{"id":33463,"date":"2025-08-01T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T08:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33463"},"modified":"2025-07-31T14:58:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T14:58:52","slug":"the-order-of-the-black-dragon-a-bob-wilson-adventure-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/08\/01\/the-order-of-the-black-dragon-a-bob-wilson-adventure-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Order of the Black Dragon \u2013 a Bob Wilson Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Griffo<\/strong> & Marcus <\/strong>(Deligne)
\nISBN: 978-2-87135-023-1 (Album PB)<\/p>\n

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

Here\u2019s another oddity from the experimental 1980s when many European publishing houses had a concerted go at cracking the highly resistant US comic book market. The Bob Wilson<\/em> in question is not the revered nigh-sainted Arsenal and England goalkeeper, nor the character in the old Fatal Fury<\/strong> videogame, but rather a traditional two-fisted adventurer\/Soldier of Fortune of the sort that fed so much popular fiction of the last century and a half…<\/p>\n

Back in 1982 the series debuted in Le Journal Illustr\u00e9 le plus Grand du Monde <\/strong><\/em>as \u2018L\u2019Ordre du Dragon Noir\u2019<\/em>, written by \u201cMarcus\u201d (nom de plume of relative mystery-man Danny de Laet) and drawn by the esteemed Werner \u201cGriffo\u201d Goelen, whose other works include Modeste et Pompon<\/em>, S.O.S. Bonheur<\/em>, Munro<\/em> and – with Jean Dufaux – B\u00e9atifica Blues<\/em>, Samba Bugatti <\/em>and Giacomo C<\/em>, amongst so many others, all of which really should be available in a language I\u2019m actually conversant with or fluent in.<\/p>\n

Bob Wilson<\/strong> is a period thriller, with this volume, set during the days of US Prohibition, following him and his pal Dashiel Hammett<\/em> as they battle Chinatown Tongs to thwart the plans of insidious oriental mastermind Black Dragon<\/em>, prior to our hero tracking the eponymous fiend all the way back to his lair in civil war-torn China.<\/p>\n

Wilson can count on the support of a grand line of brothers-in-arms as his protracted war takes him across the globe alongside such historical figures as Aristotle Onassis<\/em>, John Flanders <\/em>(one of many pen-names for Belgian writer Jean Ray) and Chiang Kai-shek<\/em>, as well as the odd fictional character like Buddy Longway<\/strong> – a Western hero very popular au continent<\/em>…<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an infectious blend of all-action, grittily excessive adult pulp fiction, highly cinematic, fabulously exotic and very, very stylish in the manner those darned Europeans made all their own for the longest time. I would dearly love to see some publisher give this franchise another go in these days of digital accessibility and global, not national, market-places…
\n\u00a9 1885 Editions Michel Deligne S.A. and Griffo & Marcus. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Griffo & Marcus (Deligne) ISBN: 978-2-87135-023-1 (Album PB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Here\u2019s another oddity from the experimental 1980s when many European publishing houses had a concerted go at cracking the highly resistant US comic book market. The Bob Wilson in question is not the revered nigh-sainted Arsenal … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Order of the Black Dragon \u2013 a Bob Wilson Adventure”<\/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":[191,75,214,122,225,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-crime-comics","category-european","category-historical","category-mystery","category-war-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8HJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33463","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=33463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33465,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33463\/revisions\/33465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}