{"id":26636,"date":"2022-10-06T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T08:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=26636"},"modified":"2022-10-05T17:49:12","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T17:49:12","slug":"melusine-volume-3-the-vampires-ball-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2022\/10\/06\/melusine-volume-3-the-vampires-ball-2\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u00e9lusine volume 3: The Vampires Ball"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Clarke<\/strong> & Gilson<\/strong>, coloured by Cerise<\/strong> and translated by Jerome Saincantin <\/strong>(Cinebook)
\nISBN: 978-1905460694 (Album PB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Witches – especially cute and sassy teenage ones – have a long and distinguished pedigree in fiction. One of the most engaging first appeared in legendary Belgian magazine Le Journal de Spirou<\/em><\/strong> in 1992. M\u00e9lusine<\/strong> is actually a sprightly 119-years old and spends her days – and many nights – working as an au pair\/general dogsbody to a most ungracious family of haunts and horrors inhabiting a vast monster-packed, ghost-afflicted chateau. It pays her bills whilst she diligently studies to perfect her craft at Witches\u2019 School\u2026<\/p>\n

The long-lived much-loved feature is presented in every format from one-page gag strips to full-length comedy tales, all riffing wickedly on supernatural themes and detailing her rather fraught life, filled with the demands of the appallingly demanding master and mistress of the castle and even her large circle of exceedingly peculiar family and friends.<\/p>\n

The strip was devised by writer Fran\u00e7ois Gilson (Rebecca<\/em><\/strong>, Cactus Club<\/em><\/strong>, Garage<\/em> Isidore<\/em><\/strong>) and cartoon humourist Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Seron – AKA Clarke – whose many features for the all-ages LJdS<\/em><\/strong> and acerbic adult humour publication Fluide Glacial<\/em><\/strong> include Rebecca<\/em><\/strong>, Les Cambrioleurs<\/em>, Durant les Travaux, l\u2019Exposition Continue\u2026<\/em> and Le Miracle de la Vie<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Under pen name Valda, Seron also created Les Babysitters<\/em><\/strong> and as Bluttwurst Les Enqu\u00eates de l\u2019Inspecteur Archibaldo Massicotti<\/em><\/strong>, Ch\u00e2teau Montrachet<\/em>, Mister President<\/em> and P.38 et Bas Nylo<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A former fashion illustrator and nephew of comics veteran Pierre Seron, Clarke is one of those insufferable guys who just draws non-stop and is unremittingly funny. He also doubles up as a creator of historical and genre pieces such as Cosa Nostra<\/em><\/strong>, Les Histoires de France<\/em>, Luna Almaden<\/em> and Nocturnes<\/em><\/strong> – apparently he is free from the curse of having to sleep\u2026<\/p>\n

Collected editions began appearing annually or better from 1995, with the 27th<\/sup> published in 2019. Thus far five of those have transformed into English translations thanks to the fine folk at Cinebook.<\/p>\n

Originally released on the Continent in 1996, Le bal des vampires<\/em><\/strong> was the second M\u00e9lusine <\/strong>album, setting the scene delightfully for newcomers as the majority of content is comprised of 1- or 2-page gags starring the sassy sorceress who makes excessive play with fairy tale and horror film icons, conventions and themes.<\/p>\n

When brittle, moody M\u00e9lusine isn\u2019t being bullied for her inept cleaning skills by the matriarchal ghost-duchess running the castle, ducking cat-eating monster Winston<\/em>, dodging frisky vampire The Count<\/em> or avoiding unwelcome and often hostile attentions of horny peasants and over-zealous witch-hunting priests, the domestic enchantress can usually be found practising spells or consoling and coaching inept, un-improvable and lethally unskilled classmate Cancrelune<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This sorry sorceress-in-training is a sad case: her transformation spells go awfully awry, she can\u2019t remember incantations and her broomstick-riding makes her a menace to herself, any unfortunate observers and even the terrain and buildings around her\u2026<\/p>\n

At least Mel\u2019s boyfriend is a werewolf, so he only troubles her a couple of nights each month\u2026<\/p>\n

This turbulent tome features the regular procession of slick sight gags and pun-ishing pranks but also features some longer jocular jaunts such as the fate of a rather rude knight in armour, a brush with what probably isn\u2019t a poltergeist in the Library and Mel\u2019s unfortunate experience with daunting dowager Aunt Adrezelle<\/em>\u2019s patented Elixir of Youth\u2026<\/p>\n

Wrapping up a barrage of ghostly gaffes, ghastly goofs and grisly goblin gaucheries is the sordid saga of the eternal elite at their most drunkenly degenerate, as poor M\u00e9lusine is not only expected to organise and cater \u2018The Vampires\u2019 Ball\u2019 <\/em>but has to stick around and handle the explosive clean-up for those especially intoxicated Nosferatus who tend to forget why the revelry has to die down before dawn\u2026<\/p>\n

Wry, sly, fast-paced and uproariously funny, this compendium of arcane antics is a great taste of the magic of European comics and a beguiling delight for all lovers of the cartoonist\u2019s art. Read before bedtime and don\u2019t eat any hairy sweets\u2026
\nOriginal edition \u00a9 Dupuis, 2000 by Clarke & Gilson. All rights reserved. English translation 2007 \u00a9 Cinebook Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Clarke & Gilson, coloured by Cerise and translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook) ISBN: 978-1905460694 (Album PB\/Digital edition) Witches – especially cute and sassy teenage ones – have a long and distinguished pedigree in fiction. One of the most engaging first appeared in legendary Belgian magazine Le Journal de Spirou in 1992. M\u00e9lusine is actually … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “M\u00e9lusine volume 3: The Vampires Ball”<\/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":[113,63,102,66,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","category-european-classics","category-fantasy","category-horror-stories","category-humour"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-6VC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26636","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=26636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26639,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26636\/revisions\/26639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}