European Classics – Page 57

May 1, 2015April 30, 2015

Thorgal volume 2: The Three Elders of Aran/The Black Galley

By RosiÅ„ski & Van Hamme, translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)

ISBN: 978-1-905460-31-1

One of the best and most celebrated adventure series of all time, Thorgal achieves the seemingly impossible by being able to both please critics and sell in vast quantities. The prototypical Game of Thrones debuted in iconic weekly Tintin in 1977 with album compilations beginning three years later.

A far-reaching and expansive generational saga, it has won a monolithic international following in fourteen languages and dozens of countries, generating numerous spin-off series and thus naturally offers a strong presence in the field of global gaming.

In story-terms, the series offers the best of all weird worlds with an ostensibly historical milieu of bold Viking adventure seamlessly incorporating science fiction elements, horrendous monsters, social satire, political intrigue, soap opera, Atlantean mystique and mythically mystical literary standbys such as gods, monsters and devils.

Created by Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme (Domino, XIII, Largo Winch, Blake and Mortimer) and Polish illustrator Grzegorz RosiÅ„ski (Kapitan Å»bik, Pilot ÅšmigÅ‚owca, Hans, The Revenge of Count Skarbek), the feature grew unstoppably over decades with the creative duo completing 29 albums between 1980 and 2006 when Van Hamme moved on.

Thereafter the scripting duties fell to Yves Sente who has collaborated on a further five collections to date.

By the time Van Hamme departed the canon had grown to cover not only the life of the titular hero and his son Jolan but also other indomitable family members through a number of spin-off series (Kriss de Valnor, Louve, La Jeunesse de Thorgal) under the umbrella title Les Mondes de Thorgal – with all eventually winning their own sub-section series of solo albums.

In 1985 American publisher Donning released a superb series of oversized hardcover book translations but Thorgal never really found an English-speaking audience until Cinebook began its own iteration in 2007.

The original French series wanders back and forth through the hero’s life but here, following the childhood exploits seen in volume 1, the saga opens in the full bloom of young manhood for this second translated collection, comprising third and fourth albums (Les Trois Vieillards du pays d’Aran and La GalÃ¨re Noire from 1981 and 1982 respectively) in one double-sized barbarian bonanza.

Thorgal Aegirsson was recovered as a baby from a ferocious storm and raised by Northern Viking chief Leif Haraldson. Nobody could possibly know that the fortunate foundling had survived a stellar incident which destroyed a starship full of super-scientific aliens. Growing to manhood, the stranger was eventually forced out of his adopted land by ambitious Gandalf the Mad who feared the young warrior threatened his own claim to the throne.

As a boy Thorgal had been inseparable from Gandalf’s daughter Aaricia and, as ‘The Three Elders of Aran’ opens, the now adult couple are travelling together through lush unexplored country, having recently eloped to escape her father’s lethal jealousy and obsessive terror of losing his throneâ€¦

They are startled by the sudden appearance of a strange little man named Jadawin who welcomes them to the beautiful land of Aran and invites them to a feast. The land might be glorious but the village is a pitiful hovel inhabited by people on the edge of extinction.

The lordly â€œBenevolent Onesâ€ who extended the invitation dwell in the colossal Castle of the Bottomless Lake, but even before the couple can boat across Aaricia solves a tantalising Gordian puzzle and wins a glorious necklace.

That show of keen wit electrifies the populace who declare her their Chosen Queen and brutally mob Thorgal when he objectsâ€¦

As the horrified Aaricia is bundled off the castle, her husband’s presumed corpse is dumped in the forest but later that night a lone warrior swims the uncrossable moat and scales the impenetrable keep to take back his true love.

Sneaking into the main hall Thorgal overhears Jadawin discussing the new queen with a trio of elderly sages. Now that they have a queen again the triumvirate are planning to invite princely suitors to compete for her and rule of Aranâ€¦

The lone invader has his own plans but when he finds Aaricia, she doesn’t recognise her man and calls her guards in genuine panic. Baffled, Thorgal barely escapes with his life and has no choice but to devise a plan Bâ€¦

Some time later, ten princes arrive in Aran determined to win the beautiful queen (and her staggeringly valuable dowry) and are promptly presented with mystic challenges which soon winnow the field to brutish Karshan of Urizen, sly Volsung of Nichor and a masked bravo who turns out to be Thorgalâ€¦

The Elders seem rather unconcerned about the deception and allow all the finalists to continue. Before long the competitors have fetched up on Whirlpool Island where seductive sorceress the Key Guardian assesses their worth and warns Thorgal that all is not as it seemsâ€¦

The final feat finds the questers tested with doom and monumental wealth, but as Thorgal travels to another time and place through a fantastical realm he at last discerns the truth about The Benevolent Ones and changes the rules to rescue his beloved and bring down a true kingdom of the damnedâ€¦Â Â

‘The Black Galley’ – opening sally in an epic continued tale known by fans as the Brek Zarith Saga – starts some time later with Thorgal and Aaricia enjoying the hard but gratifying life of simple peasants in a village of serfs. Thorgal is happy to be an industrious farm-worker, with solid dependable friends and a wife only weeks away from giving him his first child.

The idyllic life is far from perfect however since the headman’s teenage daughter Shaniah has developed an unhealthy fixation with the glamorous Viking and is determined to take him away from Aariciaâ€¦

When the girl acts up after a harvest feast the hero tries one last time to reason with her but their heated conference is interrupted by a man in manacles who steals Thorgal’s horse. Later, when knights of Shardar the Powerful, King of Brek Zarith come looking for an escaped prisoner, spurned, petulant Shaniah accuses Thorgal of aiding the fugitiveâ€¦

Ignoring all his protests the warriors, led by seasoned veteran Jarl Ewing drag the vigorously resisting Viking to their distant galley and a painful interview with decadently effete Prince Veronarâ€¦

The promised inquisition results in Thorgal utterly humiliating the prince and killing the spiteful scion’s favourite murder-pet before boldly escaping. All too soon however the Jarl recaptures the Viking he has grown to admire and it takes all his energies to foil Veronar’s attempts to take bloody vengeance.

Unable to give any information on the whereabouts of fugitive rebel Galathorn, Thorgal is sentenced to join the other captives at the oars where his indomitable spirit makes even more enemies amongst the slave-masters and new friends of his fellow slavesâ€¦

Sometime later Ewing tries to recruit the Viking to his cause – taking the throne from Shardar – but the wily prince overhears and sentences both warriors to a painful deathâ€¦ As the sentence is being carried out the tribute-filled Black Galley is discovered by a small fleet of Viking drakkars (raiding ships) which give frantic chase. In the chaos Thorgal escapes and frees the oar slaves before dealing with Veronarâ€¦

The raiders are old friends. Thorgal is immediately recognised by hulking Jorund the Bull who embraces his lost comrade and informs him that as new king – since Gandalf has died – his banishment is ended and he is welcome to return home with the Northern Vikings.

Thorgal regretfully refuses. All he wants is to be with Aaricia and his coming child, spending peaceful days as a farmer.

Sadly when he reaches the village all that remains is ash, corpses and Jarl Ewing. The traitor had hired mercenaries and awaited Thorgal’s return, intending to use Aaricia as a hostage to ensure her husband’s cooperation. She chose death and drowned herself, refusing to be weapon aimed at her man’s heartâ€¦

The debacle sparked a disaster as the mercenaries went wild and pillaged the hamlet and now, the two warriors must end their ill-fated association with yet one more deathâ€¦

It’s certainly no spoiler to remind you that Aaricia and Thorgal’s story doesn’t end here and that this is but one moment in the magnificently illustrated, astoundingly addictive and completely compelling epic.

The enchantingly wondrous world of Thorgal is every fantasy fan’s ideal dream of unending adventure. How can you possibly resist?

April 29, 2015April 28, 2015

IR$ volume 1: Taxing Trails

By Vranken & Desberg, coloured by Coquelicot and translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-51-9

The most appetising thing about European comics (and manga too, although we only ever see the tip of that vast iceberg in English) is the sheer breadth of genres, styles and age ranges of material available.

The same used to be true of British and US comics but creeping colonisation by calcified fan-bases has slowly but surely eradicated many types of tale that might pique interest beyond the generalised ghettoes of superheroes, space opera, sexy horror and merchandised adaptations. Even crime and war comics are a rare exception these days.

Thus this quirky but exceedingly readable thriller with a tantalising twist is a welcome treat even if the Franco-Belgian original first saw print in 1999.

The unlikely champion of these sagas is a civil servant with a US government, who once upon a time started employing super-cool and infallibly effective agents to go after the type of tax dodger far beyond the reach of the law. These days, perhaps every country should have oneâ€¦

Belgian writer Stephen Desberg is one of the bestselling comics author in France. He was born in Brussels in 1954, son of an American lawyer (who was the distribution agent for Metro-Goldwyn Mayer) and a French mother. Stephen began studying law at UniversitÃ© Libre de Bruxelles but dropped out to follow a winding path into the comics biz.

He began with plots and eventually scripts for Will (AKA Willy Maltaite) on Tif et Tondu in Spirou, growing into a reliable jobbing creator on established strips for younger readers before launching his own in the StÃ©phane Colman illustrated Billy the Cat (a funny animal strip, not the DC Thomson superhero series).

Thereafter came 421 with Eric Maltaite, Arkel (Marc Hardy), Jimmy Tousseul (with Daniel Desorgher) and many others. During the 1980s he gradually redirected his efforts to material for older readerships (see for example The Garden of Desire). In 1999 he created popular modern thriller IR$, and a year later added historical drama Le Scorpion to his catalogue of major hits.

Bernard Vranken was an award winning artist by the time he was fifteen and was working on Tintin a year later. Whilst studying architecture at Saint-Luc he took some comics courses by legendary illustrator Eddy Paape at St. Gilles and his true career-path was set. Vranken was crafting short stories for A Suivre when he met Desberg and in 1996 they collaborated for the first time on epic romance Le Sang Noir. Three years later they traded love for money and launched IR$…

The premise is simple and delicious, and Cinebook’s premiere English edition in 2008 doubled your money by combining the first two albums – La voie fiscale and La stratÃ©gie Hagen – into one compelling compilation.

Taxing Trails opens with stylish American mystery man Larry B. Max calling his new favourite chat-line girl Gloria Paradise (Larry hates complications in his life) to kill some time before heading out.

A few days previously a Swiss banker had been rather ostentatiously splurging cash on a visit to California when he’d ended up as a freeway statistic. However his spending spree and sudden demise had raised a few red flagsâ€¦

A right place, wrong time kind of guy, Larry was decisively ending a convenience store hold-up he’d stumbled into when he got a call and soon was working his way up a deadly chain of wealthy reprobates trying to track down who had issued the contract on the bankerâ€¦

Before long Max has identified the former Luc Cretier as a minor banker but major blackmailer who pushed someone too hard and paid the price. That said, the person he was putting the squeeze to is of far more interest to the tax detective. Jewish-American Abraham Loewenstein is a rags-to-riches holocaust survivor who turned tragedy into a life of success and good works.

Larry however has seen something the rest of the world has not and his interview with the aged activist (as an author investigating the scandal of Jewish gold illegally held in Swiss Banks) puts him on another profitable trackâ€¦

Those esteemed institutions had always found some legal chicanery to deny the claims of survivors and family-members who tried to attempted to retrieve their property but in recent years – due the efforts of people like Loewenstein – have seen frustrated victims beginning to win justice through court cases exposing bank practises.

Now Larry’s forensic investigation lead straight to those so-secretive Swiss Banks and a generations-long scandal regarding the illegal retention and redistribution of Jewish funds deposited whilst Hitler was rising to power.

Although the Nazis are long gone, their heritage of plunder remains in those Helvetic vaults and somehow enigmatic, untouchable multi-billionaire survivor of the Death Camps Moshe Geldhof is involvedâ€¦

Larry knows he’s on to something when his car is sabotaged and less likely accidents – such as a girl on a motorcycle blasting him with a machinegun – start to complicate his investigation. Undaunted, he confronts Geldhof in a fancy New York restaurant and finds that hot lead is the first course on the menuâ€¦

After Abraham is murdered for knowing too much, a spectacular, breakneck car chase results in Max arresting Geldhof, but for once the infallible tax man has grossly underestimated the sheer power of moneyâ€¦

The story concludes in The Hagen Strategy as the scene shifts back to 1943 for the incredible truth about Moshe Geldhof as the indefatigable Max delves deeper into the history of the man who has the ear of governments, and especially of Israel.

In America the man himself seems to be â€œtoo big to failâ€ but his sudden liberation only pushes Larry to even greater efforts. That means heading to Bern and cultivating the attentions of Geldof’s ferociously Amazonian daughter Lenni whilst her dad is tangled in red tapeâ€¦

No sooner has he broached the palatial fortress-like mansion, however, than the sinister patron turns up and the hunt is on, with a cadre of heavily armed killers at Max’s well-shod heelsâ€¦

Larry has finally gleaned the true appalling secret of the contemporary Croesus and the truth is something his government can’t cover for him. Now he has only one possible ally in his all-or nothing-war against the money-man and places a call to Mossadâ€¦

Sleek, lean, almost Spartan in its lithe, muscular tribute to James Bond movies, IR$ is a splendidly effective, stylishly gritty thriller series that will delight fans of modern mayhem in all its literary and artistic forms.

Only death and taxes are inescapable, and Larry B. Max offers either or both in one suavely, economical packageâ€¦
Original edition Â© 1977 Editions du Lombard (Le Lombard/Dargaud SA) 1999-2000 by Desberg &Vrancken + Job. English translation 2008 Â© Cinebook Ltd.

April 27, 2015April 24, 2015

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.

April 23, 2015April 22, 2015

In the Shadow of the Derricks: Lucky Luke volume 5

By Morris & Goscinny, translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-905460-17-5

Lucky Luke is a rangy, good-natured, lightning-fast quick-draw cowboy who roams the fabulously mythic Old West on his super-smart horse Jolly Jumper, having light-hearted adventures and interacting with a host of historical and legendary figures of the genre.

He’s probably the most popular Western star still active in the world today. His unbroken string of exploits over nearly seventy years has made him one of the best-selling comic characters in Europe (81 albums selling in excess of 300 million copies in 30 languages thus far), with spin-off toys, computer games, animated cartoons and even a plethora of TV shows and live-action movies.

He was created in 1946 by Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de BÃ©vÃ¨re (â€œMorrisâ€) for the 1947 Annual (L’Almanach Spirou 1947) of Le Journal de Spirou, before launching into his first weekly adventure ‘Arizona 1880’ on December 7^th 1946.

Prior to that, Morris met future comics super-stars Franquin and Peyo while working at the CBA (Compagnie Belge d’ActualitiÃ©s) cartoon studio and contributing caricatures to weekly magazine Le Moustique.

Morris quickly became one of â€œla Bande des quatreâ€ (The Gang of Four) which comprised creators JijÃ©, Will and Franquin: the leading proponents of the loose and free-wheeling artistic style known as the â€œMarcinelle Schoolâ€ which dominated Spirou in aesthetic contention with the â€œLigne Claireâ€ style used by HergÃ©, EP Jacobs and other artists in Tintin Magazine.

In 1948 said Gang (all but Will) visited America, meeting US creators and sightseeing. Morris stayed for six years, meeting fellow traveller RenÃ© Goscinny, scoring some work from newly-formed EC sensation Mad and making copious notes and sketches of the swiftly vanishing Old West. That research resonates on every page of his life’s work.

Working solo until 1955, Morris produced another nine albums worth of affectionate sagebrush parody before teaming up with Goscinny, who became the regular wordsmith. Luke rapidly attained the dizzying heights of superstardom, commencing with ‘Des rails sur la Prairie’ (Rails on the Prairie), which began in Spirou on August 25^th 1955.

In 1967 the six-gun straight-shooter switched teams, transferring to Goscinny’s own magazine Pilote with ‘La Diligence’ (The Stagecoach). Goscinny produced 45 albums with Morris before his death in 1977, after which Morris continued both singly and with fresh collaborators.

Morris died in 2001 having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus the spin-off adventures of Rantanplan (â€œdumbest dog in the Westâ€ and a charming spoof of cinema canine Rin-Tin-Tin), after which AchdÃ©, Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac took over the franchise, producing another five tales to date.

Moreover, apart from the initial adventure, Lucky (to appropriate a quote applied to the thematically simpatico Alias Smith and Jones) â€œin all that timeâ€¦ never shot or killed anyoneâ€â€¦

Lucky Luke first appeared in Britain syndicated to weekly comic Film Fun and reappeared in 1967 in Giggle where he was renamed Buck Bingo. In all these venues – as well as the numerous attempts to follow the English-language successes of Tintin and Asterix albums from Brockhampton and Knight Books – Luke had a trademark cigarette hanging insouciantly from his lip, but in 1983 Morris, no doubt amidst both pained howls and muted mutterings of â€œpolitical correctness gone madâ€, substituted a piece of straw for the much-travelled dog-end, which garnered him an official tip of the hat from the World Health Organization.

The most successful attempt at bringing Lucky Luke to our shores and shelves is the most recent. Cinebook (who have rightly restored the foul weed to his lips on the interior pages if not the coversâ€¦) have translated 53 albums thus far. In the Shadow of the Derricks was the fifth, now available both on paper and as an e-book edition.

As Ã€ l’ombre des derricks, it was first published in 1962: the 18^th European release and Goscinny’s ninth collaboration with Morris. It’s also one of the team’s many tales blending historical personages with their wandering hero’s action-comedy exploits and as such it’s a wry condemnation of the oil business both in terms of unchecked commercial adventurism and ecological impact and one of the earliest negative opinions of the trade in comicsâ€¦

It all begins with a little history lesson on how a toxic contaminant farmers once hated and dreaded finding on their land rapidly became a treasured commodity able to turn rational souls into greed-crazed prospecting zombies, after pioneer Edwin Laurentine Drake (popularly known as Colonel Drake and notoriously renowned as the first man to drill for oil in America) set up shop in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1857.

Two years later his invention of the â€œOil Derrickâ€ triggers the first oil rush in history and prospectors come from far and wide to cash in on the new bonanza mineral. Terrified of the inrush of ne’er-do-wells and chancers, the Titusville City Council quickly telegraph for the greatest cowboy lawman in the world to come protect themâ€¦

By the time Lucky Luke rides in, the little city is a fetid sinkhole of greed and corruption which looks and smells as bad as it acts. The dignitaries who summoned him are now as enamoured of â€œblack goldâ€ as any transient prospector and the Deputy Mayor’s last official duty is to give Luke his sheriff’s badge before joining the deranged digging fraternity.

The crowning indignity comes when a passing prospector stops him from lighting a cigarette. The oil fumes are so prevalent and pernicious that one match might eradicate the entire town!

Setting to work, Lucky heads for the saloon and is accosted by a gang of thugs. The brutish Bingle is intent on scaring the lawman off but has completely underestimated his opponentâ€¦

Hauling the defeated desperado to jail Luke meets the only man in town immune to oil-fever. Old Sam Jigs loathes what the evil muck has made of his town and is happy to watch Bingle while Lucky goes to inspect Colonel Drake’s installation, meeting also the celebrity’s ingenious engineer Billy Smith.

The Colonel takes the sheriff on a tour of various claims and working wells, imploring him to try and restore some order to the wild and wicked region. However all the current fighting, feuding and wildcatting is as nothing to the growing depredations of smooth, slick, oily Texan lawyer Barry Blunt whom Luke first encounters when he stops a lynching.

The legal weasel has a plan to own every well in America and knows enough lawful dodges to trick or force all the other prospectors out of business before they’ve even begun. This is a new kind of opponent for the straight-shooter, who normally holds the Law in great esteemâ€¦

Blunt is inexorably forcing the independents to leave or sell up to him; his legion of legal wrangles and small-print scams backed up by a gang of ruthless cutthroats. One such is Bingle, whom the shady shyster tries to spring from jail, only to find that his hulking heavy doesn’t want to leave. He’s already struck oil while digging an escape tunnelâ€¦

When prospectors who won’t sell or quit start experiencing devastating oil-fires and unemployed townsfolk sell themselves into virtual slavery in Barry’s growing enterprises it’s time for drastic action, and Luke resolves to start using the spirit rather the letter of the lawâ€¦

Soon Barry is in jail on trumped up charges and the villain shows his true colours. Busting out and setting the entire region ablaze, Blunt proves himself a suicidal madman: if he can’t own the oil, nobody willâ€¦

After the final showdown Lucky and Jolly Jumper resign, heading back home extremely relieved that goofy old Texas doesn’t have to put up with idiot oil huntersâ€¦

Cleverly barbed, wickedly ironic and spectacularly cynical, this witty romp is another grand old hoot in the tradition of Destry Rides Again and Support Your Local Sheriff (perhaps Paint Your Wagon, Evil Roy Slade or Cat Ballou are more your style?), superbly executed by master storytellers as a wonderful introduction to a unique genre for today’s kids who might well have missed the romantic allure of an all-pervasive Wild West that never wasâ€¦

And in case you’re worried, even though the interior art still has our hero chawin’ on that ol’ nicotine stick, trust me, there’s very little chance of anyone craving a quick snout, but quite a strong probability that they’ll be addicted to Lucky Luke Albumsâ€¦

Â© Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 by Goscinny & Morris. Â© Lucky Comics.
English translation Â© 2007 Cinebook Ltd.

April 20, 2015

Iznogoud Rockets to Stardom

By Goscinny and Tabary (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-092-4

For the greater part of his too-short lifetime (1926-1977), RenÃ© Goscinny was one of the most prolific and most-read writers of comic strips the world has ever seen. He still is.

Among his most popular comic collaborations are Lucky Luke, Le Petit Nicolas and, of course, Asterix the Gaul, but there were so many others, such as the dazzling, dark deeds of a dastardly usurper whose dreams of diabolical skulduggery perpetually proved to be ultimately no more than castles in the sandâ€¦

In the wake of the Suez crisis, the French returned to the hotly contested deserts when Goscinny teamed with sublimely gifted Swedish Ã©migrÃ© Jean Tabary (1930-2011) – who numbered Richard et Charlie, Grabadu et Gabaliouchtou, Totoche, Corinne et Jeannot and Valentin le Vagabond amongst his other hit strips – to detail the innocuous history of imbecilic Arabian (im)potentate Haroun el-Poussah.

However it was the strip’s villainous foil, power-hungry vizier Iznogoud who stole the show – possibly the conniving little blackguard’s only successful heist.

Les Aventures du Calife Haroun el Poussah was created for Record; the first episode appearing in the January 15^th issue. 1962. A minor hit, it subsequently jumped ship to Pilote – a comics magazine created and edited by Goscinny – where it was artfully refashioned into a starring vehicle for the devious little ratbag who had increasingly been hogging all the laughs and limelight.

Like all great storytelling, Iznogoud works on two levels: for the youngsters it’s a comedic romp with adorably wicked baddies invariably hoisted on their own petards and coming a-cropper, whilst older, wiser heads can revel in pun-filled, witty satires and marvellously surreal episodic comic capers.

This same magic formula made its more famous cousin Asterix a monolithic global success and, just like the saga of the indomitable Gaul, the irresistibly addictive Arabian Nit was originally adapted into English by master translators Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge who made those Roman Follies so very palatable to British tastes.

As always the deliciously malicious whimsy is heavily dosed with manic absurdity, cleverly contemporary cultural critiques and brilliantly delivered creative anachronisms which serve to keep the assorted escapades bizarrely fresh and hilariously inventive.

Insidious anti-hero Iznogoud is Grand Vizier to affable, easy-going Caliph of Ancient Baghdad Haroun Al Plassid, but the sneaky little toad has loftier ambitions, or as he is always declaiming â€œI want to be Caliph instead of the Caliph!â€â€¦

The retooled debuted in 1968, and quickly became a massive European hit, with 29 albums to date (carried on by Tabary’s children StÃ©phane, Muriel and Nicolas), his own solo comic, a computer game, animated film, TV cartoon show and even a live-action movie.

In 1977 after Goscinny’s death, Tabary began scripting his own sublimely stylish tales, switching to book-length complete adventures, rather than the compilations of short, punchy vignettes which typified the collaborations.

The fifth Dargaud collection (and the seventh volume published by Methuen in 1980), Des Astres pour Iznogoud, was originally released in 1969, and here it’s the eighth explosively outrageous Cinebook album, offering an astoundingly absurd quintet of short tales with the Vile Vizier on top form as he schemes to seize power from his sublimely oblivious Lord and Master.

The eternal struggle resumes with eponymously anachronistic ‘Iznogoud Rockets to Stardom’, wherein the Vizier’s bumbling, strong-arm crony Wa’at Alahf is in the bazaar listening to a storyteller extolling the virtues of brilliant inventor Ahstroh Nautikhal. That clever old tinkerer has apparently built a machine which can travel to the starsâ€¦

After sharing the tale with his mean master, the big oaf is soon following the Vizier into the city as Iznogoud tracks down the rather insubordinate innovator. The little monster is delighted to hear that the machine works and even happier to find that Nautikhal has no way of bringing his towering rocket back to Earthâ€¦

Moreover the normally grudging Caliph is delighted at a thought of a trip to the edge of creation, but since he’s too lazy to walk to the rocket Iznogoud has to bring the five-storey high ship to the palace… by camel trainâ€¦

And even after that mammoth feat of determined optimism the impatient villain still has to wrestle with the tricky and unpredictable black-powder propellant which never seems to ignite when it’s supposed toâ€¦

The pun-punctuated comedy of errors is followed by a sneaky dose of inspired iniquity entitled ‘Iznogoud’s Pupil’ as the Vizier conspires to become personal tutor to Prince B’oufaykhar, son of the incredible short-tempered and violent Sultan Pullmankarâ€¦

The scheme is wickedly simple: if he makes the prince miserable, the Sultan will destroy the Caliph and he can take over. Unfortunately the Vizier has never met a brat as spoiled as B’oufaykhar nor anybody who possessed a genie like the formidable and terrifying Djinn Rummihâ€¦

The broad slapstick gives way to mystic mayhem when far-travelled Klot Ed Krim of Tartary sells the infamous schemer an amulet that makes dreams come true. Sadly, the operating instructions for ‘The Tartar’s Talisman’ are rather specific and one can’t always dream about what one wants to, even if you eat the strangest things before bedtimeâ€¦

On discovering an old law which states no Caliph may rule if he’s crazy, Iznogoud finds an assuredly infallible method to secure his ambitions in ‘My Hat!’. Getting hold of a magic hat which makes the wearer instantly insane is not a problem, but getting the Caliph to put it on is. In fact, as the dire deed is attempted at a birthday party it’s inevitable that the only one not to act like a mad hatter is happy-go-lucky Haroun Al Plassidâ€¦

The frantic antics conclude with a reality-warping riot as the Vile Vizier accidentally saves an ensorcelled wizard and is rewarded with a magic pencil. Whatever is rendered with the arcane implement will be forever banished to a desert island when the drawing is ripped up, and instantly Iznogoud begins capturing the Caliph’s likenessâ€¦

Sadly the upset usurper is no artist and his own ineptitude is Haroun’s greatest defence against ‘Dark Designs’ so there’s nothing for it but to get drawing lessons from the Caliphate’s greatest artist Tahbari al Tardi, a man far too eager and helpful for his own goodâ€¦

Just such witty, fast-paced hi-jinks and craftily crafted comedy set pieces have made this addictive series a household name in France where â€œIznogoudâ€ is common term for a certain type of politician: over-ambitious, unscrupulous – and frequently insufficient in inches (or should that be centimetres?).

Desiring to become â€œCaliph in the Caliph’s placeâ€ is a popular condemnation in French, targeting those perceived as overly-ambitious and, since 1992 the Prix Iznogoud is awarded annually to â€œa personality who failed to take the Caliph’s placeâ€.

Its nominees are chosen from prominent French figures who have endured spectacular failures in any one year and been given to the likes of Ã‰douard Balladur (1995) and Nicolas Sarkozy (1999). The jury panel is headed by politician AndrÃ© Santini, who gave himself one after failing to become president of ÃŽle-de-France in regional elections in 2004.

When first released in Britain during the late 1970s and 1980s (and again in 1996 as a periodical comicbook) these tales made little impression, but certainly now this snappy, wonderfully beguiling strip has finally and deservedly found an appreciative audience among today’s more internationally aware, politically jaded comics-and-cartoon savvy Kids Of All Agesâ€¦

April 18, 2015April 16, 2015

The Adventures of Buck Danny volume 3: Ghost Squadron

By Francis BergÃ©se, colours by FrÃ©dÃ©ric BergÃ©se translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebooks)
ISBN: 987-1-905460-85-4

Buck Danny premiered in Spirou in January 1947 and continues soaring across the Wild Blue Yonder to this day. The strip describes the improbably long yet historically significant career of the eponymous Navy pilot and his wing-men Sonny Tuckson and Jerry Tumbler. It is one of the world’s last aviation strips and a series which has always closely wedded itself to current affairs, from the Korean War to Afghanistan.

The US Naval Aviator was created by Georges Troisfontaines whilst he was director of Belgian publisher World Press Agency and initially depicted by Victor Hubinon before being handed to the multi-talented Jean-Michel Charlier, who was then working as a junior artist.

Charlier’s fascination with human-scale drama and rugged realism had been seen in such â€œtrue-warâ€ strips as L’Agonie du Bismark (‘The Agony of the Bismark’– published in Spirou in 1946).

Charlier and RenÃ© Goscinny were co-editors of Pistolin magazine from 1955 to 1958 and created Pilote in 1959. When they, with fellow creative legend Albert Uderzo, formed the Ã‰difrance Agency to promote the specialised communication benefits of comic strips, he continued to script Buck Danny and did so until his death.

Thereafter his artistic collaborator Francis BergÃ©se (who had replaced Hubinon in 1978) took complete charge of the adventures of the All-American Air Ace, on occasion working with other creators such as Jacques de Douhet.

Like so many artists involved in stories about flight, BergÃ©se (born in 1941) started young with both drawing and flying. He qualified as a pilot whilst still a teenager, enlisted in the French Army and was a reconnaissance flyer by his twenties. Aged 23 he began selling strips to L’Ã‰toile and JT Jeunes (1963-1966), after which he produced his first aviation strip Jacques Renne for Zorro. This was soon followed by Amigo, Ajax, Cap 7, Les 3 Cascadeurs, Les 3 A, Michel dans la Course and many more.

BergÃ©se worked as a jobbing artist on comedies, pastiches and WWII strips until 1983 when he took the coveted job of illustrating the globally syndicated Buck Danny beginning with the 41^st yarn ‘Apocalypse Mission’. He even found time in the 1990s to produce a few tales for the European interpretation of British icon Biggles before finally retiring in 2008, passing on the reins to illustrators Fabrice Lamy and Francis Winis and scripter FrÃ©dÃ©ric Zumbiehl.

Thus far the franchise has notched up 53 albumsâ€¦

This third Cinebook volume is another astonishingly authentic yarn: a tense, rip-roaring and politically-charged contemporary war story originally published in 1996 as Buck Danny #46 (L’escadrille fantÃ´me and coloured as ever by FrÃ©dÃ©ric BergÃ©se), blending mind-boggling detail and technical veracity with good old fashioned blistering blockbuster derring-do.

It’s 1995 and, above Sarajevo, Tuckson and pioneer female fighter pilot Cindy McPherson are patrolling as part of the UN Protection Force. â€œUnProForâ€ is the West’s broad and criminally ineffectual coalition to stop the various factions in the region slaughtering each other.

The flight takes a dark turn when Cindy’s plane is hit by Serb rockets in contravention of the truce rules and incensed Tuckson peels off to open up with machine gun fire without obtaining the proper permissions.

Nursing Cindy’s burning plane back to their carrier in the Baltic, Sonny doesn’t care how much trouble he’s in, but rather than a Court Martial the impetuous lad’s punishment is rather uniqueâ€¦

Called to interview with the Admiral, the pilot expects at the very least to be thrown as food to the skipper’s vile dog O’Connor but instead meets the enigmatic Mr. Tenderman and is seconded to a top secret â€œAir Force/Navy Coordinationâ€ mission.

Buck meanwhile is part of an op to track down a strange radar echo in an area supposed to be neutral and emptyâ€¦

After wishing Cindy a fond farewell and hinting at his big CIA secret posting, Sonny ships out by helicopter to land at Prevesa Airbase in Greece. Bewilderment is replaced with terror and rage once he unpacks and discovers O’Connor has stowed away in his kitâ€¦

Now stuck with the infernal, nastily nipping mutt, Sonny’s screams draw an old friend into his room: maverick test pilot and old partner in peril Slim Holden. The inveterate rule-breaker also has no idea what they’ve been roped intoâ€¦

The next day the conundrum continues as they and a small group of other pilots with no idea of why they’re here or where they’re going are shipped to a secret base in the mountains. After the military’s usual â€œhurry up and waitâ€ the wary fliers are greeted by a familiar faceâ€¦

Buck is introduced as Colonel Y by the grimly competent General X who assigns each of the pilots a number from 1 to 16. All they know is that they have all committed serious breaches of military discipline which will be wiped from their records once the mission is over. Moreover, as long as they’re here they will only refer to each other by their code numbersâ€¦

Awaiting them are anonymous, unmarked F-16s without radios. They are to train in the jets in preparation for an unspecified single task under the strictest security conditions, until finally apprised of their specified purpose.

Days of exhausting preparation and pointless speculation are almost disrupted when an unidentified MiG-29 buzzes the base at extremely low altitude. Although Buck rapidly pursues, the quarry eludes him but the chase does reveal that their so-secret base is being covertly observed by a radar station on the Albanian borderâ€¦

With no viable options Buck returns and the training continues at full pace. Inevitably the regimen results in a fatality. With the warning of more to come before the strafing and low-level bombing runs end, the practicing goes on and rumours mount over what the actual targets of their illicit ground-attack squadron might beâ€¦

Back at the official war zone, tensions mount when two US Navy F-18s are shot down over Bosnia – apparently by a flight of unidentified jets – whilst at the hidden base Buck’s security overflights still register radar tracks from an unknown source.

Buck and General X have no idea which of the many warring factions might be operating the MiGs or the mobile radar unit but have no choice except to proceed with their original plan. They might be far more concerned if they realised that one of the downed – official – combatants was Cindy McPhersonâ€¦

With the situation worsening the word is given to go and the unofficial spectre squadron finally learn what they’re expected to do: take out the armoured concentrations and artillery emplacements relentlessly bombarding Sarajevo.

In the face of increasingly obvious NATO and UN impotence, it has been decided that the Pan-Serbian aggressors need to be taught a hard lesson about keeping their word regarding cease-firesâ€¦

The mission is unofficial, with no radio contact and disabled ejector seats. Moreover, they all have permission to respond in kind to any attack – even by American forcesâ€¦

As the doomed Ghost Squadron roars across the Adriatic to their targets, the Navy mission to rescue or recover their downed reconnaissance pilots proceeds and an ever-vigilant AWACS plane picks up the inexplicable bogeys heading for Sarajevo.

Of course they reach the only conclusion possibleâ€¦

When Major Tumbler and his Flight are despatched after the mystery jets an inconclusive dogfight leads him to suspect the nature and identities of some of his targets, but after breaking off hostilities the officially sanctioned Navy planes are ambushed by MiGs from a third factionâ€¦

Things look grim until NATO support arrives in the form of French Mirages and British Tornados. As the ghosts fly on to complete their punishment run, in the mad scramble behind them Tumbler tracks a MiG that has had enough and exposes a hidden Bosnian hangar housing a phantom flight of their own. Unfortunately they see him too and he is shot downâ€¦

The CIA covert mission has been a success and a massive catalyst. In the aftermath, planes from many of the surrounding nations are tearing up the skies and in the confusion Tumbler makes his way from his landing point into the MiG base to discover old enemy and maniac mercenary Lady X running the show. He also learns that a beloved comrade may well be a traitor in her pay but resolves to save his friend and let the chips fall where they mayâ€¦

This is a stunning slice of old-fashioned razzle-dazzle that enthrals from the first page to the last panel and shows just why this brilliant series has lasted for so long. Complex politics, personal honour and dastardly schemes all seamlessly blend into a breakneck thriller suitable for older kids and â€œladsâ€ of all ages.
Â© Dupuis, 1996 by BergÃ©se. English translation Â© 2012 Cinebook Ltd. All rights reserved.

April 15, 2015April 14, 2015

Yakari and Great Eagle

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

Westerns of every sort have always captivated consumers in Europe and none more so than the assorted French-speaking sections who also read 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 children’s magazine Le Crapaud Ã lunettes and began writing stories for it under the pseudonym Job. Three years later he hired a young fellow French-Swiss artist named Claude de Ribaupierre, who had begun his career as an assistant at Studio Peyo, (home of Les Schtroumpfs) where the promising 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. Two years later they struck pure gleaming gold with their next collaboration.

Launching in 1969, Yakari told the compassionate, whimsical tale 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.

Delib, equally adept in both the enticing, comically dynamic â€œMarcinelleâ€ cartoon big-foot style and a devastatingly evocative meta-realistic mannerism, went on to become one of the Continent’s most prolific, celebrated, honoured and beloved artists – mostly of western-themed tales with astounding and magnificent geographical backdrops and landscapes – and Yakari is considered by many to be the feature that catapulted him to mega-stardom.

The eponymous first collected edition was released in 1973 and the strip rapidly rose to huge prominence. In 1978 it began running in Tintin, spawning two animated TV series (1983 and 2005), the usual merchandising spin-offs and monumental global sales of the 38 albums (in 17 languages) to date. The latest, Yakari et la tueuse des mers, was released in 2014.

In 2005 the translated first volume – Yakari et le grand aigle – was released by Cinebook as part of their opening salvo in converting British audiences to the joys and magic of Euro-comics and it’s still readily available for you and your family to enjoy.

Yakari and Great Eagle begins one quiet night on the plains whilst the little boy is deep in dreams. In that sunny world he is walking to meet his totem spirit who greets him with a grand flourish and presents him with huge feather that enables Yakari to soar like a bird. The rendezvous is tinged with joy and sadness as the big bird informs him that he will no longer come to him in dreams, but if the boy becomes as much like an eagle as possible they will meet again in the living worldâ€¦

Awake and excited, Yakari rushes about the camp trying to decide what the riddle means. Hunt like a raptor? Wear a feather-filled war-bonnet? Every eager attempt leads to disappointment and embarrassment and sleepy loafer Eye-of Broth can’t even be bothered to wake up and share the benefit of his years of idle contemplationâ€¦

However when young friend Rainbow loses the puma cub she is carrying, Yakari gallantly dashes after it and only quick thinking saves them both from the baby’s furious motherâ€¦

The next day he asks his father Bold Gaze but the warriors are all too busy preparing to capture a new crop of wild horses. Sneaking off into the rocky desert with older boy Buffalo Seed to watch the roundup, Yakari wonderingly observes how nimble pinto Little Thunder easily avoids all the experienced wranglers’ traps.

When the adults herd the new intake back to the encampment, Yakari follows Little Thunder high into the rocky escarpments and frees the panicked pony from a rockslide that’s pinned a hind leg.

Great Eagle appears and for this selfless act awards the boy a feather, but when Yakari returns home his father takes it from him, admiring his imagination but explaining that only those who have accomplished great deeds – for which read grown-ups – have a right to wear one. Nothing the stern but loving parent can do will change the stubborn boy’s story that a talking eagle awarded him the singular honourâ€¦

Days pass and the despondent – featherless – lad wanders alone when he is suddenly engulfed in a stampede and trapped by a brushfire. Immediately Great Eagle is there, guiding him to safety and advising him that soon his father will return the feather to him. The lad is grateful but confused. How is he ever meant to become like his totem spirit? Moreover how will he ever find his way home from the strange region he finds himself in?

As the tribe searches for lost Yakari, the hungry lad has a close encounter with a bear and finds food by observing her cubs, falls into and subsequently escapes from a deep bear trap and narrowly escapes becoming supper for a lone wolf.

Eventually he finds a river and rides a makeshift canoe until he washes up on a shore where horses are drinking. Spotting Little Thunder, the boy tries to capture him but the tricks and tactics Yakari has seen working for his elders are useless against the wily horse.

The lad is utterly gobsmacked when Little Thunder refuses to be his captive but offers to be his friendâ€¦

With his new comrade it’s not long before Yakari comes riding proudly home out of the wilderness astride a pony no man can tame and justifiably reclaims his honour-featherâ€¦ Thus begins the gloriously gentle and big-hearted saga of the valiant little brave who can speak with animals and enjoys a unique place in an exotic world: a forty year parade of joyous, easygoing and inexpressibly fun adventures honouring and eulogising an iconic culture with grace, wit, wonder and especially humour.

A true masterpiece of children’s comics literature, Yakari is a series no fan should be without and here is just the place to startâ€¦
Original edition Â© 1973 Le Lombard/Dargaud by Derib + Job. English translation 2005 Â© Cinebook Ltd.

April 13, 2015

How Obelix Fell into the Magic Potion When He Was a Little Boy

By R. Goscinny & A. Uderzo translated by Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Hodder Children’s Books)
ISBN: 978-0-34065-148-3

Asterix the Gaul has, since its debut, grown to become one of the most-read comics series in the world, translated into more than 100 languages. The wily little hero, his gently bombastic bosom companion Obelix and an ever-expanding and unforgettable cast of bit players have also won hearts and minds through numerous animated and live-action movies, TV series, assorted toys, games and merchandising. They even inhabit their own theme park (Parc AstÃ©rix, near Paris).

More than 325 million copies of the 35 canonical Asterix books have sold worldwide over more than fifty years, making Goscinny & Uderzo France’s bestselling international authors.

One of their best and most charming collaborations isn’t a comic strip at all. Although it does star their greatest creation, How Obelix Fell into the Magic Potion When He Was a Little Boy began life as a magazine article penned by Goscinny for Pilote (#291 from 1965), with only a couple of spot-illustrations.

It languished unseen for years until 1989 when Uderzo converted and extended it into a superb, fully realised children’s picture book by crafting (with the assistance of colourist Thierry Mebarki and the design team of Crapule Productions) seven full page illustrations and six magnificent and subtly hilarious double-page spreads to augment the origin tale of the mightiest and mildest champion of ancient history.

Narrated by Asterix himself it is set when both he and his best pal were aged six and just learning how to be proper Gaulish warriors.

Obelix is fat, slow, simple and timid: a perfect target for the other boisterous boys. One day however, when the adults are all out bashing the Romans who are trying to conquer their indomitable, unconquerable village, Asterix convinces him to try a tiny taste of the Druid Getafix‘s magic potion: the one which enables a tiny outpost of rural rebels to resist the full might of the empire.

Sadly, after sneaking into the wise man’s spooky house, there’s a bit of an accidentâ€¦

Endearing and witty, this delightful tale is packed with the same wry humour as the cartoon albums whilst Uderzo’s sleek and dynamic comic art is suitably replaced here by gorgeous, evocative watercolour plates that mesmerise, beguile and – where appropriate – deliciously amuseâ€¦

The diminutive, doughty hero was created in 1959 by two of the art-form’s greatest proponents, RenÃ© Goscinny & Albert Uderzo: masters of strip narrative then at the peak of their creative powers. Although their perfect partnership ended in 1977 with the death of prolific scripter Goscinny, the creative wonderment continued with Uderzo writing and drawing the feature until his retirement in 2010.

His last work on the feature was this compilation of new and old material which was designed to signify and celebrate 50 glorious years of his co-creation before – in 2013 – Asterix and the Picts opened a fresh chapter in the annals as Jean-Yves Ferri & Didier Conrad began a much anticipated and dreaded continuation of the franchise.

A wonderful adjunct to the adventures of France’s Greatest Heroes and a brilliant introduction for younger readers to the world of comics, How Obelix Fell into the Magic Potion When He Was a Little Boy is a book every home should have.
Â© 1989, 2009 Ã‰ditions Albert RenÃ©/Goscinny-Uderzo. English translation: Â© 1989 Ã‰ditions Albert RenÃ©/Goscinny-Uderzo. All rights reserved.

April 12, 2015April 10, 2015

World War X book 1: Helius

By Jerry Frissen, Peter Snejbjerg & Delphine Rieu, translated by Edward Gauvin (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-78276-112-9

European comics have long been a bastion of big concept, high octane science fiction comics and in recent years have also taken on many of the faster-paced, viscerally emotional spectacles typifying modern movie blockbusters. A splendid new example of that marriage of thought and action can be seen in the English-language translation of World War X: Helius.

Belgian born Jerry/Thierry Frissen generally hangs out in Los Angeles writing comicbooks for Europe (Meurtres, Tequila, Les Tikitis, Luuna) and America (Luche Libre, The Zombies That Ate the World) or designing cool toys, whilst Danish illustrator Peter Snejbjerg (Tarzan, Hypernauten, Den Skjulte Protokol) is now a bona fide star of the US comicbook industry with impressive stints on a broad variety of classics like Abe Sapien, The Mighty, Starman, The Light Brigade, Books of Magic and many more.

Here they mash-up a number of genre styles to relate an astounding secret history of the world – and usher in its likely end – in a fast and vast tale which reassuringly mines familiar plot territory and fantasy memes to craft an engaging and addictive Armageddon thriller.

It dawns on the moon on February 17^th 2017 where a team of scientists from Ralph Milne Farley Lunar Base are cautiously retrieving an oddly inscribed box. It looks like a coffin and when an accident causes it to fall open death is indeed insideâ€¦

The release of the thing inside awakens a most unique individual in Oregon, whilst a covert military archaeological dig in Papua, New Guinea goes into overdrive at news of the moon colony suddenly going off air.

Adesh Khan has no time to worry; he’s still working on the box uncovered at the bottom of a deep pit in these fetid jungles. Translator Antoine has made a breakthrough and thinks the hieroglyphics covering the Sarcophagi are warnings. He strenuously advises that every box be buried again and forgottenâ€¦

The remarkable individual in Oregon calls himself Helius and, as his team of heavily-armed and well-equipped enforcers efficiently ferry him by jet to another black site in Florida, they brief him on things you and I would consider common knowledgeâ€¦

Adesh is arguing with the American President but PotUS isn’t listening. Project IX promises inexhaustible energy for the planet and he’s thinking about his legacyâ€¦

In Portugal, on November 1^st 1755 the city of Lisbon was devastated and thousands of lives lost in what history records as a monumental earthquake. It wasn’t, but the hideous travesty that actually destroyed the metropolis looks awfully like the thing that came out of the box on the moonâ€¦

In the Everglades Tara Austin receives a frantic message from her colleague and ex-husband Adesh to stop working and get out of the state immediately. He can’t say much more because that’s when he’s arrested.

As Tara realises the Sarcophagus her team’s been working on is opening and rocking the entire area, in nearby Jackson, Helius and his minders are being quizzed by a pushy reporter who asks the strangest questions. Dodging her, the squad head to the Everglades but the base there seems totally devoid of lifeâ€¦

Deep within Columbus Airforce Base, Mississippi Adesh is being interrogated. He is still being cagy about what he now thinks the scattered Sarcophagi might be and responds badly when Lt. Erica McLyman lets slip that all contact has been lost with the Everglades due to a huge earthquakeâ€¦

It’s not long before Adesh busts out of his cell, sneaks off base and heads for Floridaâ€¦

In France in the Year of Our Lord 1248, a terrible upheaval shattered Mont Granier, releasing a monstrous devil which slaughtered peasants and a troop of knights. One of the noble survivors was severely maimed. He looked a lot like Heliusâ€¦

In Greenville, Florida a reporter named Jen bums a ride with Adesh as he closes in on the Everglades site. They’re a rather conspicuous couple. Everybody else is headed in the opposite direction, spurred on by terror and enforced evacuation by the army. His destination is a raging battlefield, but a news blackout prevents anybody from learning who the army are fightingâ€¦

On the periphery of the furious struggle Helius and his unit are slowly closing inâ€¦

Adesh is a prisoner again. Jen has him chained to a steering wheel as he cautiously negotiates the road to the battle. She’s also pumping him at gunpoint for information on Project IX and doesn’t seem surprised by anything he reveals about the collection of 4-billion-year-old boxes his team had found deposited deep in the Earth.

At that antediluvian time all nine oddly-inscribed high-energy artefacts were placed equidistantly, but passing eons, geological upheaval and continental drift gradually shifted them. The troubles only really began after he convinced international authorities to move them back into their original positionsâ€¦

At Everglades Ground Zero the army are losing the war against a legion of zombies. Helius explains their true enemy is the horror called Kharis, not his meat puppets, and advises his loyal squad on how best to deal with the myriad assaults of the thing.

Not far away Jen hears its call and changes her mind about killing Adesh. She does, however, reveal just how far from human she actually isâ€¦

As they observe Helius metamorphically confront Kharis, Adesh wonders if he might be the only normal creature left in Florida. That idle thought resonates as Jen suddenly joins the fight, every inch as terrifying, warped and inhuman as the original combatantsâ€¦

And on February 11^th 2017, in Mont Granier, Lisbon, the Azores, New Guinea and Greenland the world shakes. Horrendous beasts awake, causing incalculable death and destruction, heralding the end of the worldâ€¦

To be Continuedâ€¦

Snappy, fast paced and planting plenty of plot seeds for future spectacle and revelation, World War X: Helius promises to be a rousing rollercoaster ride of thrills, chill and spills. Get this and stick around for the main event. It promises to be a blastâ€¦
World War X and all contents are Â© Snejbjerg/Frissen/Ã‰ditions du Lombard (Dargaud-Lombard S.A.) 2013.

World War X: Helius will be released on April 14^th 2015 and is available for pre-order now.

April 9, 2015April 8, 2015

Asterix & Obelix’s Birthday: The Golden Book

By R. Goscinny & A. Uderzo (Orion)
ISBN: 978-1-4440-0095-5

One of the most-read comics series in the world, the chronicles of Asterix the Gaul have been translated into more than 100 languages; with numerous animated and live-action movies, TV series, assorted toys and games and even their own tourist hotspot (Parc AstÃ©rix, near Paris). More than 325 million copies of the 35 canonical Asterix books have sold worldwide, making Goscinny & Uderzo France’s bestselling international authors.

His last work on the feature was this compilation of new and old material which was designed to signify and celebrate 50 glorious years of his co-creation. In 2013 a new adventure – Asterix and the Picts – opened a fresh chapter in the annals as Jean-Yves Ferri & Didier Conrad began their much anticipated and dreaded continuation of the franchise.

Like everything great, the core premise of the immortal series works on multiple levels: ostensibly, younger readers enjoy the action-packed, lavishly illustrated comedic romps where conniving, bullying baddies always get their just deserts, whilst more worldly readers enthuse over the dry, pun-filled, slyly witty satire, enhanced for English speakers by the brilliantly light touch of translator Anthea Bell who played no small part in making the indomitable Gaul so palatable to the Anglo-Saxon world. Personally I still thrill to a perfectly delivered smack in the mush as much as a painfully swingeing string of bad puns and dry cutting jibesâ€¦

The eponymous hero is a smart, bold underdog who resists the iniquities, experiences the absurdities and observes the myriad wonders of Julius Caesar‘s Roman Empire with brains, bravery and a bit of magic potion. The stories were alternately set on the tip of Uderzo’s beloved Brittany coast, where a small village of redoubtable warriors and their families resisted every effort of the Roman Empire to complete their conquest of Gaul or throughout the expansive Ancient World circa 50 BC.

Unable to defeat this last bastion of Gallic insouciance, the mostly victorious invaders resorted to a policy of cautious containment. Thus the little seaside hamlet is permanently hemmed in by the heavily fortified garrisons of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium.

The Gauls don’t care: they daily defy the world’s greatest military machine by just going about their everyday affairs, protected by the magic potion of resident druid Getafix and the shrewd wits of a rather diminutive dynamo and his weak-minded super-strong best friendâ€¦

Firmly established as a global brand and premium French export by the mid-1960s, Asterix continued to grow in quality as Goscinny & Uderzo toiled ever onward, crafting further fabulous sagas; building a stunning legacy of graphic excellence and storytelling gold.

RenÃ© Goscinny was one of the most prolific – and remains one of the most-read – writers of strips the world has ever seen. A Parisian born in 1926, he was raised in Argentina where his father taught mathematics. From an early age the boy showed artistic promise. He studied fine arts, graduating in 1942, and while working as junior illustrator at an ad agency in 1945 was invited by an uncle to stay in the USA, where he found work as a translator.

After National Service in France Goscinny settled in Brooklyn and pursued a creative career, becoming in 1948 an art assistant for a little studio which included Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Jack Davis and John Severin as well as a couple of European giants-in-waiting: Maurice de BÃ©vÃ¨re (â€œMorrisâ€, with whom Rene produced Lucky Luke from 1955-1977) and Joseph Gillain (JijÃ©). He also met Georges Troisfontaines, head of the World Press Agency, the company that provided comics for the French magazine Spirou.

After contributing scripts to Belles Histoires de l’Oncle Paul and ‘Jerry Spring’ Goscinny was made head of World Press’ Paris office, where he first met his life-long creative partner Albert Uderzo (Jehan Sepoulet, Luc Junior) as well as creating Sylvie and Alain et Christine (with â€œMartialâ€ – Martial Durand) and Fanfan et Polo (drawn by Dino Attanasio).

In 1955 Goscinny, Uderzo, Jean-Michel Charlier and Jean HÃ©brard formed the independent Ã‰dipress/Ã‰difrance syndicate, generating magazines for general industry (Clairon for the factory union and Pistolin for a chocolate factory). Scripting for Uderzo he produced Bill Blanchart, Pistolet and Benjamin et Benjamine, whilst writing and illustrating Le Capitaine Bibobu.

Under the pen-name Agostini he wrote Le Petit Nicholas (drawn by Jean-Jacques SempÃ©) and in 1956 began an association with the revolutionary comics magazine Tintin, writing stories for many illustrators including Signor Spagetti (Dino Attanasio), Monsieur Tric (Bob De Moor), Prudence Petitpas (MarÃ©chal), Globule le Martien and Alphonse (both by Tibet), Modeste et Pompon (for AndrÃ© Franquin), Strapontin (Berck) as well as Oumpah-Pah with Uderzo. He also scripted strips for the magazines Paris-Flirt and Vaillant.

In 1959 Ã‰dipress/Ã‰difrance launched Pilote and Goscinny went into overdrive. The first issue starred his and Uderzo’s instant masterpiece Asterix the Gaul, debuted Jacquot le Mousse and Tromblon et Bottaclou (drawn by Godard) and also re-launched Le Petit Nicolas and Jehan Pistolet/Jehan Soupolet.

When Georges Dargaud bought Pilote in 1960, Goscinny became editor-in-Chief, but still found time to add new series Les Divagations de Monsieur Sait-Tout (Martial), La Potachologie IllustrÃ©e (Cabu), Les Dingodossiers (Gotlib) and La ForÃªt de ChÃªnebeau (Mic Delinx).

He also wrote frequently for television. In his spare time he created a little strip entitled Les Aventures du Calife Haroun el Poussah for Record (first episode January 15^th 1962) illustrated by Swedish-born Jean Tabary. A minor success, it was re-tooled as Iznogoud when it transferred to Pilote.

Goscinny died in November 1977.

In the post-war reconstruction of France, Albert Uderzo returned to Paris and became a successful artist in the country’s burgeoning comics industry. His first published work, a pastiche of Aesop’s Fables, appeared in Junior, and in 1945 he was introduced to industry giant Edmond-FranÃ§ois Calvo (whose own masterpiece The Beast is Dead is long overdue for a new archival editionâ€¦).

Equally indefatigable, Uderzo’s subsequent creations included indomitable eccentric Clopinard, Belloy, l’InvulnÃ©rable, Prince Rollin and Arys Buck. He illustrated Em-RÃ©-Vil’s novel Flamberge, worked in animation, as a journalist and illustrator for France Dimanche, and created the vertical comicstrip ‘Le Crime ne Paie pas’ for France-Soir. In 1950 he even illustrated a few episodes of the franchised European version of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel Jr. for Bravo!

An inveterate traveller, the prodigy met Goscinny in 1951. Soon fast friends, they decided to work together at the new Paris office of Belgian Publishing giant World Press. Their first collaboration was in November of that year; a feature piece on savoir vivre (how to live right or gracious living) for women’s weekly Bonnes SoirÃ©e, after which an avalanche of splendid strips and serials poured forth.

Both Jehan Pistolet and Luc Junior were created for La Libre Junior and they invented a spoof western starring a Red Indian (ah, simpler, if more casually racist, timesâ€¦) who evolved into the delightfully infamous Oumpah-Pah. In 1955 with the formation of Ã‰difrance/Ã‰dipresse, Uderzo drew Bill Blanchart for La Libre Junior, replaced Christian Godard on Benjamin et Benjamine and in 1957 added Charlier’s Clairette to his portfolio.

The following year, he made his Tintin debut as Oumpah-Pah finally found a home and a rapturous, devoted audience. Uderzo also drew Poussin et Poussif, La Famille Moutonet and La Famille Cokalane.

When Pilote launched in 1959 Uderzo was a major creative force for the new magazine collaborating with Charlier on Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure whilst working with Goscinny on a little something called Asterixâ€¦

Although the ancient Gaul was a massive hit from the start, Uderzo continued working on Tanguy et Laverdure, but as soon as epic was collected as AstÃ©rix le gaulois in 1961 it became clear that the series would demand most of his time – especially as the incredible Goscinny never seemed to require rest or run out of ideas.

By 1967 the strip occupied all Uderzo’s attention, and in 1974 the partners formed IdÃ©fix Studios to fully exploit their inimitable creation. At the same time, after nearly 15 years as a weekly comic strip subsequently collected into compilations, 21^st tale (Asterix and Caesar’s Gift) was the first to be published as a complete original album before being serialised. Thereafter each new release was a long anticipated, eagerly awaited treat for the strip’s millions of fansâ€¦

When Goscinny passed away three years later, Uderzo had to be coaxed and convinced to continue the sagas as writer and artist. He produced a further ten volumes until his retirement in 2010.

According to UNESCO’s Index Translationum, Uderzo is the tenth most-often translated French-language author in the world and the third most-translated French language comics author – right after his old mate RenÃ© Goscinny and the grand master HergÃ©.

After the controversial reception to 2005’s Asterix and the Falling Sky, Uderzo’s 34^th and last outing with his creations took four years to materialise and was once again not what was expected.

In the manner of a TV clip show or â€œroastâ€, the anniversary saga wove snippets and rarely seen ancillary material into a beguiling parade of gently surreal congratulation preceded by a Foreword from the doughty Gaul himself and a moving and laudatory recollection by Goscinny’s daughter Anne, after which the usual set-up pages lead into a strange sceneâ€¦

It is the year 1 (or 0, depending on your grasp of arithmetic) AD. Fifty years after the heyday of the indomitable Gaulish resistance the regular characters are old but still as bellicose as ever. The world however is no longer a place of constant turmoil and adventure. Elderly Asterix has again dumped his horde of grandkids on aged uncle Obelix but both long for the days of having fun and bashing Romans.

Then as Uderzo physically injects himself into the tale the scene magically shifts, the heroes regain youth and vitality and in 50 BC the village is frantically getting ready for a big party. Asterix and Obelix were born on the same day and this year’s birthday party is going to be monumentalâ€¦

As Vitalstatistix makes another speech Geriatrix‘s glamorous young wife interrupts with a prophetic clothes show allowing readers to see what Obelix would look like as a fashion plate in eleven coming eras. Her sole design for Asterix is just as radicalâ€¦

When the big guy’s unrequitable (in fact, happily married and utterly unaware) love Panacea sends him a birthday missive, Obelix has to admit that he cannot read and Druid Getafix lends him an alphabet book he’s been working on. The intensive course of study does not end wellâ€¦

Next follows a selection of birthday greetings from inept Egyptian architect Edifis and Redbeard‘s far from unsinkable pirates, after which a touch of character assassination from Geriatrix and introspection by Druid Psychoanalytix segues into an intriguing set of designs and sketches in the manner of Leonardo da Vinci and the first present: a text and prose book entitled ‘The Circumbendibus Travel Guide’ delineating many of the fascinating places the Gauls have visited (based on an article by Goscinny originally seen in Pilote #347 16^th June 1966)â€¦

Also included is vibrant infomercial ‘Put Your Travels on the Map’ hosted by Cacofonix which is followed by more creative anachronism in the form of parody record covers and a glimpse at the pan-European Imperiovision Song Contest (Bards Only) plus a little girlish table-talk as the village women express their hidden feelings and secret imaginings about the bombastic birthday boys, as well as who should marry themâ€¦

As young entrepreneur Squareonthehypotenus offers plans for a theme park dedicated to the wonderful warriors, his plans are eagerly embraced by the villagers and encourage Druid Valueaddedtax to invent new types of potion, whilst impresario Laurensolivius imagines a time of moving pictures and the great dramas the story of the villagers will inspireâ€¦

Finally a section on the great art which will one day be created because of Asterix and Obelix (augmented by faux reproductions of famous artworks by da Vinci, Rodin, Delacroix, Edvard Munch, Arcimboldo, Manet and David) before tension breaks out after Queen Cleopatra and Julius Caesar finally arrive for the party.

She might eternally be grateful to the Gauls but the Emperor bears grudges and takes the opportunity to have his apothecary Choleramorbus add a little something nasty to the amphora of wine he’s giving as a giftâ€¦

As ever, Roman duplicity is no match for Gaulish guileâ€¦

More a collection of themed gags than a singular saga and packed with posters and sly in-jokes this is a delicious addition – or perhaps perk – to the long and glorious career of two of France’s greatest heroes â€“ both the real ones and their fictive masterworks.
Â© 2009 Les Ã‰ditions Albert RenÃ©/Goscinny-Uderzo. English translation: Â© 2009 Les Ã‰ditions Albert RenÃ©/Goscinny-Uderzo. All rights reserved.

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