{"id":23842,"date":"2021-03-16T18:42:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T18:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=23842"},"modified":"2021-03-16T18:42:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T18:42:36","slug":"marie-antoinette-phantom-queen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2021\/03\/16\/marie-antoinette-phantom-queen-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Marie Antoinette: Phantom Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Rodolphe<\/strong> & Annie Goetzinger<\/strong>, translated by Peter Russella<\/strong> (NBM)
\nISBN: 978-1-68112-029-4 (HB)<\/p>\n

As I’m perpetually reiterating, just like so much European art and culture, French language comics (I’m controversially including Belgium and Swiss strips in this half-baked, nigh-racist, appallingly sweeping statement) often appear as a triumph of style over content.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t mean they’re bad – far, far from it – but rather that sometimes writing and plot aren’t as important to the creators – or readers – as the way it looks on a page\/in a book, and complex characterisation isn’t always afforded the same amount of room that scenery, players, fighting or sex gets.<\/p>\n

Such is not the case in this sublimely evocative and eerily placid episode by eminent Bande Dessin\u00c3\u00a9e scenarist Rodolphe D. Jacquette (Le Conservateur<\/strong>, Raffini<\/strong>, Cliff<\/strong> Burton<\/strong><\/em>) and former fashion artist turned comics creator supreme Annie Goetzinger (Girl in Dior<\/strong>, Casque d’Or, Aurore<\/strong>, L’Agence Hardy<\/strong><\/em>) which seamlessly blends the tone and timbre of two iconic eras in French history into a tale of mystery, imagination and rather indolent intrigue\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

First seen in 2011 as Marie Antoinette, La Reine Fantome<\/strong><\/em>, the translated wonderment follows an enlightening Introduction<\/em> from Rodolphe, describing the origins and provenance of the story before co-writer and sole illustrator Goetzinger introduces us to artist Maud<\/em> as she sits in the gardens of the Petit Trianon<\/em> at Versailles.<\/p>\n

It’s October 5th<\/sup> 1934 and her sketching of the scene is a brief yet welcome escape from her own problems. Her beloved but far older husband is recently dead, leaving her a vast fortune which her stepson son covets. Remy<\/em> constantly pesters her to marry him, but she knows he’s as likely to kill as wed her to get his hands on the inheritance\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Things take a strange turn when her dog breaks loose and scampers away. He is quite the hit with the ladies of the Court when he bounds into a grand building, just as a frantic footman warns Queen Maria Antoinette<\/em> that they must all retreat to the castle before the peasants besieging Versailles find them. It is still October 5th<\/sup>, but also somehow, so very long ago\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

As her stepson’s attentions become more obnoxious and intolerable, Maud’s dreams are hunted by potent, tangible glimpses of the dead queen’s final days, and close friends Suzy<\/em> and Maggie<\/em> convince her to try an oh-so-fashionable s\u00c3\u00a9ance.<\/p>\n

Also attending the affair is attractive psychiatrist Dr. Maurice D’Octrobre<\/em>, a man of great charm and learning, possessed of a remarkably open mind\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Good thing too, since the ceremony allows Marie Antoinette to manifest, imploring Maud to find her remains and re-bury her so that the tragic queen can rest at last\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

And so begins an utterly beguiling, entrancingly sophisticated, classically constructed ghost story with clever plot twists, genteel suspense and even a vile villain who sees his stepmother’s unsuspected psychic gifts as a handy stepping stone to having her committed and possessing her fortune\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Maud’s path is unswerving and her triumph never in doubt, but she never expected that in addition to the satisfaction of a job well done and a soul saved there would be such tangible rewards for her good deed\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Eerily comfortable and superbly satisfying; balancing melancholy shades of The Ghost and Mrs Muir<\/strong> with the foreboding poesy of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca<\/strong>, Marie Antoinette: Phantom Queen<\/strong> is a superb step back into a lost world of elegant mystery and imagination: one no fantasy lover or mature comics reader should miss.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 Dargaud 2011. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

For more information and other great reads see http:\/\/www.nbmpub.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rodolphe & Annie Goetzinger, translated by Peter Russella (NBM) ISBN: 978-1-68112-029-4 (HB) As I’m perpetually reiterating, just like so much European art and culture, French language comics (I’m controversially including Belgium and Swiss strips in this half-baked, nigh-racist, appallingly sweeping statement) often appear as a triumph of style over content. That doesn’t mean they’re … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Marie Antoinette: Phantom Queen”<\/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":[63,102,122,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-european-classics","category-fantasy","category-historical","category-mature-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-6cy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23842","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=23842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}