{"id":14979,"date":"2016-06-20T08:15:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T08:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=14979"},"modified":"2016-06-20T08:15:59","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T08:15:59","slug":"clifton-volume-4-black-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2016\/06\/20\/clifton-volume-4-black-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Clifton volume 4: Black Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Rodrigue<\/strong> & de Groot<\/strong>, coloured by Liliane Denayer<\/strong>, translated by Luke Spear<\/strong> (Cinebook)
\nISBN: 978-1-905460-30-4<\/p>\n

An infallible agent of Her Majesty’s assorted security forces, Clifton<\/strong> was originally devised by Raymond Macherot (Chaminou<\/em>, Les croquillards<\/em>, Chlorophylle<\/em>, Sibylline<\/em>) for the weekly magazine Tintin<\/strong><\/em>. The doughty exemplar of Albion debuted in December 1959, just as a filmic 007<\/strong> was preparing to set the world ablaze and get everyone au fait with espionage\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

After three albums worth of strip material – compiled and released between 1959 and 1960 – Macherot left Tintin<\/strong><\/em> for arch-rival Spirou<\/strong><\/em> and his comedic crime-buster forlornly floundered.<\/p>\n

Tintin<\/strong><\/em> revived him at the height of the Swinging London scene and aforementioned spy-boom, courtesy of Jo-El Azaza & Greg (Michel R\u00c3\u00a9gnier). These strips were subsequently collected as Les lutins diaboliques<\/strong><\/em> in French and De duivelse dwergen<\/strong><\/em> for Dutch-speakers in 1969.<\/p>\n

Then it was back into retirement until 1971 when first Greg – with artist Joseph Loeckx – took his shot. He toiled on the True Brit until 1973 when Bob De Groot and illustrator Philippe \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Turk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Liegeois fully regenerated the be-whiskered wonder. They produced ten tales after which, from 1984 on, artist Bernard Dumont (AKA B\u00c3\u00a9du) limned from De Groot’s scripts before eventually assuming the writing chores as well. The series concluded in 1995.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6But Not For Long\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

In keeping with its rather haphazard Modus Operandi and indomitably undying nature, the Clifton<\/strong> experience resumed yet again in 2003, crafted now by De Groot & Michel Rodrigue for four further adventures. Although the humorous visual vein was still heavily mined in these tales, the emphasis was subtly shifted and the action\/adventure components strongly emphasised\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6This one, Black Moon<\/strong>, was originally released in 2004 as Lune noire – Clifton<\/strong><\/em>: the 22nd<\/sup> of 25 to date and Rodrigue & De Groot’s second collaboration\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Bob de Groot was born in Brussels in 1941, to French and Dutch parents. As a young man he became art assistant to Maurice Tillieux on F\u00c3\u00a9lix<\/em>, before creating his own short works for Pilote<\/strong><\/em>. A rising star in the 1960s, he drew 4\u00c2\u00a0\u00c3\u2014\u00c2\u00a08 = 32 L’Agent Cam\u00c3\u00a9l\u00c3\u00a9on<\/em> where he met Philippe \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Turk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Liegeois and consequently began making a slow transition from artist to writer. Together they created Archim\u00c3\u00a8de<\/em>, Robin Dubois<\/em> and L\u00c3\u00a9onard<\/em> and eventually inherited Raymond Macherot’s moribund Clifton<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 1989 de Groot \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with Jacques Landrain – devised Digitaline<\/strong><\/em>, a strong contender for the first comic created entirely on a computer, and co-created Doggyguard<\/em> with Michel Rodrigue, even whilst prolifically working with the legendary Morris on both Lucky Luke<\/strong> and its canine comedy spin-off Rantanplan<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

He’s still going strong with strips such as Leonard<\/em> in Eppo<\/strong><\/em>, P\u00c3\u00a8re No\u00c3\u00abl & Fils<\/em> and Le Bar des acariens <\/em>(both published by Gl\u00c3\u00a9nat) and much more.<\/p>\n

Michel Rodrigue really, really likes Rugby. He was born in Lyon in 1961 and eventually pursued higher education at the National School of Fine Arts, where he also studied medieval archaeology.<\/p>\n

From 1983-85 he was on the French Rugby team and in 1987 designed France’s mascot for the World Cup. He made his comics debut in 1984 with sports (guess which one) strip M\u00c3\u00a9zydugnac<\/em> in Midi Olympique<\/strong><\/em>. After illustrating an adaptation Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac <\/strong>in 1986 he and collaborator Jean-Claude Vruble produced a volume of La R\u00c3\u00a9volution Fran\u00c3\u00a7aise<\/strong><\/em>, scripted by Patrick Cothias.<\/p>\n

Rodrigue then joined Roger Brunel on Rugby<\/em> en B.D.<\/em><\/strong>, Du Monde dans la Coupe!<\/strong><\/em>, Concept<\/em>, Le Rugby en Coupe<\/em> and La Foot par la Bande<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

For Tintin<\/strong><\/em> he drew Bom’s Les Conspirateurs<\/em> and produced Rugbyman<\/strong>, the official monthly of the French Rugby Federation, amongst a welter of other strips. Along the way he began scripting too, and, after working with de Groot on Doggyguard<\/em> joined him on the revived Clifton<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

He also remains astonishingly creatively occupied, working on Ly-Noock<\/em> with Andr\u00c3\u00a9 Ch\u00c3\u00a9ret, Br\u00c3\u00a8ves de Rugby<\/em>, La Grande Trambouille<\/em> des F\u00c3\u00a9es for Ren\u00c3\u00a9 Hausmann, Futurama<\/em> comics, Cubitus with Pierre Aucaigne, and many more\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

So who’s our hero?<\/p>\n

Pompous, irascible Colonel Sir Harold Wilberforce Clifton<\/em> is ex-RAF, a former officer with the Metropolitan Police Constabulary and recently retired from MI5. Typically, he has a great deal of difficulty dealing with being put out to pasture in rural Puddington<\/em> and takes every opportunity to get back in the saddle, assisting the Government or needy individuals as an amateur sleuth whenever the opportunity arises.<\/p>\n

Sadly, he is also all too keenly aware that he is generally the only truly competent man in a world chockfull of blithering idiots\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

In this relatively recent offering the accent is heavily on blistering adventure and sinister intrigue – albeit with a liberal dosing of political satire tipped in – and begins at the end with the murder of Clifton in a seedy hotel in North Korea.<\/p>\n

Photos of his bloody corpse are leaked to the press and soon cause a terrific commotion in the secret Headquarters of MI-5. Veteran warhorse and ultra-capable spymaster Colonel Donald Spruce<\/em> cannot believe the evidence of his eyes and neither can any of his appalled staff\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Agent Brian<\/em> begins translating the text and recounts how British subject \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Marmaduke Brent\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was chased by persons unknown through the town of Ptang-Kong<\/em> before being machine gunned to death. With no other information available all the devastated agents can do is arrange for the body of their fallen former comrade to be shipped home\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

To Spruce falls the unenviable task of informing Clifton’s fiery, frequently befuddled housekeeper Mrs. Partridge <\/em>of the tragedy\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

A few days later, with great ceremony a British transport picks up the coffin and the exotic widow escorting it to its final destination. With the plane safely in the air, she quickly opens the box and lets Clifton out before his oxygen supply is exhausted\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Battered and groggy, the old war horse begins reviewing the convoluted path which led to this fine turn of events\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Was it only a month ago that he and the ravishing Miss Jade<\/em> were approached by Spruce to clandestinely follow the Prime Minister’s idiot nephew Hank<\/em> to North Korea and infiltrate the bizarre and avaricious Black Moon Cult<\/em> which had somehow changed an annoying chinless wonder and embarrassing idiot into a blithering nincompoop and danger to the prestige of the nation?<\/p>\n

Of course the valiant old soldier accepted the mission, but neither he nor Jade could have known how devious was their masked leader The Great Tralala<\/em>, how well-established, ambitious and deadly his cult was, nor that they were already a clandestine nuclear power with the entire world in their sights\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Still, with nothing to lose and a world to save, Clifton naturally had to do his utmost\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Fast-paced, action packed and sporting set pieces and a body count that would put James Bond<\/strong> and SPECTRE<\/strong> to shame, Black Moon<\/strong> is a cleverly contrived light romp that will astound and delight blockbuster addicts and comes with a smart line in sardonic social commentary to please every fun-loving sucker for satire.
\nOriginal edition \u00c2\u00a9 Les Editions du Lombard (Dargaud-Lombard) 2004 by Rodrigue & De Groot. English translation \u00c2\u00a9 2007 Cinebook Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rodrigue & de Groot, coloured by Liliane Denayer, translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook) ISBN: 978-1-905460-30-4 An infallible agent of Her Majesty’s assorted security forces, Clifton was originally devised by Raymond Macherot (Chaminou, Les croquillards, Chlorophylle, Sibylline) for the weekly magazine Tintin. The doughty exemplar of Albion debuted in December 1959, just as a filmic … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Clifton volume 4: Black Moon”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[75,63,125,132,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-comics","category-european-classics","category-humour","category-older-kids","category-spy-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-3TB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}