By Edgar P. Jacobs, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-107-5 (PB Album)
When I was a little kid, the nuns at the convent constantly banged on about reading. The cornerstone of all knowledge, it would also transport one to any place or time, depending on the quality of the book, they reckoned.
Loath though I am to agree with those terrifying, bullying-yet-scholarly penguins – about anything – that lesson stuck and it’s still true. Even in lockdown, no place or time on Earth or beyond is outside the realm of an extensive library and book collection. It also pleases me to use their philosophy to promote comics: a little delayed payback for all the great stuff they confiscated over the years…
If we’re talking wonderment and imagination delivered with potent veracity and graphic credibility there’s no better source material than master raconteur Edgar P. Jacobs. Over painstaking decades he pitted his distinguished duo of Scientific Adventurers Professor Philip Mortimer and Captain Francis Blake against a wide variety of perils and menaces in stunning action thrillers which blended science fiction, detective mysteries and supernatural thrillers in the same timeless Ligne Claire style which had done so much to make intrepid boy reporter Tintin a global sensation.
The strip debuted in Le Journal de Tintin #1 (26th September 1946): an international anthology comic with editions in Belgium, France and Holland. The magazine was edited by Hergé, with his eponymous star ably supplemented by a host of new heroes and features for the modern age, and Jacobs’ efforts were a welcome delight there until his death in 1987. Since then diverse hands have continued the casebook and expanded the series’ horizons. A 22nd adventure is scheduled for release in 2022…
L’enigme de l’Atlantide was Jacobs’ fourth electrifying exploit starring the peerless pair: originally serialised from March 30th 1955 to May 30th 1956, and subsequently collected in a single chronicle as the seventh drama-drenched adventure album.
The stunning secret history saga became the 12th translated release from UK-based Cinebook, and opens here with vacationing Intelligence operative Francis Blake arriving in the Azores. His journey to idyllic island Sao Miguel is at the urgent request of devoted comrade-in-peril Philip Mortimer, currently engaged in exploring deep caves in his ceaseless search for new knowledge. From the moment he lands, the British Agent is under constant scrutiny by mysterious gangsters and no sooner does he join his old friend than petty acts of vandalism and outright sabotage begin to occur, making their return to Mortimer’s home a living nightmare. Unbeknownst to the pair, whilst they are distracted, a mysterious intruder searches the Professor’s palatial lodgings only to be blasted by an even more fantastic figure with a ray-gun…
The delayed detectives only arrive in time to observe an astounding escape, leaving the frustrated bellicose boffin to explain how he has apparently discovered a new mineral of incredible potential in the vast cave system far below the surface of the island. He suggests it might be the wonder metal described by Plato as “Orichalcumâ€: the most prized element of the fabled Atlanteans…
Undeterred by the break-in, the bold Brits lay plans to further evaluate Mortimer’s mammoth cavern, and before long a small but dedicated team are scrambling through daunting crevices to terrifying depths in search of more mystery. The “mad English†are no longer the main topic of conversation on the island, however: everybody else is glued to newspaper reports of flying saucer sightings…
Heartened by their fortuitous return to obscurity and utterly unaware that one of their team has been replaced by a deadly old enemy, the valiant subterranean explorers struggle on against formidable and oppressive odds underground, but when the Professor’s Geiger Counter begins to react wildly and they recover a huge chunk of the mystery mineral, the saboteur makes his move.
As a sudden storm threatens to wash the entire expedition away, the infiltrator intercepts warnings from the surface, swipes the samples and – cutting the rope ladders – abandons Blake and Mortimer to their deaths…
His big mistake is pausing to gloat. A well-aimed rock hurled by the Secret Serviceman seemingly seals the scoundrel’s fate too…
Unable to go back, the plucky duo chance everything on following a subterranean river under the island in the vanishingly small hope of finding an exit. Instead, after an astounding under-earth odyssey, what they discover is mercilessly marauding pterodactyls and a fantastically advanced civilisation of super-scientists…
Soon the pair are recuperating in the vast bastion of Poseidopolis – thriving last outpost of legendary Atlantis. They are befriended by young noble Prince Icarus who happily shares the epic true history of Ancient Earth and his still space-faring nation with them, secure in the knowledge that they will never leave the subterranean metropolis for as long as they live…
Unfortunately, with their customary impeccable timing, the British bravos have arrived just as the city’s most trusted civil servant Magon attempts to usurp the hereditary rulers’ millennia of unchallenged power. All too soon, the surface-worlders are embroiled in a shattering civil war at the earth’s core.
Not only is the entire kingdom of noble Lord Basileus at stake, but the schemer and his allies also have designs upon the Atlanteans’ outer space dominions and the hapless, ignorant surface nations in between…
Packed with astounding action, double-doses of dastardly duplicity and captivatingly depicting the cataclysmic end of a fabulous secret civilisation, this is one of the Distinguished Duo’s most glorious exploits and one no lover of lost world yarns should miss.
Addictive and fantastic in the truest tradition of pulp sci-fi and Boys’ Own Adventures, the annals of Blake and Mortimer are the very epitome of dogged heroic determination; the natural successors to such heroic icons as Professor Challenger, Bulldog Drummond and Richard Hannay: infallibly delivering grand, old-fashioned Blood-&-Thunder thrills and spills in timeless fashion and with mesmerising visual punch. Any kid able to suspend modern mores and cultural disbelief (call it alternate earth history or bakelite-punk if you want) can and will experience the adventure of their lives…
This Cinebook edition – available in paperback and digital formats – also includes tantalising excerpts from companion albums The Curse of the 30 Pieces of Silver and The Strange Encounter, plus a short biographical feature and chronological publication chart of Jacobs’ and his successors’ efforts to offer further proof that The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer is a series no comics fan can do without…
Original edition © Editions Blake & Mortimer/Studio Jacobs (Dargaud-Lombard S. A.) 1988 by E.P. Jacobs. All rights reserved. English translation © 2011 Cinebook Ltd.