{"id":30283,"date":"2024-08-03T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T08:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30283"},"modified":"2024-08-01T17:21:57","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T17:21:57","slug":"cinebook-recounts-battle-of-britain-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/08\/03\/cinebook-recounts-battle-of-britain-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Cinebook Recounts Battle of Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Bernard Asso<\/strong>, illustrated by Francis Berg\u00e9se<\/strong>, coloured by Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric<\/strong> Berg\u00e9se<\/strong> (\u201cFB\/ B\u00e9rik<\/strong>\u201d) and translated by Luke Spear<\/strong> (Cinebook)
\nISBN: 978-84918-025-2 (Album PB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced during less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Originally titled Le Bataille d\u2019Angleterre<\/em><\/strong> and first seen in the UK as Biggles and The Battle Of Britain<\/strong>, the material in this album all sprang out of the continent\u2019s decades-long love affair with the plucky British (Polish, French, Dutch, Belgian, Indian, etc et al) aviator of \u201cHistory\u2019s Darkest Days\u201d.<\/p>\n

Biggles<\/strong> has been huge all over Europe longer than I\u2019ve been alive, 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 comic book exploits (see W.E. Johns\u2019 Biggles and the Golden Bird<\/a> <\/strong>) and a paltry few from the Franco-Belgian iteration licensed by British outfit Red Fox in the mid-1990s – which included the original iteration of very volume – have ever made the move back to Blighty…<\/p>\n

Hopefully some enterprising publisher will be willing to brave the Intellectual Property Rights minefield involved and bring us all more of those superb graphic adventures one day…<\/p>\n

Happily, as this tome is more documentary than drama and the Air Ace doesn\u2019t feature on the revised pages at all, Cinebook have twice released this fine, visually erudite mini epic by historian Bernard Asso and the utterly compelling Francis Berg\u00e9se.<\/p>\n

Like so many artists involved in aviation stories, Berg\u00e9se (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. Aged 23 he began selling strips to L\u2019\u00c9<\/em><\/strong>toile<\/em><\/strong> and JT Jeunes<\/em><\/strong> (1963-1966), after which he produced his first air strip Jacques Renne<\/em> for Zorro<\/em><\/strong>. This was swiftly followed by Amigo<\/em>, Ajax<\/em>, Cap 7<\/em>, Les 3 Cascadeurs<\/em>, Les 3 A<\/em>, Michel dans la Course<\/em> and many others.<\/p>\n

Berg\u00e9se laboured as a jobbing artist on comedies, pastiches and WWII strips until 1983 when he was offered the plum job of illustrating venerable, globally syndicated strip Buck Danny<\/strong>. In the 1990s the seemingly indefatigable Berg\u00e9se split his time, producing Danny dramas and Biggles books. He retired in 2008.
\n\"\"
\nIn 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) and the eventual turnaround in May 1941. By combining and counterpointing the efforts of (in)famous figures like Churchill, Hitler, Douglas Bader and Goering with key tactical players such as Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, Adolf Galland and M\u00f6lders, an intimate tapestry unfolds. Additional drama is effected in the fact-packed narrative by mixing actual tales of individual valour in the skies with the actions and experiences of invented winged warriors Leutnant Otto Werner<\/em> and True Brit Flight Lieutenant James Colby<\/em>, as both 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\u2019s logistical trials and eventual triumphs with factual expertise, but also affords a human face on each side of the conflict…<\/p>\n

The latter half of the book shifts time and focus as Asso & Berg\u00e9se detail The Bombing of Germany<\/em> (1943-1945) paying especial attention to Air Chief Marshal Harris\u2019 controversial tactic of \u201cTerror Bombing\u201d and its effects on allies and enemies – and innocents.<\/p>\n

Here narrative voice Colby transfers to Britain\u2019s Bomber Command, swopping Hurricanes and Spitfire for Lancasters, Halifaxes and B-17 Flying Fortresses. Major Werner is also present as the Allies\u2019 campaign slowly destroys the Nazi War Machine and the embattled Ace graduates from prop-powered Focke-Wulfe and Messerschmitt vehicles to the first jet powered planes – but too late…
\n\"\"
\nCunningly converting dry history into stellar entertainment, Asso & Berg\u00e9se brilliantly form statistical accounts and solid detail into powerful evocative terms on a human scale that most children will easily understand, whilst reminding us even this war had two sides, and was never just \u201cus\u201d or \u201cthem\u201d…<\/p>\n

Whilst arguably not as diligent or accurate as a school text (my opinion differs…), Cinebook Recounts: Battle of Britain<\/strong> (part of a graphic history strand making distant events come alive that includes The Falklands War<\/strong> and The Wright Brothers<\/strong>) delivers a captivating and memorable introduction to the events no parent or teacher can afford to miss, and no kid can fail to enjoy.
\n\u00a9 Editions du Lombard (Dargaud- Lombard SA), 2003 by Marazano & Ponzio. English translation \u00a9 2007, 2010 Cinebook Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bernard Asso, illustrated by Francis Berg\u00e9se, coloured by Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Berg\u00e9se (\u201cFB\/ B\u00e9rik\u201d) and translated by Luke Spear (Cinebook) ISBN: 978-84918-025-2 (Album PB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times. Originally titled Le Bataille d\u2019Angleterre and first seen in the UK as Biggles and The Battle Of Britain, the material in … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Cinebook Recounts 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":[191,239,214,122,170,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-drama","category-european","category-historical","category-non-fiction","category-war-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7Sr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30283","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=30283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30287,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30283\/revisions\/30287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}