{"id":23916,"date":"2021-04-12T12:14:12","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T12:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=23916"},"modified":"2021-04-12T12:14:12","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T12:14:12","slug":"papyrus-volume-6-the-amulet-of-the-great-pyramid-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2021\/04\/12\/papyrus-volume-6-the-amulet-of-the-great-pyramid-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Papyrus volume 6: The Amulet of the Great Pyramid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Lucien De Geiter<\/strong>, coloured by B. Swysen<\/strong>: translated by Jerome Saincantin<\/strong> (Cinebook)
\nISBN: 978-1-84918-240-9 (Album PB)<\/p>\n

Papyrus<\/strong> is the astoundingly addictive magnum opus of Belgian cartoonist Lucien de Gieter. Launched in 1974 on the pages of legendary weekly Le Journal de Spirou<\/i><\/strong>, it has run to 35 albums and spawned a wealth of merchandise, a TV cartoon series and video games.<\/p>\n

Born in 1932, the author studied at Saint-Luc Art Institute in Brussels before going into industrial design and interior decorating. In 1961 he made the jump to sequential narrative, first via ‘mini-r\u00c3\u00a9cits’ (half-sized, fold-in booklet inserts) for Spirou<\/i><\/strong>, starring his jovial cowboy ‘Pony’<\/em>, and later by writing for art-star regulars such as Kiko, Jem, Eddy Ryssack and Francis.<\/p>\n

He later joined Peyo’s studio as inker on ‘Les Schtroumpfs’<\/em> (The Smurfs<\/strong>), took over long-running newspaper strip ‘Poussy’<\/em> and launched mermaid fantasy ‘T\u00c3\u00b4\u00c3\u00b4\u00c3\u00b4t et Puit’<\/em> when Pony was promoted to Spirou<\/i><\/strong>‘s full-sized pages. Deep-sixing the Smurfs, de Gieter expanded his horizons by joining a select band contributing material to both Le Journal de Tintin<\/i><\/strong> and Le Journal de Mickey<\/i><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

From 1972-1974 he worked with cartooning legend Berck on ‘Mischa’<\/em> for Germany’s Primo<\/i><\/strong> whilst perfecting his dream project: a historical fantasy which would soon occupy his full attention and delight millions of fervent fans for decades to come.<\/p>\n

The annals of Papyrus encompass a huge range of themes and milieux, mixing Boy’s Own<\/strong> adventure with historical fiction, fantastic action and interventionist mythology. The Egyptian epics gradually evolved from standard \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bigfoot\u00e2\u20ac\u009d cartoon style and content to a more realistic, dramatic and authentic iteration. Each tale also deftly incorporated breaking historical theories and discoveries into the beguiling yarns.<\/p>\n

Papyrus<\/strong> is a fearlessly forthright young fisherman favoured by the gods who rises against all odds to become an infallible hero and friend to Pharaohs. As a youngster, the plucky Fellah<\/em> was singled out and given a magic sword, courtesy of the daughter of crocodile-headed Sobek<\/em>, before winning similar boons and blessings from many of the Twin Land’s potent pantheon.<\/p>\n

The youthful champion’s first accomplishment was freeing supreme deity Horus<\/em> from imprisonment in the Black Pyramid of Ombos<\/em> and restoring peace to the Double Kingdom, but it was as nothing compared to current duty: safeguarding Pharaoh’s wilful, high-handed and insanely thrill-seeking daughter Theti-Cheri<\/em> – a dynamic princess with an astounding knack for finding trouble \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The Amulet of the Great Pyramid<\/strong> was 6th<\/sup>-&-last-to-date Cinebook translation (the 21st<\/sup> album of the series, originally released in 1998 as Le Talisman de la grande pyramide<\/i><\/strong>). It’s an enthralling rollercoaster romp through living mythology and a spooky trial for the plucky chosen one which begins when Papyrus is dragged from the palace – and a rare reward from Theti-Cheri for saving her life and soul again – by spookily intelligent donkey Khamelot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The savvy beast of burden belongs to court jester Puin<\/em> and whenever it comes running in such a manner, it means the funny little man has found more trouble\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

An eventful trip to the Giza plateau with its royal necropolis and great pyramids of Kheops<\/em>, Khefren<\/em> and Mykerinus<\/em>results in the daring lad finding not only his diminutive friend but also a desiccated yet extremely active mummy unearthed by tomb-robbers.<\/p>\n

Puin has been hearing ghastly screams emanating from the tombs and convinces the boy-hero to stay and listen for them too. He never anticipated his bold friend to look for what made them\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The sinister sounds lead deep into the nobles’ grave fields, but as they proceed, the searchers stumble upon another acquaintance. The unconscious man is one of the three Pepi brothers<\/em> charged with keeping the recently-restored Sphinx free of desert sands. Leaving the comatose victim in Puin’s care, Papyrus presses on. Before very long though, the eerie events prove too much and the panicked Professional Fool bolts. His pell-mell rush carries him down a passage far under the Kheops pyramid where he is confronted with the spirit of Seneb the Dwarf<\/em>, magician and priest of that august and long-deceased pharaoh\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The garrulous ghost is in need of a favour and urges his terrified \u00e2\u20ac\u0153guest\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to carry his jewelled heart scarab to Papyrus who will know what to do with it\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Scrabbling out of the ancient passageway, Puin is eventually rescued by his donkey and impetuous Theti-Cheri – who again refused to be left out of any action and secretly followed her bodyguard into peril.<\/p>\n

Papyrus, meanwhile, plunges deeper into the necropolis and is attacked by a pack of spectral jackals. Even his magic sword is no help and the malign mobbing only ends when Anubis<\/em> himself calls a halt to it. The God of the Dead is angered by the sudden increase in grave-robbing and has abducted two of the caretaking Pepi brothers, thinking them desecrators.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, rather than admit a mistake, the jackal-headed judge demands Papyrus retrieve Kheops’ heart amulet in return for their liberty. Anubis needs it to weigh the king’s soul before he can remove all the wandering spirits of the region to a place where the living can no longer disturb them\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

And thus ensues an astonishing race against time as the young champion has to scour the Great Pyramid from top to bottom (magnificently detailed and scrupulously explained in some of the best action illustration the author has ever produced); defeating deadly traps, defying spectral sabotage and godly interventions and solving the riddles of the dead to accomplish his mission.<\/p>\n

However, even after more than satisfying the demands of Anubis, there’s still the murderously mundane menace of the real grave-robbers holding Theti-Cheri hostage to deal with before the canny champion can rest easy\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Epic, chilling, funny, fast-paced and utterly engaging, this is another amazing adventure to thrill and enthral lovers of wonder from nine to ninety-nine, confirming Papyrus<\/strong> to be a sublime addition to the family-friendly pantheon of Euro Stars who wed heroism and humour with wit and charm.<\/p>\n

Any avid reader who has worn out those Tintin, Lucky Luke<\/strong> and Asterix<\/strong> albums would be wise beyond their years to add such classic chronicles to their bookshelves, and actively agitate the publishers to get on with releasing the rest of these too-long buried treasures.
\n\u00c2\u00a9 Dupuis, 1998 by De Gieter. All rights reserved. English translation \u00c2\u00a9 2015 Cinebook Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lucien De Geiter, coloured by B. Swysen: translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook) ISBN: 978-1-84918-240-9 (Album PB) Papyrus is the astoundingly addictive magnum opus of Belgian cartoonist Lucien de Gieter. Launched in 1974 on the pages of legendary weekly Le Journal de Spirou, it has run to 35 albums and spawned a wealth of merchandise, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Papyrus volume 6: The Amulet of the Great Pyramid”<\/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":[63,102,122,125,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-european-classics","category-fantasy","category-historical","category-humour","category-kids-all-ages"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-6dK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23916","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=23916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}