{"id":22860,"date":"2020-10-15T08:00:07","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T08:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=22860"},"modified":"2020-10-14T17:56:30","modified_gmt":"2020-10-14T17:56:30","slug":"cinebook-recounts-the-battle-of-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2020\/10\/15\/cinebook-recounts-the-battle-of-britain\/","title":{"rendered":"Cinebook Recounts the Battle of Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Bernard Asso<\/strong>, illustrated by Francis Berg\u00c3\u00a9se<\/strong> with colours by Fr\u00c3\u00a9d\u00c3\u00a9ric Berg\u00c3\u00a9se<\/strong>: translated by Luke Spear<\/strong>(Cinebook)
\nISBN: 978-84918-025-2 (Album PB)<\/p>\n

Originally titled Le Bataille d’Angleterre<\/strong><\/em> and first seen here as Biggles and The Battle Of Britain<\/strong>, the material in this album sprang out of the continent’s decades-long love affair with the plucky British aviator.<\/p>\n

Biggles is huge all over Europe, particularly in Holland, Germany, Belgium and France, which makes it doubly galling that apart from a big run of translations in India, only a short-lived Swedish interpretation of his comicbook exploits (see W.E. Johns’ Biggles and the Golden Bird<\/strong>) and a paltry few from the Franco-Belgian iteration licensed by British outfit Red Fox in the mid-1990s – which included this very volume – have ever made the move back to Blighty\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Hopefully some enterprising publisher will be willing to brave the Intellectual Property rights minefield involved and bring us all more of his superb graphic adventures one day\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Happily, as this tome is more of a documentary than a drama and the Air Ace doesn’t feature, publisher Cinebook have twice released this fine and visually erudite mini epic by historian Bernard Asso and the utterly compelling Francis Berg\u00c3\u00a9se.<\/p>\n

Like so many artists involved in aviation stories, Berg\u00c3\u00a9se (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. At age 23 he began selling strips to L’\u00c3\u2030toile<\/strong><\/em> and JT Jeunes<\/strong><\/em> (1963-1966) after which he produced his first air strip Jacques Renne <\/em>for Zorro<\/strong><\/em>. This was soon followed by Amigo, Ajax, Cap 7, Les 3 Cascadeurs, Les 3 A, Michel dans la Course<\/em> and many others.<\/p>\n

Berg\u00c3\u00a9se worked as a jobbing artist on comedies, pastiches and WWII strips until 1983 when he was offered the plum job of illustrating venerable, globally syndicated Buck Danny<\/strong>. In the 1990s the seemingly indefatigable Berg\u00c3\u00a9se split his time, producing Danny dramas and Biggles books. He retired in 2008.<\/p>\n

In this double-barrelled dossier delight from 1983, his splendidly understated, matter-of-fact strip illustration is used to cleverly synthesise the events following the defeat at Dunkirk to the Battle of Britain (1940)<\/em> and the eventual turnaround in May 1941. Combining and counterpointing the works of famous figures like Churchill<\/em>, Hitler<\/em>, Douglas Bader<\/em> and Goering<\/em> with key tactical players such as Air<\/em> Chief<\/em> Marshal Hugh Dowding<\/em>, Grand<\/em> Admiral Erich Raeder<\/em>, Galland<\/em> and M\u00c3\u00b6lders<\/em> and relating actual tales of individual valour in the skies, the fact-packed narrative tracks the actions and experiences of specious winged warriors Leutnant Otto Werner<\/em> and True Brit Flight Lieutenant James Colby<\/em> as they struggle to survive in the skies over England.<\/p>\n

The saga deals with the early days of terrifying air duels, later Blitz bombings, Albion’s logistical trials and eventual triumphs with factual expertise, but also affords a human face on each side of the conflict\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The latter half of the book then switches time and focus as Asso & Berg\u00c3\u00a9se detail The Bombing of Germany (1943-1945)<\/em>paying especial attention to Air Chief Marshal Harris<\/em>‘ controversial tactic of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Terror Bombing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and its effects on allies and enemies – and innocents.<\/p>\n

Here Colby has transferred to Britain’s Bomber Command<\/em>, trading Hurricanes and Spitfire for Lancasters, Halifaxes and B-17 Flying Fortresses. Major Werner is there too, as the Allies’ campaign slowly destroys the Nazi War Machine and the embattled Ace graduates from prop-powered Fockers and Messerschmitts to the first jet-planes – but too late\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Cunningly converting dry dusty history into stellar entertainment, Asso & Berg\u00c3\u00a9se brilliantly transform statistical accounts and solid detail into powerful evocative terms on a human scale that most children will easily understand, whilst never forgetting the war had two sides, but no \u00e2\u20ac\u0153us\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153them\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Whilst perhaps not as diligent or accurate as a school text, Cinebook Recounts: Battle of Britain <\/strong>(part of a graphic history strand that also includes The Falklands War <\/strong>and The Wright Brothers<\/strong> making distant events come alive) offers a captivating and memorable introduction to the events that no parent or teacher can afford to miss, and no kid can fail to enjoy.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 Editions du Lombard (Dargaud- Lombard SA), 2003 by Marazano & Ponzio. English translation \u00c2\u00a9 2007 Cinebook Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bernard Asso, illustrated by Francis Berg\u00c3\u00a9se with colours by Fr\u00c3\u00a9d\u00c3\u00a9ric Berg\u00c3\u00a9se: translated by Luke Spear(Cinebook) ISBN: 978-84918-025-2 (Album PB) Originally titled Le Bataille d’Angleterre and first seen here as Biggles and The Battle Of Britain, the material in this album sprang out of the continent’s decades-long love affair with the plucky British aviator. Biggles … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Cinebook Recounts the Battle of Britain”<\/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":[63,122,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-european-classics","category-historical","category-war-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-5WI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22860","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=22860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}