DESTINATION NEW YORK
Part 2 of THE STRATOSHIP H.22
By Hergé, translated by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Egmont UK)
ISBN 13: 978-1-4052-1243-4
This volume concludes the saga of ‘The Stratoship H.22’, starring the capable Legrand children and their pet monkey Jocko, who saved their father’s revolutionary high-speed plane from a bombing raid by flying it away only to emergency-land it on a tiny desolate island where they are marooned without food or fuel…
The islet is a desolate French Possession, and they discover from its only inhabitant that the next boat isn’t due for five months, but after a terrific storm, fuel drums wash ashore. Scant weeks remain before the one-year deadline expires on John Archibald Pump’s $10,000,000 death-bed challenge to break the non-stop flying record between Paris and New York. Refuelling swiftly, Jo and Zette decide to return to France, even though they aren’t quite sure where it is…
Tragically the plucky youngsters overshoot and after a fearsome voyage, crash in the frozen Arctic where they are taken in by a tribe of Eskimos. Jocko becomes separated from them and is rescued from an ice-floe by a passing ocean liner. Recognising the famous pet, the ship sends a message and the children are found. A rescue plane is dispatched with spare parts and the super-plane, once again piloted by the children, is returned to France.
With days remaining to make the attempt, the saboteurs step up their efforts to foil the French effort, but as ever childish ingenuity stymies their every dirty trick. With one day remaining Jacques Legrand is finally ready to fly his brainchild into the history books. But when Jo and Zette come to see him off they find him and his crew all drugged into comas. With the deadline upon them, who can possibly fly the ship now..?
These beautiful graphic adventures are powerful and evocative fantasies for children, full of daring and accomplishment, and confirming the eternal truth that good kids will always defeat bad adults. If only the real world was as rewarding as these thrilling romps for the young-at-heart of all ages.
© 1951, 1979, 2007 Editions Casterman, Paris& Tournai. All Rights Reserved.
English text © 1987, 2007 Egmont UK Limited. All Rights Reserved.