with lots of lovely Romans to pummel…

With the jig up and Camomilla rescued, the scene is set for a spectacular and hilarious final confrontation setting everything to rights in the tried-and-true, bombastic grand manner…

Fast, funny, stuffed with action and hilarious, tongue-in-cheek hi-jinks, this is a joyous rocket-paced chariot ride for lovers of laughs and devotees of comics everywhere…
© 2013 Les Éditions Albert René. English translation: © 2013 Les Éditions Albert René ©. All rights reserved.

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Marsupilami volume 9: The Butterfly and the Treetop Squid


By Batem & Yann, coloured by Cerise: created by Franquin and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1 80044-126-2 (Album PB/Digital edition)

One of Europe’s most popular and evergreen comic stars is an eccentrically unpredictable, irascible, loyal, superstrong, rubber-limbed yellow-&-black ball of explosive energy with a seemingly infinite elastic tail. The mighty Marsupilami is a wonder of nature and icon of entertainment invention originally spun-off from another immortal comedy adventure strip…

In 1946 Joseph “Jije” Gillain was crafting the eponymous keystone strip of Le Journal de Spirou when he abruptly handed off the entire kit & caboodle to assistant André Franquin. The apprentice gradually shifted format from short complete gags to extended adventure serials and adding a wide and engaging cast of new characters. For 1952’s Spirou et les heritiers (January 31st issue), he devised a beguiling boisterous South American critter and tossed him like an elastic-arsed grenade into the mix. Thereafter – until his resignation from the feature – Franquin frequently folded his bombastic beast into Spirou’s exotic escapades…

The Marsupilami returned over and over again: a phenomenally popular magical animal who inevitably grew into a solo star of screen, toy store, console games and albums all his own.

In 1955 a contractual spat with Dupuis resulted in Franquin signing up with publishing rivals Casterman on Le Journal de Tintin to work with René Goscinny and Peyo whilst concocting raucous gag strip Modeste et Pompon. However, Franquin quickly patched things up with Dupuis and was restored to Le Journal de Spirou. In 1957, he unleashed Gaston Lagaffe (Gomer Goof) whilst still legally obliged to carry on Tintin work too. In 1959 writer Greg and background artist Jidéhem began assisting, but after 10 more years Franquin had reached his Spirou limit. He quit for good in 1969, and took his golden monkey with him…

Plagued by bouts of depression, Franquin died on January 5th 1997, but his legacy remains: a vast body of work that reshaped the landscape of European comics. Moreover, having learned his lesson about publishers, Franquin retained all rights to Marsupilami and in the late 1980s had begun publishing his own adventures of the rambunctious miracle-worker…

Tapping old comrade Greg (Michel Régnier, writer and/or artist of Luc Orient, Bernard Prince, Bruno Brazil, Rock Derby, Zig et Puce, Achille Talon and Le Journal de Tintin editor from 1966-1974) as scripter and inviting commercial artist/illustrator Luc Collin (pen-name Batem), Franquin launched his new comedy feature through Marsu Productions. The first tome was La Queue du Marsupilami (1987) – translated as The Marsupilami’s Tale.

Ultimately, his collaborators monopolised art duties, and with 4th volume The Pollen of Mount Urticando Greg was replaced by artist-turned-scripter Yannick Le Pennetier – AKA “Yann” (Les Innomables, Bob Marone, Lolo et Sucette, Chaminou, Kid Lucky). In 2016, the long-sundered universes of Marsupilami and Spirou reconnected, allowing the old gang to participate in shared exploits of a unique world created and populated by Franquin.

Graced with a talent for mischief, the Marsupilami is a fiercely protective, deviously ingenious anthropoid inhabiting the rainforests of Palombia. One of the rarest animals on Earth, it speaks a language uniquely its own and has a reputation for making trouble and sparking chaos. The species is fanatically dedicated to its young, occasionally extending that filial aegis to other species – even sometimes to the ever-encroaching humans who constantly poke around looking for Marsupilami and other, even rarer creatures…

The Butterfly and the Treetop Squid was released in Europe in October 1994 as Les papillon des cimes: 9th of 33 solo albums thus far (not including all-Franquin short-story collection/volume #0 Capturez un Marsupilami). It delivers another riotous comedy action romp, introducing more weird interlopers to the growing cast…

We open deep in the wild woods of Palombia’s rainforests where our hirsute hero cavorts in the bosom of nature and revels in the innocent joys of family. That feeling evaporates when he discovers traps, lures and cast off rubbish left by human scientists…

Two of these unsavoury intruders (lepidopterist Professor Lida Dorvasal and his greedy guide Bring) are Palombians in pursuit of the world’s rarest butterfly – the female Narcissus Bucephalus – but the true threat to peace and tranquillity is a clandestine international expedition funded by “Big Sausage” interests currently secreted above the treetops in a vehicle like none ever built before…

These generally well-meaning but obsessively goal-oriented, self-serving and glory-seeking boffins comprise Professors Henry Verse-Geere, Apollo Nabokov, Lolita Rantula, Zephyr Morehouse-Fly and Akira “Batman” Mitsuhirato, latterly supplemented by “grunge-punk” Brad Wurst, ostensibly an artist/cameraman but also an unwanted legacy of the Neslog Kramart Quality Sausage empire foisted upon them against their express wishes.

The science squad are also seeking rare bugs and butterflies, and even after their advanced tech and kit is wrecked, have a hard time believing the Marsupilami exists… but that’s only the case until he starts wreaking more havoc by invading their canopy-crawling mobile octopoid fortress: an event coinciding with further breakdowns and crises that can only have been perpetrated by a human traitor on the team…

As breakdowns intensify and disappearances mount, the mission is further diverted and derailed after the Thinktank go crazy for Narcissus Bucephalus caterpillars (discovered to only propagate in occupied Marsupilami bowers). However, the pestiferous primates are proved mostly innocent of being wreckers when indigenous and invasive boffins unite to catch butterflies and inadvertently unmask a potential killer with criminal tendencies and a nasty job to do…

These eccentric exploits of the garrulous golden monkey are moody, macabre and madcap, furiously funny and pithily pertinent, offering engagingly rowdy romps and devastating debacles for wide-eyed kids of every age all over the world. If you care to revisit your wild ways it all starts with a Hoobee, Hoobah Hoobah…
Original edition © Dupuis, Dargaud-Lombard s.a. 1994 by Batem & Yann, Franquin. All rights reserved. English translations © 2023 Cinebook Ltd.

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Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip volume 1


By Tove Jansson (Drawn & Quarterly)
ISBN: 978-1-89493-780-1 (HB/Digital edition)

Tove Marika Jansson was born into an artistic, intellectual and practically Bohemian Swedish family in Helsinki, Finland on August 9th 1914, making today her 110th anniversary, so hyvää vuosipäivää to her and all you fans…

Father Viktor was a sculptor, and mother Signe Hammarsten-Jansson enjoyed a successful career as illustrator, graphic designer and commercial artist. Tove’s brothers Lars and Per Olov became a cartoonist/writer and photographer respectively. The family and its close intellectual, eccentric circle of friends seems to have been cast rather than born, with a witty play or challenging sitcom as the piece they were all destined to act in.

After a period of intensive study from 1930-1938 (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, the Graphic School of The Finnish Academy of Fine Arts and L’Ecole d’Adrien Holy and L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris), Tove became a successful exhibiting artist through the troubled period of the war.

Intensely creative in many fields, she published the first fantastic Moomins adventure in 1945: Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Little Trolls and the Great Flood or more euphoniously The Moomins and the Great Flood): a whimsical epic of gentle, inclusive, accepting, understanding, bohemian, misfit trolls and their strange friends…

Always an over-achiever, from 1930 to 1953 Tove worked as an artist and cartoonist for Swedish satirical magazine Garm, achieving some measure of notoriety with an infamous political sketch of Hitler in nappies, lampooning the Appeasement policies of Chamberlain and other European leaders in the build-up to World War II. She was also a much-in-demand illustrator for many magazines and children’s books. She had been selling her comic strips as early as 1929…

Moomintroll was literally her signature character. The lumpy, big-eyed goof began life as a spindly sigil beside her signature in her political works. She called him “Snork” and claimed she had designed him in a fit of pique as a child – the ugliest thing a precocious little girl could imagine – as a response to losing an argument about Immanuel Kant with her brother.

The term “Moomin” came from maternal uncle Einar Hammarsten who attempted to stop Tove pilfering food when she visited by warning her that a Moomintroll guarded the kitchen, creeping up on trespassers and breathing cold air down their necks. Over childhood years and far beyond Snork/Moomin filled out, became timidly nicer, if a little clingy and insecure: a placid therapy-tool to counteract the grimness of the post-war world.

The Moomins and the Great Flood was relatively unsuccessful but Jansson persisted, as much for her own therapeutic benefit as any other reason, and in 1946 sequel Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland) was published. Many commentators believe this terrifying tale a skilful, compelling allegory of Nuclear destruction, and both it and third illustrated novel Trollkarlens hatt (1948, Finn Family Moomintroll or occasionally The Happy Moomins) were translated into English in 1952. Their success prompted British publishing giant Associated Press to commission a newspaper strip about her seductively sweet, sensibly surreal surrogate family.

Jansson had no prejudices about strip cartoons. Early efforts included Lunkentus (Prickinas och Fabians äventyr, 1929), Vårbrodd (Fotbollen som Flög till Himlen, 1930) and Allas Krönika (Palle och Göran gå till sjöss, 1933). And she had already successfully adapted Comet in Moominland for Swedish/Finnish paper Ny Tid. Mumintrollet och jordens undergång – Moomintrolls and the End of the World – was a popular feature and Jansson readily accepted a chance to extend her message across the world.

In 1953 The London Evening News began the first of 21 Moomin sagas which captivated readers of all ages. Tove’s involvement ended in 1959: a casualty of its own success and a punishing publication schedule. So great was the pressure that she had recruited brother Lars to help. He proudly and most effectively continued the feature until its end in 1975.

Free of the strip she returned to painting, writing and her other creative pursuits, generating book illustration, plays, murals, public art, stage designs, costumes for dramas and ballets, a Moomin opera, 9 more Moomin-related picture-books and novels, as well as 13 books and short-story collections more obviously intended for grown-ups.

Her awards are too numerous to mention (literally dozens of international art and literary plaudits), but consider this: how many modern artists – let alone comics creators – get their faces on the national currency or have commemorative coins struck bearing their image?

She died on June 27th 2001… but her timorous little critters and their better, nicer world have proliferated beyond belief.

Tove could deploy slim economical line and pattern to create sublime worlds of fascination, and her dexterity made simple forms into incredibly expressive and potent symbols. In this first volume the miraculous wonderment begins with ‘Moomin and the Brigands’ as our rotund, gracious and deeply empathic hippo-esque troll-ling frets about the sheer volume of freeloading visitors literally eating him out of house and home. Too meek to cause offence and simply send them all packing, he consults his wide-boy, get-rich-quick mate Sniff, but when their increasingly eccentric eviction schemes go awry Moomin simply leaves, undertaking a beachcombing odyssey culminating with him meeting the beauteous Snorkmaiden.

When the jewellery-obsessed young lass (yes, she looks like a hippo too – but a really lovely one with long lashes and such a cute fringe!) is kidnapped by bandits, finally mild-mannered Moomin finds his inner hero…

‘Moomin and Family Life’ then reunites the prodigal Moomin with parents Moominpappa and Moominmamma – a most strange and remarkable couple. Mamma is warm and capable but overly concerned with propriety and appearances, whilst Papa spends all his time trying to rekindle his adventurous youth. Rich Aunt Jane, however, is a far more “acquired” taste.

‘Moomin on the Riviera’ finds flighty Snorkmaiden and drama-starved Moominpappa dragging the extended family and assorted friends on an epic voyage to the sunny southern land of millionaires. On arrival, the Moomins’ small-town idiosyncrasies are mistaken for so-excusable eccentricities of the filthy rich – a delightfully telling satirical comedy of manners and a plot that never gets old – as proved by the fact that the little escapade was expanded to and released as 2015’s animated movie Moomins on the Riviera…

This initial incomparable volume of graphic wonderment concludes with fantastic adventure in ‘Moomin’s Desert Island’, wherein another joint family jaunt leaves the Moomins lost upon an unknown shore where ghostly ancestors roam: wrecking any vessel that might offer rescue. Sadly, the greatest peril in this knowing pastiche of Swiss Family Robinson might well be The Mymble – a serious rival for Moomintroll’s affections. Luckily, Snorkmaiden knows of some wonderfully romantic, bloodthirsty pirates who might be called upon to come to her romantic rescue…

These truly magical timeless tales for the young are laced with incisive observation and mature wit that enhances and elevates only the greatest kids’ stories into classics of literature. These volumes are an international treasure and no fan of the medium – or biped with even a hint of heart and soul – can ever be content or well-read without them.

Tove’s Moomin comic strips were originally collected in seven Scandinavian volumes before the discerning folk at Drawn & Quarterly translated them into English as a series of luxurious oversized (224 x 311 mm) hardback tomes. There some UK editions from SelfMadeHero in the twenteens and now some of these tales have returned in new paperback reprinting, with Moomin Adventures Book 1 (July 2024, ISBN: 978-1-77046-742-2) offering ‘Moomin on the Riviera’ and ‘Moomin’s Desert Island’ plus some later co-productions with Lars.

© 2006 Solo/Bulls. All Rights Reserved.

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Gomer Goof volume 9: Good Golly, Mr. Goof!


By Franquin, with additional texts by Delporte, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-064-7 (PB Album/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

André Franquin was born in Etterbeek, Belgium on January 3rd 1924 and began his career in a golden age of European cartooning. Beginning as assistant to Joseph “Jijé” Gillain on the strip Spirou, he inherited sole control of the keynote feature in 1946, and creating countless unforgettable new characters such as Fantasio and The Marsupilami.

Franquin – with Jijé, Morris (Lucky Luke) and Willy “Will” Maltaite (Tif et Tondu) – was a co-founder of a creative force of nature dubbed La bande des quatre – “the Gang of Four” – who revolutionised and reshaped Belgian comics with their prolific and engaging “Marcinelle school” graphic style.

Over two decades Franquin enlarged Spirou & Fantasio’s scope and horizons, until it became purely his as the strip evolved into the saga of globetrotting journalists. They visited exotic places, exposed crimes, explored the incredible and clashed with bizarre, exotic arch-enemies, but throughout, Fantasio remained a full-fledged – albeit entirely fictional – reporter for Le Journal de Spirou, regularly popping back to the office between assignments. Sadly, lurking there was an arrogant, accident-prone junior tasked with minor jobs and general dogs-bodying. He was Gaston Lagaffe – Franquin’s other immortal invention…

There’s a long tradition of comics personalising fictitiously back-office creatives and the arcane processes they indulge in, whether it’s Marvel’s Bullpen or DC Thomson’s lugubrious Editor and underlings at The Beano and Dandy – it’s a truly international practise. Somehow though after debuting in Le Journal de Spirou #985 (February 28th 1957), the affable conniving dimwit grew beyond control, to become one of the most popular and ubiquitous components of the comic, whether as a guest in Spirou’s adventures or his own comedy strips and faux reports on the editorial pages he was supposed to paste up…

Initial cameos in Spirou yarns and occasional asides on text pages featured a well-meaning foul-up and ostensible office gofer Gaston who lurked amidst the crowd of diligent toilers: a workshy slacker working (sic) as a gofer at Le Journal de Spirou’s head office. That scruffy bit-player eventually and inevitably shambled into his own star feature…

In terms of schtick and delivery, older readers will recognise favourite beats and elements of well-intentioned self-delusion as seen in Benny Hill or Jacques Tati and recognise recurring riffs from Some Mothers Do Have ’Em and Mr Bean. It’s slapstick, paralysing puns, infernal ingenuity and inspired invention, all to mug smugness, puncture pomposity, lampoon the status quoi? (there’s some of that punning there, see?) and ensure no good deed going noticed, rewarded or unpunished…

As previously stated, Gaston/Gomer obtains a regular salary – let’s not dignify what he does as “earning” a living – from Spirou’s editorial offices: reporting to top journalist Fantasio, or complicating the lives of office manager Léon Prunelle and the other staffers, all whilst effectively ignoring any tasks he’s paid to handle. These officially include page paste-up, posting (initially fragile) packages, collecting stuff inbound and editing readers’ letters (that’s the official reason fans’ requests and suggestions are never acknowledged or answered)…

Gomer is lazy, over-opinionated, ever-ravenous, impetuous, underfed, forgetful and eternally hungry, a passionate sports fan and animal lover, with his most manic moments all stemming from cutting work corners, stashing or consuming contraband nosh in the office or inventing the Next Big Thing.

This leads to constant clashes with colleagues and draws in notionally unaffiliated bystanders like traffic cop Longsnoot and fireman Captain Morwater, as well as any simple passers-by who should know by now to keep away from this street.

Through it all our office oaf remains eternally affable, easy-going and incorrigible. Only three questions really matter here: why everyone keeps giving him one last chance, what can gentle, lovelorn Miss Jeanne possible see in the self-opinionated idiot and will ever-outraged capitalist financier De Mesmaeker ever get his perennial, pestiferous contracts signed?

In 1973 Gaston – Gaffes, bévues et boulettes was the 11th collected album (albeit rejigged in 2018 to become the 16th European compilation). It became in 2022 Cinebook’s 9th translated compilation, once more offering non-stop all-Franquin comics gags in single page bursts with some script contributions from Yvan Delporte (The Smurfs, Steve Severin, Idées noires).

Our well-meaning, overconfident, overly-helpful know-it-all office hindrance invents more stuff making life unnecessarily dangerous and continues his pioneering and perilous attempts to befriend and boost fauna and flora alike, always improving the beleaguered modern mechanised world. As he concentrates on avoiding his job, Gomer’s big heart swells to nurture his animal pals. His adopted feral cat and black-headed gull still accompany illicit studio companions Cheese the mouse and goldfish Bubelle, but their hyperactive gluttonous presences generate much chaos, especially as they have learned to work together now. Not only must Gaston face starvation on a daily basis, but even the street’s shopkeepers find themselves in a silent war of nutrition attrition…

The dreamer also fosters the belief that he is a musical prodigy only awaiting discovery, but in a wave of Christmas strips everyone else remains violently unconvinced, as they are of his painful innovations in furniture design. Gomer’s chum and opposite number Jules-from-Smith’s-across-the-street is a like-minded soul and born accomplice, ever-eager to slope off for a chat, and a confirmed devotee of Gomer’s methods of passing the time whilst at work. He is always ready to help, as here when assisting in facing the out-of-control cactus from Aunt Hortense’s home again or joining his pal’s bike racing escapade…

Sport is important to the Goof, but rugby, soccer, basketball, billiards and – technically – ice skating all prove faithless and painful masters, but such is his passion, however, that Gomer is allowed to report on one peculiar particular match he played goal keeper in, as seen in illustrated text report ‘A Match to Remember’…

Despite resolute green credentials and leanings, Gomer is colour-blind to the problems his antiquated automobile cause, even after all his attempts to soup up the antique. Many strips focus on his doomed love affair with and manic efforts to modify and mollify the accursed motorised atrocity he calls his car. The decrepit, dilapidated Fiat 509 is more in need of merciful euthanasia than engineering interventions for countering its lethal road pollution and violent and unpredictable failures to function. Here, new tweaks certainly impress passing wildlife if not obsessive gendarme Longsnoot in splendidly daft road dalliances intermixed with repeated visits to his friends at the zoo. Hint: none of them wear clothes…

Also suffering a succession of painful reversals, benighted yet fanatical business bod De Mesmaeker turns up repeatedly here with ever more crucial contracts for poor office manager Prunelle to sign and for Gomer to accidentally shred or otherwise intercept and eradicate.

A new edifice of the Establishment to undergo the Goof effect is the local Customs officer who on more than one occasion deeply regrets asking if the geek in the poisonous car has anything to declare, although brief explorations of motorcycling and yoga don’t cause that much carnage relative to the general aura of weird science prototypes, arcane chemical concoctions and the in-house manic menagerie able to shred chairs and open sardine tins with a bash of the beak. At least Gomer understands why redecorating costs are so high and frequent…

Far better enjoyed than précised or described, these strips allowed Franquin and occasional co-scenarists/idea providers like Roba, Bibi, Michel, Delporte & Jidéhem (AKA Jean De Mesmaeker: just one of many in-joke analogues who populate the strip) to flex whimsical muscles, subversively sneak in some satirical support for their beliefs in pacifism, environmentalism and animal rights and sometimes even appear in person as does poor Raoul Bluecoats Cauvin…

These gags are sublime examples of all-ages comedy: wholesome, barbed, daft and incrementally funnier with every re-reading. Why haven’t you got your Goof on yet?
© Dupuis, Dargaud-Lombard s.a. 2009 by Franquin. All rights reserved. English translation © 2022 Cinebook Ltd.

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Glorious Summers volume 3: Little Miss Esterel (1962)


By Zidrou & Jordi Lafebre with additional colour by Mado Peña, translated by Lara Vergnaud (Europe Comics)
No ISBN: Digital edition only

Until comparatively recently, comics in the English-speaking world mostly countenanced comedic or numerous adventure sub-genres (crime, superhero, horror, sci fi), with only a small but vital niche of “real world” ventures, and those usually depicted via graphic biographies/autobiographies like They Called Us Enemy, Love on the Isle of Dogs, Wage Slaves or Sour Pickles offering a different feel and flavour. Even historical sagas were treated as extraordinary moments with larger-than-life characters whenever possible.

What we have never had – and still largely don’t outside small press/self-publishing – is a comics equivalent to general fiction, drama and melodrama. That’s not so in Japan, South Korea or Europe, where a literal “anything goes” attitude has always accommodated and nurtured human-scaled, slice-of-life tales with ordinary folk in as many quiet as extraordinary moments.

Surely it can’t be that hard to tell engaging stories in simple, recognisably ordinary settings? Medical traumas, love stories, school tales and family tragedies still play well on various-sized screens around the world, so why not in English-language comics?

People being people is more than enough for our continental cousins. There appears to be an insatiable appetite for everyday moments aimed at properly “mature readers”, joyfully sans vampires, aliens or men in tights. These even have sub-genres all their own. For example, there’s a wealth of superb material just about going on holiday. So, since we Brits are all too broke for any jaunts or une petite vacances in Europe, let’s stare covetously at them having a good time. After all, Over There holidays are an inalienable right and they have some simply fabulous tales about the simple well-earned break. This one comes from one of the best series on taking it easy you will ever see …

An absolute exemplar of fantasy vacations made real, Glorious Summers: Southbound! (1973) was a nostalgia-drenched confection by Zidrou and regular collaborator Jordi Lafebre: a sublime example of idyllic group memory made into graphic sorcery in an everyday account utterly unafraid to temper humorous sweetness and light with real-world tragedy and suspense.

Would sir et madame care for a soupçon of context? Summer holidays – “Midi” – are a big deal in France and Belgium. The French divide into two tribes over the annual rest period, which generally lasts an entire month. Juilletistes only vacation in July, wielding dogmatic facts like rapiers to prove why it’s the only way to take a break. They are eternally opposed, heart, soul, and suntan lotion, by majority faction the Aoûtiens, who recharge their batteries in August whilst fully reciprocating the suspicion, disdain and baffled scorn of the early-leavers. Many European sociologists claim the greatest social division today is not race, religion, gender, political affiliation or whether to open boiled eggs from the top or the bottom, but when summer holidays begin and end…

Les Beaux Étés 1: Cap au Sud! was first in a string of family visits – six so far – that began in 2015 courtesy of scripter Benoît “Zidrou” Drousie and Spanish illustrator Jordi Lafebre. Drousie is Belgian, Brussels-born in 1962 and was a school teacher prior to becoming a teller of tales in 1990. His main successes include school dunce series L’Elève Ducobu, Petit Dagobert, Scott Zombi, La Ribambelle, Le Montreur d’histoires, a revival of Ric Hochet, African Trilogy, Léonardo, Shi and so many more. His most celebrated and beloved stories are this memorable sequence and 2010’s Lydie, both illustrated by Lafebre.

That gifted, empathically sensitive artist and teacher was born in Barcelona in 1979 and has created comics professionally since 2001, first for magazines like Mister K, where he limned Toni Font’s El Mundo de Judy. He found regular work at Le Journal de Spirou, creating the romance Always Never and collaborated with Zidrou on La vieille dame qui n’avait jamais joué au tennis et autres nouvelles qui font du bien, Lydie, and La Mondaine.

A combination of feel-good fable and powerful comedy drama, Glorious Summers depicts memories of an aging couple recalling their grandest family moments, beginning with a momentous vacation in 1973 where their four kids nearly lost their parents. The general progress is backwards, as the second tale – The Calanque – was set in summer of 1969, when heavily pregnant Maddie Faldérault (imminently about to deliver precociously hyperactive Paulette AKA “Peaches”) once again had her holiday start late thanks to an inescapable deadline. Husband Pierre is a comics artist and every summer break begins with him frantically trying to complete enough pages to take the time off…

That time it left Maddie coping with three impatient kids (oldest girl Jolly-Julie, dangerously forthright Nicole and introspective toddler Louis) and a newly-bereaved and lonely Spanish father-in-law…

Here, however, third volume Mam’zelle Estérel (translated for this criminally digital-only-edition as Little Miss Esterel) starts in the present day before setting the wayback machine to August 1962. Papa and Mama Faldérault are finally selling the faithful Renaut 4L Hatchback which carried their ever-expanding family south to the sun for three memorable decades.

It’s not that she’s clapped out or knackered – in fact the vehicle is in immaculate condition. She has been lovingly cared for and is a valuable collector’s item! – it’s only that Peaches is all grown up now and the last chick preparing to leave the nest, so plucky, steadfast “Little Miss Esterel” deserves an owner who will keep her on the road and having adventures…

Of course, the transaction is charged with sentiment and sparks a flood of memories, and the scene shifts to 1969. Recently a mum for the second time, Maddie shepherds her two kids (toddler Jolly-Julie AKA “Zulie” and 6-month-old Nicole) and idiot husband. It’s four days into the big holiday, and he’s just finishing the emergency pages his abusive “named-creator” boss Garin just dropped on him.

The scenario is particularly aggravating as Maddie’s martinet mother Yvette LeGrand and long-suffering, still-recuperating cardiac-case dad are staying with them. Having bought the young marrieds a car for family vacations, the snooty dowager has invited herself and gluttonous heart-attack survivor Henry (dubbed forever after “Fat Pop Pop” by Zulie) along on their eagerly-anticipated premier camping trip.

Sadly, grandmama’s haughty convictions and stern diktats don’t just extend to how badly Madeleine is raising her children, how stupid Pierre’s job is or what Henry can eat, drink or do. Before long she hijacks the déclassé sun, sea-&-picnic worshippers’ dreams: sternly inflicting upon them all a succession of hotels, restaurants and churches (all Michelin-starred!) for their own good and ultimate edification…

Inevitably the situation is too much even for easy-going Pierre and poor historically-dominated Maddie… but then something small but wonderful happens to change and even explain those harsh years when Yvette raised her daughter all alone; and Pierre philosophically accepts that the Sun and Sea will always be there, but some things won’t…

Packed with heart, honest emotion and tons of pure sitcom comedy gold, this tale is another beautifully rendered and realised basket of memories stitched seamlessly together. It’s funny, sweet and charming whilst delivering painful blows you never see coming. There aren’t any spectacular events and shocking crises and that’s the entire point…

If you’re British – and old enough – this series will stir echoes of revered family sitcoms like Bless This House, Bread, or Butterflies and even generational ads starring the “Oxo Family” (and if that description doesn’t fit you, I pity your browsing history if you look up any of that…). The rest of you in need of an opening (but unfair) comparator might break out the Calvin and Hobbes collections and re-examine the bits with his embattled parents when the kid’s out of the picture…

Lyrical, laconic, engagingly demure, debilitatingly nostalgic but unafraid to grasp any nettles on the beach, this holiday romance is another dose of sheer visual seduction wrapped in sharp dialogue and a superbly anarchic sense of mischief. Vacations are built of moments and might-have-beens, and come packaged here in compelling clips all making the mundane marvellous.
© 2018 -DARGAUD BENELUX (Dargaud-Lombard s.a.) – ZIDROU & LEFEBRE, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Spirou & Fantasio volume 21: The Prisoner of the Buddha


By André Franquin, Jidéhem & Greg, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-135-4 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Spirou (whose name translates as “squirrel”, “mischievous” and “lively kid” in the language of Walloons) was created by French cartoonist François Robert Velter – AKA Rob-Vel – for Belgian publisher Éditions Dupuis. The evergreen youngster in red was a response to the success of Hergé’s Tintin at rival outfit Casterman. In the beginning, the character Spirou was a plucky bellboy/lift operator employed by the Moustique Hotel (an in-joke reference to Dupuis’ premier periodical Le Moustique) whose improbable adventures with pet squirrel Spip evolved into astounding and often surreal comedy dramas.

The other red-headed boy adventurer debuted on April 21st 1938 in an 8-page tabloid magazine that bears his name to this day. Fronting a roster of new and licensed foreign strips – Fernand Dineur’s Les Aventures de Tif (latterly Tif et Tondu) and US newspaper imports Red Ryder, Brick Bradford and Superman – the now-legendary anthology Le Journal de Spirou expanded exponentially: adding Flemish-language edition Robbedoes on October 27th 1938, boosting page counts and adding action, fantasy and comedy features until it was an unassailable, unmissable necessity for continental kids.

Spirou and chums helmed the magazine for most of its life, with many notable creators building on Velter’s work, beginning with his wife Blanche “Davine” Dumoulin. She took over the strip when her husband enlisted in 1939, aided by Belgian artist Luc Lafnet until 1943, when Dupuis purchased all rights to the feature. Thereafter comic strip prodigy Joseph Gillain (“Jijé”) took over, until 1946 when his assistant André Franquin inherited the entire affair. Gradually, the new auteur retired traditional short gag vignettes in favour of longer adventure serials, introducing a wide returning cast. Ultimately, Franquin created his own milestone character. Phenomenally popular animal Marsupilami debuted in 1952’s Spirou et les héritiers and became a scene-stealing regular and eventually one of the most significant stars of European comics.

Jean-Claude Fournier succeeded Franquin: overhauling the feature over nine stirring serial adventures between 1969-1979 by tapping into a rebellious, relevant zeitgeist in tales of drug cartels, environmental concerns, nuclear energy and repressive regimes. By the 1980s, the series seemed stalled: three different creative teams alternated on the serial: Yves Chaland, Raoul Cauvin & Nic Broca and significantly Philippe Vandevelde writing as “Tome” & artist Jean-Richard Geurts – AKA Janry.

These last reverently referenced the revered and beloved Franquin era: reviving the feature’s fortunes over 14 wonderful albums between 1984-1998. On their departure the strip diversified into parallel strands: Spirou’s Childhood/Little Spirou and guest-creator specials A Spirou Story By…

Later teams and guests to tackle the wonder boys include Lewis Trondheim, Jean-Davide Morvan & Jose-Luis Munuera, Fabien Vehlmann & Yoann, Benoît Feroumont, Emile Bravo, Jul & Libon, Makyo, Toldac & Tehem, Guerrive, Abitan & Schwartz, Frank le Gall, Flix and so many more. By my count that brings the album count to approximately 92 if you include specials, spin-offs series and one-shots, official and otherwise. Happily, in recent years, even some of the older vintages have been reprinted in French, but there are still dozens that have not made it into English yet. Quelle sodding horreur!

Cinebook have been publishing Spirou & Fantasio’s exploits since October 2009, initially concentrating on bringing Tome & Janry’s superb pastiche/homages of Franquin before dipping into the original Franquin oeuvre and adding later tales by some of the bunch listed above, but for their 21st manic marvel they reached back all the way to 1959 for a purely Franquin-formulated furore. Originally serialised in LJdS #1048-1082 prior to its release as album Le prisonnier du Bouddha in March 1961, this slick tale of Cold War tensions, silly sci fi and outrageous satire sees the master in collaborative mode with Jidéhem (Jean De Mesmaeker) and Greg (Michel Regnier)…

On January 3rd 1924, Belgian comics superstar André Franquin was born in Etterbeek. Drawing from an early age, he began formal art training at École Saint-Luc in 1943. When the war forced the school’s closure a year later, Franquin found work at Brussels’ Compagnie Belge d’Animation as an animator. There he met future bande dessinée superstars Maurice de Bevere (Lucky Luke-creator “Morris”), Pierre Culliford/Peyo (creator of The Smurfs) and Eddy Paape (Valhardi, Luc Orient).

In 1945 everyone but Culliford signed on with Dupuis, and Franquin began his career as a jobbing cartoonist/illustrator. He produced covers for Le Moustique and scouting magazine Plein Jeu and, throughout those early days, was with Morris trained by Jijé. At that time main illustrator at Le Journal de Spirou, Jijé turned the youngsters and fellow neophyte Willy Maltaite – AKA Will (Tif et Tondu, Isabelle, Le jardin des désirs) – into a creative bullpen known as the La bande des quatre. This “Gang of Four” promptly revolutionised Belgian comics with their engaging “Marcinelle school” style of graphic storytelling.

Jijé handed Franquin all responsibilities for the flagship strip part-way through Spirou et la maison préfabriquée, (LJdS #427, June 20th 1946) and the eager beaver ran with it for two decades, enlarging the scope and horizons until it became purely his own. Almost every episode, fans would meet startling new characters like comrade/rival Fantasio or crackpot inventor The Count of Champignac.

Spirou & Fantasio became globe-trotting troubleshooting journalists, endlessly expanding their exploits in unbroken four-colour glory. They travelled to exotic places, uncovering crimes, capturing the fantastic and clashing with a coterie of extraordinary arch-enemies such as Zorglub and Zantafio. Along the way Franquin premiered one of the first strong female characters in European comics – competitor journalist Seccotine who is renamed Cellophine in current English translations.

In a splendid example of good practise, Franquin mentored his own apprentice cartoonists during the 1950s. These included Jean Roba (La Ribambelle, Boule et Bill), Jidéhem (Sophie, Starter, Gaston Lagaffe) and Greg (Bruno Brazil, Bernard Prince, Zig et Puce, Achille Talon), who all worked with him on Spirou et Fantasio. In 1955, a contractual spat with Dupuis led to Franquin signing up with rivals Casterman on Le Journal de Tintin, where he collaborated with René Goscinny and old pal Peyo whilst also creating raucous gag strip Modeste et Pompon. Franquin quickly patched things up with Dupuis and returned to LJdS, subsequently co-creating Gaston Lagaffe (AKA Gomer Goof) in 1957, but was still obliged to carry on those Casterman commitments too…

From 1959, writer Greg and background artist Jidéhem began regularly assisting Franquin, but by 1969 the master storyteller had reached his Spirou limit. He quit, taking his mystic yellow monkey with him…

His later creations include fantasy series Isabelle, illustration sequence Monsters and bleak adult conceptual series Idées Noires, but his greatest creation – and one he retained all rights to on his departure – was Marsupilami, which – in addition to comics – has become a megastar of screen, plush toy store, console and albums.

Plagued in later life by bouts of depression and cardiac problems, Franquin passed away on January 5th 1997, but his legacy remains: a vast body of work that reshaped the landscape of European comics.

Let’s review happier if undoubtedly scarier days here in a Cold War classic where Spirou and Fantasio revisit rural melting pot Champignac-in-the-Sticks after strangely losing touch with crackpot inventor and Merlin of mushroom mechanics Pacôme Hégésippe Adélard Ladislas de Champignac – the aforementioned Count of Champignac.

The idyllic hamlet is in turmoil with the incipient opening of this year’s Cattle Festival ramping up regular bucolic angst. Its picturesque streets are filled with self-determined cows and short-tempered farmers, meaning the two investigators really have to watch their steps…

Finding the ramshackle chateau turned into a super-secure fortress, the lads and Spip – in truth impatient, impolite Marsupilami – break into the once-familiar estate and discover it has become a wild kingdom of gigantic plants. Eventually rescued by their odd old friend from encroaching green hells, the boys are unaware the Count is concealing another guest – until

after many odd incidents they meet timid nuclear physicist, potential Soviet defector and fellow scientist of conscience Professor Nikolai Nikolayevitch Inovskiev. The hulking gentle giant has invented something that will change the world and doesn’t want its incredible power abused…

He calls his little box of tricks a Gamma Atomic Generator (GAG for short) and it can promote rapid and monstrous plant growth, create severe but localised weather effects and cancel gravity – and it fits into a jacket pocket…

As the boys endure an accidental indoor blizzard, two enemy agents observe from outside before being accidentally but painfully caught in the GAG’s destructive effects. Terrified of the device being misused by the capitalist West, they make plans to steal it back during the cattle show, but Spirou and Fantasio foil the scheme – but only after the GAG makes the farm fest a chaotic, never to be forgotten Fortean event for the entire village…

Thinking job done and world saved, our heroes are horrified to learn from the shellshocked spies that the GAG is not unique. In communist China, Inovskiev’s covert collaborator – American Harold W. Hailmary – is a prisoner of the People’s Republic and surely cannot hold out much longer in delivering them the magic box and all its secrets…

Coincidentally, at that moment in British-controlled Hong Kong, a smuggled message reaches the Chief of Police: an American is imprisoned somewhere in the heart of the Valley of the Seven Buddhas…

When dapper British agents Douglas and Harvey attempt to interview Champignac and the boys, they discover the missing Russian and implore them all to act in a manner Her Majesty’s Government would unofficially look kindly upon even as it turned a blind eye…

Soon, equipped with the GAG, Spirou, Fantasio, Spip and the Marsupilami are sneaking across the Chinese border and heading into one of the most eccentric and spectacular missions of their lives… one replete with deadly peril, fantastic feats, spectacular chases, tank battles and hairsbreadth escapes, all leavened with outrageous surreal slapstick and deviously trenchant satire…

This edgily exuberant yarn is packed with action, thrills and spills and also offers a remarkably even-handed appraisal of Cold War politics messaging and always-timely moral.

Readily accessible to readers of all ages and drawn with all the beguiling style and seductive wholesome élan which makes Asterix, Lucky Luke and Yakari so compelling, this is a truly outstanding – and funny! – tale from a long line of superb exploits, proving our heroes deserve to be English language household names as much as those series – and even that other kid with the white dog…
Original edition © Dupuis, 1960 by Franquin, Jidéhem & Greg. All rights reserved. English translation 2024 © Cinebook Ltd.

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TinTin’s Moon Adventure/Tintin on the Moon/Adventures of Tintin: Destination Moon & Explorers on the Moon



By Hergé, Bob De Moors and others, translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Egmont UK/Farshore)
ISBN: 978-1-40520-815-4 (HB Destination) 978-1-40520-627-3 (TPB Destination)
ISBN: 978-1-40520-816-1 (HB Explorers) 978-1-40520-628-0 (TPB Explorers) Tintin’s Moon Adventure (Magnet/Methuen) ISBN: 978-0-41696-710-4 (TPB)
Tintin on the Moon (Egmont) ISBN: 978-1405295901 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Georges Prosper Remi, known all over the world as Hergé, created a true masterpiece of graphic literature with his tales of a plucky boy reporter and entourage of iconic associates. Initially singly and later with stellar assistants including Edgar P. Jacobs, Bob de Moor and the Hergé Studio, Remi completed 23 splendid volumes (originally produced as episodic instalments for numerous periodicals) which have grown beyond their popular culture roots and attained the status of High Art.

Like Dickens with The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Hergé died working, so final outing Tintin and Alph-Art remains a tale without an official conclusion, but is still a fascinating examination and a pictorial memorial of how the artist worked. It’s only fair though, to ascribe a substantial proportion of credit to the many translators whose diligent contributions have enabled the series to be understood and beloved in more than 70 languages. The subtle, canny, witty and slyly funny English versions are the work of Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner.

On leaving school in 1925, Remi worked for Catholic newspaper Le XXe Siècle where he apparently fell under the influence of its Svengali-like editor Abbot Norbert Wallez. The following year, the young artist (himself a dedicated boy scout) produced his first strip series – The Adventures of Totor – for monthly Boy Scouts of Belgium magazine. By 1928, he was in charge of producing the contents of Le XXe Siècle’s children’s weekly supplement Le Petit Vingtiéme. Remi was unhappily illustrating The Adventures of Flup, Nènesse and Poussette and Cochonette (written by a staff sports reporter) when Wallez urged the auteur to create an entirely new adventure series. Perhaps a young reporter who would travel the world, doing good whilst displaying solid Catholic values and virtues? Perhaps he might also highlight and expose some of the Faith’s greatest enemies and threats?

Having recently discovered word balloons in imported newspaper strips, Remi opted to incorporate this simple yet effective innovation into his own work, and produced a strip that was both modern and action-packed. Beginning on January 10th 1929, Tintin au pays des Soviets AKA Tintin in the Land of the Soviets changed the comics world. Happy 95th Anniversary, Young Man!

The strip appeared in weekly instalments in Le Petit Vingtiéme, running until May 8th 1930: meaning Tintin remains one of the very first globally successful strip characters, barely preceded by Tarzan and Buck Rogers (both January 7th 1929) and pipping Popeye who only shambled into view on January 17th of that year…

The boy-hero – a combination of Ideal Good Scout and Remi’s own brother Paul (a soldier in the Belgian Army) – would be accompanied by his dog Milou (Snowy to us English speakers) and report back all the inequities from the “Godless Russias”. The strip’s prime conceit was that Tintin was an actual foreign correspondent for Le Petit Vingtiéme and opens with the pair arriving in Russia. The dog and his boy were constantly subject to attacks and tricks by “the Soviets” to prevent the truth of their failed economic progress, specious popular support and wicked global aspirations being revealed to the Free World.

Some of the history beyond that first epic trek is quite dark: During the Nazi Occupation of Belgium, Le Vingtiéme Siècle was closed down and Hergé was compelled to transfer the strip to daily newspaper Le Soir (Brussels’ most prominent French-language periodical, and thus appropriated and controlled by the Nazis). Remi diligently toiled on for the duration, but following Belgium’s liberation was accused of collaboration and being a Nazi sympathiser.

It took the intervention of Belgian Resistance war-hero Raymond Leblanc to dispel the cloud over Hergé, which he did by resolutely vouching for the cartoonist and providing cash to create a new magazine – Le Journal de Tintin – which Leblanc published and managed.

The anthology swiftly achieved a weekly circulation in the hundreds of thousands and enabled the artist and his team to remaster past tales: excising material dictated by and added to ideologically shade war time adventures, as well as generally improving and updating great tales that were about to become a global phenomenon. With WWII over and his reputation restored, Hergé entered the most successful period of his career. He had mastered his storytelling craft, commanded a dedicated audience eager for his every effort and was finally able to say exactly what he wanted in his work, free from fear or censure.

In 1949 he returned to unfinished yarn Tintin au pays de l’or noir – abandoned when the Nazis invaded Belgium. The story had been commissioned by Le Vingtiéme Siècle, running from 28th September 1939 until 8th May 1940 when the paper was shut down. Set on the eve of a European war, the plot revolved around Tintin hunting seditionists and saboteurs tampering with Middle East oil supplies. Before being convinced to update and complete the tale as Land of Black Gold, Hergé briefly toyed with taking his cast into space…

Collected albums Objectif Lune and On a marché sur la Lune were colossal hits after initial serialisation in LJdT  from 30th March 1950 – 7th September 1950  and – after what must have been an intolerable wait for readers – from 29th October 1952 – 29th December 1953.

The tale was produced after discussions between Hergé and his friends Bernard Heuvelmans (scientist, author and father of pseudo-science Cryptozoology) and Jacques Van Melkebeke (AKA George Jacquet: strip scripter, painter, journalist and frequent if unacknowledged contributor to Tintin’s canon). The sci fi epic which became a 2-volume masterpiece first made the leap to English in 1959.

On a personal note: I first read Destination Moon in 1964, in a huge hardcover album edition (as they all were in the 1960s) and was blown completely away. I’m happy to say that except for the smaller pages – and there’s never a substitute for “pictorial Big-ness” – this taut thriller and its magnificent, mind-boggling sequel are still in a class of their own in the annals of science fiction comic strips. During the 1980s the entire tale was (repeatedly) released in a combined tome as Tintin’s Moon Adventure: an utterly inescapable piece of publishing common sense. It’s just a shame that it – and all the other the Tintin books – are still not available in digital editions…

Our tale opens with the indomitable boy reporter and Captain Haddock returning to ancestral pile Marlinspike Hall only to discover brilliant but “difficult” savant Professor Cuthbert Calculus has disappeared. When an enigmatic telegram arrives, the puzzled pair are off once again to Syldavia (as seen in King Ottokar’s Sceptre) and a rendezvous with the missing boffin…

Although suspicious, Tintin soon finds the secrecy is for sound reasons. In Syldavia, Calculus and an international team of researchers, engineers and technologists are completing a grand project to put a man on the Moon! In a turbulent race against time and amidst a huge and all-encompassing security clampdown, the scheme nears completion, but Tintin and Haddock’s arrival coincides with a worrying increase in espionage activity.

Some enemy nation or agency is determined to steal the secrets of Calculus’s groundbreaking atomic motor at any cost, and it takes all Tintin’s ingenuity to keep ahead of the villains. The arrival of detectives Thompson and Thomson adds nothing to the aura of anxiety but their bumbling investigations and Calculus’ brief bout of concussion-induced amnesia provide some of the funniest moments in comics history…

As devious incidents and occurrences of sabotage increase in intensity and frequency it becomes clear that there is a traitor inside the project, but at last the moment arrives and Tintin, Haddock, Calculus, technologist Dr. Frank Wolff (and Snowy) blast off for space!

Cold, clinical and superbly underplayed, Destination Moon is completely unlike the flash-and-dazzle razzamatazz of British or American tales from that period – or since. It is as if the burgeoning Cold War mentality of the era infected even Tintin’s bright clean world. Moreover, as before, pressure of work and Hergé’s troubled private life resulted in a breakdown and forced hiatus in the serial, but this time some of that darkness transferred to the material – although it only seems to have added to the overall effect of claustrophobia and paranoia. Even comedy set-pieces are more manic and explosive: despite its fantastic premise, in many ways this is the most mature of all Tintin’s exploits…

Presumably to offset the pressures, the master founded Studio Hergé, beginning on 6th April 1950: a public company to produce The Adventures of Tintin as well other features, with Bob De Moor enthroned as chief apprentice. He became a vital component of Tintin’s gradual domination of the book market: frequently despatched on visual fact-finding missions. De Moor revised the backgrounds of The Black Island for a British edition, repeating the task for a definitive 1971 release of Land of Black Gold. An invaluable and permanent addition to the production team, De Moor supervised and administrated while filling in backgrounds and, most notably, rendering those unforgettably eerie, magnificent Lunar landscapes of the sequel volume.

If the first book is an exercise in tension and suspense, Explorers on the Moon is sheer bravura spectacle. En route to Luna the explorers discover the idiot detectives have stowed away by accident. In conjunction with Captain Haddock’s illicit whisky imbibing and the effects of freefall, Thompson & Thomson provide brilliant comedy routines to balance the pervasive isolation and dramatic dangers of the journey.

Against all odds the lunanauts land safely and make astounding scientific discoveries. We Boomers knew decades ago that there was water on the moon because Tintin and Snowy went skating there! However, the explorations are cut short due to the imminent threat of suffocation after the discovery of another extra passengers on the rocket. Moreover, lurking in the shadows is the very real threat of a murderous traitor to be dealt with…

This so-modern yarn is a high point in the entire Tintin canon, blending heroism and drama with genuine moments of irresistible emotion… and side-splitting comedy. The absolute best of the bunch in my humble opinion, and still one of the most realistic and accurately depicted space comics ever produced. If you only ever read one Hergé saga it simply must be the translunar Adventure of Tintin.
Destination Moon: artwork © 1953, 1959, 1981 Editions Casterman, Paris & Tournai. Text © 1959 Egmont UK Limited. All Rights Reserved. Explorers on the Moon: artwork © 1954, 1959, 1982 Editions Casterman, Paris & Tournai. Text © 1959 Egmont UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.

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Lucky Luke volume 23 – A Cure For The Daltons


By Morris & Goscinny (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-034-4 (Album PB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Doughty, dashing and dependable cowboy “good guy” Lucky Luke is a rangy, implacably even-tempered do-gooder able to “draw faster than his own shadow”. He amiably ambles around the mythic Old West, having light-hearted adventures on his petulant and rather sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper. For nearly 80 years, his exploits have made him one of the top-ranking comic characters in the world, generating upwards of 85 individual albums and spin-off series like Kid Lucky and Ran-Tan-Plan, with sales thus far totalling upwards of 300 million in 30 languages. That renown has translated into a mountain of merchandise, toys, games, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies and even commemorative exhibitions. No theme park yet, but you never know…

Brainchild of Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de Bévère (AKA “Morris”) and officially first seen in Le Journal de Spirou’s seasonal Annual L’Almanach Spirou 1947, Luke actually sprang to (un-titled) laconic life in mid-1946 in the popular periodical before ambling into his first weekly adventure ‘Arizona 1880’ on December 7th of that year.

Morris was one of “la Bande des quatre”– The Gang of Four – also comprising Jijé, Will and Franquin: leading proponents of a fresh, loosely free-wheeling artistic style known as the “Marcinelle School”. The compelling cartoon vision came to dominate Le Journal de Spirou in aesthetic contention with the “Ligne Claire” style favoured by Hergé, E.P. Jacobs and other artists in rival publication Le Journal de Tintin. In 1948 said Gang (all but Will) visited America, meeting US creators and sightseeing. Morris stayed for six years, befriended René Goscinny, scored some work at newly-formed EC sensation Mad and constantly, copiously noted and sketched a swiftly disappearing Old West.

Working solo until 1955 (with early script assistance from his brother Louis De Bevere), Morris crafted nine albums – of which today’s was #7 – of affectionate sagebrush spoofery before teaming with old pal and fellow transatlantic émigré Goscinny. With him as regular wordsmith, Luke attained dizzying, legendary heights starting with Des rails sur la Prairie (Rails on the Prairie) which began serialisation on August 25th 1955.

In 1967, the six-gun straight-shooter switched sides, joining Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote in La Diligence (The Stagecoach). Goscinny co-created 45 albums with Morris before his untimely death, whereupon Morris soldiered on both singly and with other collaborators. He went to the Last Roundup in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus numerous sidebar sagebrush sagas crafted with Achdé & Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac, Xavier Fauche, Jean Léturgie, Jacques Pessis and more, all taking their own shot at the venerable vigilante.

Lucky Luke has a long history in Britain, first pseudonymously amusing and enthralling young readers in the late 1950s, syndicated to weekly anthology Film Fun. He rode back into comics-town in 1967 for comedy paper Giggle, using nom de plume Buck Bingo. And that’s not counting the numerous attempts to establish him as a book star, beginning in 1972 with Brockhampton Press and continuing via Knight Books, Hodder Dargaud UK, Ravette Books and Glo’Worm, until Cinebook finally found the right path in 2006.

As so often seen the taciturn trailblazer regularly interacts with historical and legendary figures as well as even odder fictional folk in tales drawn from key themes of classic cowboy films – as well as some uniquely European notions, and interpretations. That principle is smartly utilised to sublime effect in A Cure For The Daltons with the motivating spark of foreign “alienist” being based on controversial actor Emil Jannings (Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz) who won the very first Best Actor Oscar before returning to Germany to become the official state-sanctioned face of Nazi cinema and drama…

Cinebook’s 23rd Lucky Luke album has a pretty contorted not to say convoluted history. Officially the 69th individual exploit of the frontier phenomenon, it originally ran from June 23rd to August 4th 1975 in general interest magazine Le Nouvel Observateur (#554-560) and re-serialised that same year in #1-13 of Nouveau Tintin (September 16th – December 9th) before being rushed out au continent before year’s end as 44th collected album Lucky Luke: la guérison des Dalton. In 2010 in was first published in English as A Cure For the Daltons.

The plot and premise are familiar ones as snobbish, argumentative American East Coast intellectuals – this time the New York Institute of Science – invite a distinguished European authority to try their civilised tricks and tactics on the rough-&-tumble barbarians of their own untamed western frontiers. This seductively voluble wise man is Doctor Otto Von Bratwurst, a pioneer of the cerebral therapy later proponents will call psychoanalysis and he claims all criminals suffer from an illness caused by past childhood trauma: one he can remedy by talking to them…

The claim causes uproar and the loudest dissenting voice is Professor Beauregard Applejack who thinks it’s all humbug and the cure for crime comes out of a gun. As tempers flare, Bratwurst gets his way and is sent west to test his notions on truly bad men…

Weeks later in Nothing Gulch, Texas, Lucky meets a train full of cheering passengers who have all enjoyed an emotional breakthrough. As the doctor casually – almost obsessively – cures drunks and bums of their painful pasts with little chats, the cowboy escorts the savant to a certain penitentiary where the worst of the worst western malefactors are contained…

This penitentiary’s clientele include Slaughterhouse Sam, Killer Katowski and Bloody Butch, but Von Bratwurst needs to prove himself against the most intractable specimens of humanity. Happily for him, the institution is second home to the appalling Dalton Brothers. Averell, Jack, William and especially devious, slyly psychotic, dominant diminutive brother Joe are the most vicious and feared outlaws in numerous states and territories and regularly escape to make trouble.

Of course the prison is primarily staffed by shiftless idiots – and guard dog Rin Tin Can: a pathetic pooch with delusions of grandeur and a mutt vain, lazy, overly-friendly, exceedingly dim and utterly loyal to absolutely everybody. The one thing he ain’t is good at his job. As Rantanplan – “dumbest dog in the West” and a wicked parody of pioneering cinema canine Rin-Tin-Tin – the pestilential pooch became an irregular co-star before eventually landing his own spin-off series…

Here, Luke’s arrival triggers a terrifying outburst in Joe and piques the head shrinker’s interest. He sees a challenge and huge potential regards and acclaim, whilst Joe sees a chance to get free, get rich and get Lucky Luke…

As talking therapy commences, Herr Doktor can’t help but spread dissent and destabilise everyone he speaks with – including Lucky – but his apparent success goes a step too far after convincing the warden to release the Daltons into his custody. Taking them out of the pen, Von Bratwurst’s treatment and testing of his subjects intensifies on an isolated farm, with our hero increasingly suspicious and agonising over what might happen. One unanticipated surprise is how eavesdropping affects pathetic pooch Rin Tin Can and helps sort his own daddy issues…

Even he isn’t prepared for the turnabout and transformation inspired by the candid confessions of the dastardly Daltons as a sudden epidemic of lawlessness explodes from Nothing Gulch to Patos Puddle, with Luke caught off guard and desperately seeking to sort out an unprecedented crisis. Thankfully he has a true wonder dog at his side…

Wry, savvy and cruelly sardonic, this potent poke at pop psychology and cod life-coaching blends straightforward slapstick with smart satire in another wildly entertaining all-ages confection by unparalleled comics masters. A Cure For The Daltons offers another enticing glimpse into a unique genre for readers who might have missed the romantic allure of the pervasive Wild West that never was…
© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1975 by Goscinny & Morris. © Lucky Comics. English translation © 2010 Cinebook Ltd.