Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières

Cinebook

When a rogue planet threatens a new Human colony, Valerian and Laureline are sent to investigate and discover a barren, rocky surface… and a whole world beneath it! The people who live inside Zahir have never seen the stars. Divided along gender lines, torn by a senseless and bloody war, they are unaware that their planet is hurtling towards disaster. To stop it, the two agents of Galaxity will have to infiltrate both sides and force a reconciliation.

Oh dear, here we go again, Volume 3 of Valerian and Laureline, one of the greatest sci-fi epics in printed form…. except I still don’t really see it. Granted, I’m warming to it, I really am. With Volume 1, I just couldn’t see it, it all seemed a little too dated and staid:

“It reads and looks to my uncultured eyes like a badly produced late 70s cartoon series, the kind with badly drawn characters against static backgrounds who always found themselves with every plot device meticulously explained to the point of near irony and every situation the hero finds himself in has some immediately available solution.”

There was more to enjoy in Volume 2:

“… still not the classic I keep being told Valerian is, but the improvement here on the first volume is profound. I can only hope that, as so many of you have promised, this series keeps on this upward curve. Because at this rate, somewhere around volume 5 or 6 I imagine I may well be agreeing with you about it being a bit of a classic.“

This one starts with a problem and quickly ascends at least partway to the wonders I keep being promised. Problem first.

Valerian and Laureline is often hailed as something of a masterpiece in humanism, but all the way through The Land Without Stars the humanism has a distinct smack of chauvinism about it.

Take the first few pages and the repeating gag of Valerian delivering the farewell speech to the colonists of the four planets of the Ukbar system. He finds himself doing the space equivalent of nipping through to the billiard room for brandy whilst the little women chat about knitting or such-like:

And that feeling carries through the volume, as Christin splits up the pair to investigate the planet careering into the Ukbar system, plunging into a society split across gender lines. Valerian finds himself a slave warrior to the female amazons of the city of Malka, and Laureline a bride in the male dominated city of Valsennar. But there’s little subtlety, little avoidance of the worst stereotypes. And unfortunately it seems so ancient, so out of date. Am I being hopelessly reactionary? Overly sensitive? Should I simply look at it as a product of its time?

But what saves this one is that, once you look past the sexism, there’s something important here; Laureline comes into her own, isolated from Valerian, the conflict is solved through negotiation, thinking, diplomacy, the worlds are saved by adapting the political and social ideologies of the people, not through force. It relies not on force, but on the inventiveness of the protagonists, and of course, the inventiveness of the man writing these protagonists.

And even better, what really makes me think that, even though it’s not there yet, but at some point I’m going to be fully on-board with all the fans is sheer out and out epic stuff going on in the sci-fi, specifically the quite wonderful planetary geography of the planet Zahir:

Yes, okay, hollow planets are nothing new, but there’s a real sense of the “wow” in the manner in which Christin, and especially Mézières just throws us into the situation. That sort of legendary imagining is the sort of stuff that I wanted much more of.

But sadly, after that early bit of rather impressive wonder it does settle down to a somewhat pedestrian affair, although like I said, I did appreciate Christin adopting a far more thoughtful resolution than much sci-fi manages.

So, just like with Volume 2, I find myself coming to the end of another Valerian and Laureline review with a sense of “maybe I’m missing something?”, or maybe it’s simply, as I keep being told, a series that takes off in a couple of volumes time. This one was good enough, but it’s still not up there in grand epic stature yet.

Written by Philippe Vandevelde (Tome), illustrated by Jean-Richard Geurts (Janry)

Cinebook

Spirou and Fantasio are hired by a doctor to escort some of his patients. Their ailment? An apparently incurable case of the hiccups. His solution: Send them on the most insane adventure ever and scare the hiccups out of them! Since he offers to pay for their expedition, the two fearless reporters agree to take the patients with them as they attempt to locate two explorers lost in 1938 near the Nepalese border… in the middle of a war!

Volume 2 – Spirou & Fantasio In New York really impressed, with the timing, the slapstick, the carefully constructed wordplay, the background visual gags all leading me to a conclusion that my eventual comparisons to classic Asterix and Tintin were warranted, not with the art necessarily, but with the same manic intensity of Asterix, and the travel and adventuring of Tintin (albeit with far more gags).

I hadn’t realised, before a quick internet search, that Tome and Janry’s take on the characters was merely the 80s version, with the title stretching back to the 40s. From a very quick overview, it seems Cinebook’s decision to reprint starting with Tome & Janry’s work is a smart one, with this version being arguably the best.

This is a good, rip-roaring adventure, just not up there with Volume 2, this convoluted tale of Spirou and Fantasio taking a group of hiccuping patients into Nepal to get their conditions cured through the shock of adventuring. Yeah, weird, but it’s simply a background to hang some impressive and funny set-pieces from, and as such it matters not one bit.

And early on, even tough the sum total of the book was a little under par, the setpieces certainly impressed, with Tome’s spirited, exuberant action sequences matched by Janry’s lovely artwork, never better represented by this page….

I do love the excitement, action, and sheer exuberance that’s delivered there, and there’s similar several times throughout, a great deal of adventuring going on, worthy of a certain boy reporter…. In fact, if you needed any more proof of the adventuring link with Herge’s creation, how about this, where Spirou and Fantasio meet their guide, one familiar it seems with a certain “young foreigner with little white dog” looking for Yetis, who even seems to have picked up a few choice expressions from a certain Captain:

Volume 3, although good, felt a little flat in comparison to the tight, very funny work of Volume 2. Much of that is down to this storyline splitting across this and the next Volume, more length means less enjoyment here, with the gags and action not coming as thick and fast perhaps, and the tight, funny storyline seems looser and consequently less funny, less complete.

So although it might not be as great as the standalone US trip of Volume 2, this certainly has the action, adventure, and laughs, just not as tightly done.

By Xavier Dorison and Fabien Nury, art by Christian Rossi

Cinebook

“1895. Members of the East Coast elite have died under mysterious circumstances. To investigate this delicate problem, Richard Clayton—against the wishes of the President—calls upon a man named Morton Chapel for his unorthodox methods and peculiar associates. As they begin to uncover strange, vanishing marks on people’s bodies, unexplained changes in behaviour and hints of widespread corruption, the team reforms around the name Ulysses S. Grant himself gave it years earlier: his SPecialists in the Odd and the OCcult—his SPOOKS.”

I was expecting rather great things from SPOOKS, or WEST, as it was originally titled, written as it is by Xavier Dorison, whose Long John Silver is a near perfect book whose next volume I eagerly await.

But sadly SPOOKS didn’t quite manage the brilliance of LJS, perhaps due to it being published in France 4 years prior to LJS, and there are moments where Dorison’s ideas and pacing fail here where they were confident, assured, and flawless in LJS.

But there’s still more than enough here to make it something worth reading, something worth enjoying for all the silliness and excitement that a genre mashup of Cowboys and Paranormal Investigations promises.

Come on, this is the Magnificent Seven meets the X-Files. Doesn’t that put a smile on your face?

The Cinebook summary blurb gives you pretty much everything you need to decipher the plot here… that sequence above features cigar chomping SPOOKS sponsor Richard Clayton getting his marching orders from the US Government and beginning the process of assembling his SPOOKS team, starting with the Englishman Morton Chapel.

The final panel with Chapel under threat is just a classic example of the over the top stuff Dorison is going for – the cut to a different panel, the cliché of the Russian roulette moment, it wont be the first familiar comic/film stereotype you see here. And you know something – it didn’t bother in the slightest. In fact, it’s all part of the fun.

So you’ll get a riotous beginning, introducing the supernatural stuff, where all those very important people start dying, all with that occult symbol that goes as soon as they do, all culminating in the chaos you see above. Again, the whole train crash out of the station isn’t new wither. And again, it matters not one whit. This is something that rather wonderfully wears all it’s influences proudly.

And after this we have the classically structured team book  - the heroes assembled in response to a threat, again wonderfully familiar, this time with the Magnificent Seven firmly in my mind.

There’s so much to enjoy here, as long as you want to, as long as you don’t go looking for too much. This is an unashamed genre mashing romp, harking back to so much that has gone before, Dorison and Nury tripping over themselves to shoehorn as many different western/paranormal moments into the plot.

It promised a lot more than it delivered to be honest, much of that possibly down to Dorison’s development as a writer since, but some of it simply down to them trying too damn hard to get so much in.

But nevertheless, if you’re looking for something interesting, light, fast, and fun…. SPOOKS may well fit the bill.

Jean Van Hamme and Philippe Franq

Cinebook

Okay… here’s the blurb… The Price Of Money:

“A man shoots himself in front of Largo, live on TV. He was a guest on a financial talk show who had lost his company because of a Group W decision. Shocked by the knowledge that he is indirectly responsible, Winch becomes an object of hatred for the nation, and his two best friends abandon him. When suspicions arise that shady dealings led to unnecessary restructurings, he launches an investigation to identify the real culprits.”

…. and The Law Of The Dollar:

“Accused of murder and hated by an entire nation, Largo is hiding in Canada and feeling very much alone. But his friendships are stronger than his circumstances, and soon he’s able to counterattack against the various factions that are trying to bring him down. Greedy lawyers, crooked CEOs, murderous accountants, all pitted against the orphan turned billionaire… In the end, only the smartest and strongest will prevail—for such is the Law of the Dollar.”

Okay, now I know that two parts is the way it was originally planned and published, and Cinebook are doing it right, but I’m always pleased when I get these in pairs – start and finish all in one glorious read.

It’s wonderful watching Van Hamme and Vance get the pacing just right, building everything up, layering the business intricacies and the action until the cliffhanger, usually involving Largo in trouble up to his neck, all to be resolved in the action-packed, and plot heavy finale.

But having both books at once, it’s ever so satisfying being able to finish part 1, take a breather, and then reach out and plunge straight into part 2. And just to be clear, reading The Law Of The Dollar without first having read The Price Of Money is a really, really, really dumb idea. Don’t be silly, get them both.

Because make no mistake about it, Largo Winch is a magnificent action thriller with a difference. The difference being it’s not really an action thriller at all – in reality it’s a wonderfully thought out, ridiculously over the top, densely plotted action thriller where more often than not, Largo Winch (“anti-establishment, womanizer, wanderer, iconoclast, and fighter“, head of the W Group, worth $10 billion) spends most of his time like this….

… or like this:

And it’s the sitting around talking business, or the standing around talking business, or the walking about talking business that really is the standout here. It’s the thing I really love the series for.

Sure, Van Hamme throws the occasional car chase, scuffle, or other modicum of action in every few pages to fulfill some contractual obligation or keep Francq happy or something, but the real thrill of this brilliant thriller is watching Largo Winch work his way through a business problem, using James Bond like charm and a bit of Jason Bourne style action.

When there is action, it’s just as beautifully done, your pulse already racing thanks to the meticulous manner writer and artist have upped the ante throughout, the ongoing plots and manoeuvrings of the financial world to thoroughly stitch Largo up accelerating until having a bit of a car chase is almost a release to the thrilling tension.

And then Franc really lets loose, delivering some beautiful, beautiful stuff. Here’s page 3 of the climactic car chase in The Price Of Money, with Winch on the run from the police, trying to get to the airport where his new pilot is waiting to fly him to relative safety. It’s so well composed; the long shots to start with, the cars racing through panel, the way ahead blocked, the smashing through the fence, and into the path of his plane… ooooohh….

This one is all about stock options, so much so that there’s half a page of explanatory text on the first page of The Law Of The Dollar along with the publishing details. It’s completely unecessary, as it’s all been beautifully, clearly, and thrillingly explained in the first book with Van Hamme’s text heavy plot carried along beautifully by Franq’s sumptuous artwork. There are books where this much text would merely slow it all down too much, make it practically unreadable, but those are books written by people who dream of being able to do it as well as Van Hamme.

The only issue I had trouble with regarding Largo Winch is whether I like it slightly more or slightly less than Van Hamme’s other magnificent thriller; XIII. I think, now we’re into double figures with each, that I’m coming down (just) on the side of Largo Winch. That wonderful mix of financial machinations, thoughts being just as important as deeds, and the action stuff just wins out over XIII. But luckily, I can have both. And so can we. Life is good.

By Goscinny and Morris

Cinebook

“A general amnesty puts the Daltons back on the streets, something Lucky Luke isn’t happy about. And, to make it worse, they seem to have become model citizens. It’s all an act, though, and it doesn’t take long for the stupidest quartet in the West to be back behind bars. Luke is already riding off into the sunset… But he’s not counting on a riled-up Apache tribe that attacks the penitentiary where the Daltons are locked up…”

I’ve just written a review of the latest XIII volume, and that essentially boils down to this “volume 12, same as volume 1, and that is a great thing“.

So. Lucky Luke Volume 34…. not quite the same as always….

Not quite as completely impervious to my critical faculties as XIII I feel. This volume of the adventures of the coolest cowboy around has huge flaws throughout, a plot that meanders so badly at times, twisting and turning and frankly getting just that touch dull. But what do you know, even this volume has a lot to laugh about. We’ll get to that in a moment.

It all starts off as good as usual, with the amnesty creating a few choice gags off the novelty of the Daltons being legitimately free for a change, tricking Luke into catching them, going as far as pretending to go straight to rob the town bank. And there’s a marvellous few pages playing with the idea of Luke and the Daltons dancing around each other, and a bank that can’t stay put…

That just cracked me up, but as soon as we get past this everything rather wanders off with the Daltons heading into Apache territory, and the plot rather loses itself somewhat in the setpieces, with Goscinny making some very uncharacteristic errors, creating a storyline that, just this once, just doesn’t flow at all well. I suppose even the master has his off-days?

But although it might have been a bit difficult to really get into, and a bit of a struggle to read and enjoy, it did have a series of great gags running through it, especially the first 20 something pages. So although the plot just felt flabby and a little dull, the gags kept me going to the end this time. Gags like this one, a great example of Goscinny’s sense of timing, setting up a gag and delivering a couple of pages later…

The setup: Rin Tin can gets put on the case….

Two pages later, with the Apaches at the walls…. the pay-off:

Not a classic Luke story, but classic Lucky Luke moments. The gags and the comedy timing saw me through.

By Jean Van Hamme and William Vance

Cinebook

Called back to the USA by the frantic government, McLane and Jones discover that General Carrington has kidnapped Wally Sheridan, President of the United States! Holed up in a secret base he’s turned into a fortress, Carrington intends to put Sheridan on trial on live TV and expose him as the Number I of the conspiracy. To do that, he’s going to need XIII’s help in bringing in his main witness: the Mongoose!

Chapter 12 of 19. There’s about as much point me reviewing this now as there is you picking it up and expecting to get the full effect of the XIII series thus far. You wouldn’t wander into a film halfway through, wouldn’t pick up a book and flick to the middle part, so why on earth are you expecting me to encourage you to start XIII with Volume 12?

Alright, fair enough, there is something to be said for picking this up instead of previous volumes, as the whole trial nature leads to a neat summary of some of what has gone before, and in conjunction with Volume 13 “The Investigation” which will fill you in on the other side of the XIII storyline, it could do a good job of giving you a story so far before we plunge into the final third. But then again I could go on the first week of your holiday for you and send you a dvd – just the same, all the facts, none of the experience.

What I will say is that this is the series that simply keeps on going. The situations may change, but the characters, the motivations, the basic DNA of the series – all pretty much the same now as it was back in Volume 1. And oh boy, I loved Volume 1.

We may know (or at least Van Hamme assures us we may know) the identity of XIII by now, but that doesn’t necessarily stop him throwing another adventure our way, alternating as always between tight plotting, full of dialogue and exposition, and the over the top and explosive action scenes.

Like this…..

And this….

This is, as you’ll no doubt be aware, like reading Bond on the comic page. In fact it’s Bond, it’s Bourne, it’s Mission Impossible, and every other big budget franchise. Except Van Hamme writes so well, and Vance draws so well, that this is the very best of all of those franchises, especially Bond; all the glorious sense of smart fun, all the action, all the locations, all the tech, all about getting the perfect mix of story, plot, character, action, and thrills.

Sure, there are moments where you may find yourself pondering how he can twist it and turn it all over again, moments even where the incredulity gets a little too much, but overall it just wins you over. It does me anyway. And to be quite honest I imagine it will keep winning me over, no matter what small doubts I have, right up until that final page of Volume 19.

Written by Bob de Groot, art by Morris

Cinebook

“Brothers Adolph and Arthur Caille are mechanical geniuses. They’ve just created one of the first slot machines and have presented it to their local senator, a notorious gambler. Much taken with the device, he agrees to send them on a tour of American cities to test the machine’s popularity. And, to escort them on this dangerous journey, he calls on his old friend Lucky Luke… So begins the wacky tale of how the one-armed bandit conquered the West!”

Volume 48 of the original, from 1981, and in the wake of Goscinny’s death, Bob de Groot took the writing reins for the first time, and it can’t help but feel different from the Goscinny penned volumes. Not badly written, just a different voice, and after getting so used to the way Goscinny did things, anything else feels different enough to make this a below par episode.

In that, it’s much the same problem as I had with the 2010 volume Lucky Luke Versus The Pinkertons by Pennac, Benacquista, and illustrated by Achdé.

The thing is, Goscinny’s voice was so strong that his Lucky Luke became the classic template for so many of the books that any change from that can’t help but feel somewhat below par.

But still, it’s a fun romp, with Luke accompanying a couple of inventors bringing their prototype slot machine to the wild, wild West. Along the way there’s the usual mix of comedy set-pieces and silly farce that marks a Lucky Luke tale, with de Groot using the gambling background well, with the slot machine wreaking havoc, no matter which side of the gambling divide the people find themselves on…

Those puritanical types in opposition find their defenses worn down and addiction taking hold…

Which those accustomed to a wager find the attractions of this new way to throw their money away all too exciting…

Best bit? Probably as they ride into Poker Gulch to show the slots to Senator S. Windle and we get to meet his somewhat unusual family:

So yes, a slightly below Lucky Luke episode perhaps. But because it never deviates too far from the template, it still manages to be a good read, still manages to be a sort-of classic.

By Jean Dufaux and Philippe Xavier

Cinebook

“With the Master of Machines as their new leader, the Crusaders are ready to assault Jerusalem once more. The Sultan must now choose between his love for a Christian princess and his faith. And Gauthier of Flanders, to free his ally Osarias’s Jewish people, will have to confront the last part of his mysterious past, a Jinni. As the final battle is joined, truths will be revealed on the nature of gods and demons and the ambitions of men.“

Always tricky, setting up something with a large ensemble cast, no real lead, a rich historical setting and a clash of religious ideologies. Even trickier drawing it all together to a satisfying conclusion.

Crusade did so much right in setting it all up, mixing the historically possible with a big dose of religious and mystical fantasy. Dufaux created an epic, full of promise, as he set the opposing forces of the Christian Cross and the Islamic Crescent to war, as usual manipulated by men motivated to use religion to further their own desires.

Here in the final volume everything is drawn together; the Master of Machines commands the Christian armies, the Sultan marshals the forces of Islam, and Gauthier of Flanders and Sarek Pasha act as wild cards, having to decide for themselves whether to play their pivotal roles in the oncoming, inevitable bloodshed. And all the while the mysticism of ancient magics whirls around like the twisting sands.

There really is so much going for Crusade; sumptuous artwork, a great historical backdrop, magic meets religion, some really well defined characters, a sense of a story that could be, should be, truly epic.

But in the past three volumes it’s never really attained the heights it promised. There’s always been a sense that Dufaux is reaching a little too far, trying to wrap too much into his story, bringing too many characters into the mix, where he may have been better advised to keep it tighter. As it is, the whole series has threatened brilliance, but never quite attained it.

I find myself rather lost in the complexities, failing to keep up with the plot. I hope it’s not down to approaching senility, and far prefer to think of it as a fault of the writer.

Now, with this final volume, the conclusion comes, but again it comes with a fair amount of frustration. This time it’s because something so dense and multilayered is folded into the conclusion a little too quickly and conveniently. I will give huge points to Dufaux fro the final twist of the ending though – if I’m reading it correctly he really manages to use the Fire Beaks as a plot point, a great reveal, to throw us right into the present day, looking at historical greed and modern greed, whether disguised with religious zeal or false political promises and gives us a final page that makes a magnificent statement.

Xavier’s art still impresses, creating some beautiful moments, perfect landscapes, very beautiful people, and gets the whole epic scale of the final battles between the Cross and the Crescent absolutely right.

There’s grand entertainment in here, and an epic saga across all four volumes. No, not a perfect thing, but still a worthy, and enjoyable read. It’s just not as good as I hoped it may be.

However, I think this is going to be one where opinion is poised on a fine point; I would imagine that if the book clicked with you, you’ll be decrying me as a fool, incapable of understanding just how beautifully worked, how subtle, how epic, how incredible Crusade is. The best comparison I have in some ways is Lord Of The Rings. Similar in set up really, and a similar response. Whether it’s the books or the films, I just found them all a little tedious, uninvolving and uninteresting. Yet I’m obviously in the minority over that. Perhaps Crusade is the same thing?

By Sylvain Runberg and Eduardo Ocana

Cinebook

“With the beast killed by the soldiers, the strike ends and things seem to return to normal. But there are still some unanswered questions and lingering tensions, especially towards the neo-druids who live in the forest. The death of a young girl triggers a wave of aggression and more deaths. Is anyone controlling the ancient evil in the forests? And why, exactly, is the principled, family-minded Charles Darwin drowning his nights in gin and loose women?”

Oh yes, why is Charles Darwin, mild mannered naturalist, having a wild time of it with the gin and the loose women? And what connection does it have with his lost research into “wild men”, those “clawed ones” so interesting to Prime Minister Palmerston?

Here’s a bit of what I said about Volume 1 of Darwin’s Diaries…

“You want strange concept? Try this on for size – Charles Darwin gets roped in by the Prime Minister to investigate a particularly series of gruesome murders in Yorkshire that look like the work of some as yet unidentified predator. Yes, Charles Darwin. Yes, THE Charles Darwin. On The Origin of the Species Charles Darwin. A man not exactly known for being a great investigator of unsolved crimes.

But it gets weirder. No, really. This Charles Darwin turns out to be quite the man of action as well, and seemingly fond of the darker things in life; with gin, prostitutes and vicious street fighting all part of a night out. And all the while he’s investigating the Yorkshire beast. Which happens to be very, very real, very dangerous and most decidedly not something he’s seen on his travels. This is something new, something even the great scientist can’t explain. See. I told you it was a strange concept.”

And with Volume 2, the strangeness of the concept keeps on going, all the way through to a very interesting, if slightly telegraphed ending. We’re back in 1860, with a just getting famous Darwin carrying on his investigations into the Yorkshire murders, with a big case of suspension of disbelief needed here with Runberg really playing the weirdness of this Darwin for all he can.

But that’s okay, I can suspend with the best of them, and there is something ridiculously enjoyable about seeing action Darwin going rather batshit crazy, more weird animal related deaths, strange druidic goings-on, and like Darwin said right at the end of the first volume….. is the beast they killed the only one of this potential new species to roam the wilds of Yorkshire?

(Therianthrope you say….. “the metamorphosis of humans into other animals”. Now can you see where this is going?)

Yes, it’s still quite obviously bonkers. But it’s still quite brilliantly, over the top and knows it bonkers. Runberg writes like crazy, making it all seem at least slightly believable, keeping it all going, throwing us right in there. It works, just about, although once it becomes obvious where he’s going with it, and that’s about halfway through, you do begin to wonder how long he can keep it entertaining once he gets into the next volume. But for this one, I’m enjoying every stupid thing he can throw my way.

Likewise the art by Ocana is effective stuff, with a particular knack of delivering tension where it needs, whether it’s the talking heads or the action sequences, and he’s very good at delivering a creeping sense of danger, just like this:

So that’s Volume 2. I’m looking forward to seeing where they take it all next, although we may have a bit of a wait, as this was out from Lombard in 2011, and there’s no word on the French publication date of Volume 3 yet. Hopefully, it will be worth the wait.

By Morris and Goscinny

Cinebook

“The First Transcontinental Railroad is stopped dead near its starting point, both in the East and in the West. Repeated injunctions from the president of the “Transcontinental Railroad” are having no effect: His workers are constantly prevented from working by agents of a mysterious traitor. But Lucky Luke witnesses one of the acts of sabotage and stops it. Soon, he is in charge of security for the entire westward push—and he will have his work cut out for him!”

After being bang up to date with Volume 31, with 2010′s Lucky Luke Versus The Pinkertons by Pennac, Benacquista, and Achdé, Cinebook’s rather strangely haphazard reprinting schedule takes us we’re way back to 1957 with the very first collaboration on the Lucky Luke character between writer Goscinny and artist and creator Morris.

It’s interesting in an unexpected way, this out of publication order reprinting. Volume 31 gave us a look at a modern comic team working their hardest to create something very, very good, and very, very similar to the best of Goscinny and Morris. Whereas here we have Goscinny and Morris at the very start of a collaboration that stretched across 29 years. So in some respects it’s no surprise that this volume feels about as close to a “classic” Lucky Luke as the more recent volume by Pennac, Benacquista, and Achdé did.

This is not to say it’s without merits, in fact the merits, as always, are there pretty much from the get go. This is, after all, Lucky Luke, the man who shoots faster than his own shadow, and lots of familiar things are here from the volumes prior to this with Morris writing  and drawing.

There’s only hints of the tightness between Goscinny and Morris we’ve come to appreciate here. Lots of gags certainly, and much to guffaw at, as Luke steers the railroad through warring towns, Indian trouble, and the unwelcome attention of the bandits hired to stop him and his railroad at all costs. But it’s nowhere near as smooth as I’ve come to appreciate, not in the writing, nor in the art.

However, despite it feeling somewhat raw and uncultured compared to later Luke volumes, there’s a lot to enjoy as you may expect.

And there’s definitely that sense of greatness waiting to happen. I’ll leave you with one panel that had me falling off the chair with the absolute genius of the idea…

Goscinny & Morris and Lucky Luke, pretty much a guarantee of a good read every two months from Cinebook.