Polish Mute Comics? Yep, they are a thing it seems. At least enough of a thing to warrant a website collecting mute comics from 31 authors at present. I was sent their way by Piotr Nowacki, artist of Tainted and Moe. Seems he isn’t alone with the no words thing. Here’s how the website describes itself:

“Welcome to POLISH’D SILENCE. You have just come across a uniqe site presenting the wealth and diversity of Poland’s mute comics. Them being without a word, may just as well leave you speechless. Just reach out and finally get to know some of the Poland’s best modern comic creators without the hassle of language barrier.”

One from Piotr Nowacki first… written by Bartosz Sztybor, Just One Different Thought – a splitting storyline, each different decision splits off into a different colour, narrowing down the art as it goes – the first page splits to two (below), then 4, then .. well, I’ll let you find out. Nice though.

And this was very nice – 7 pages from writer Dennis Wojda and artist Sebastian Skrobol – Island Of Hope:

Written by Job, art by Derib

Cinebook

“When the beavers bring Yakari a battered old canoe, the young Sioux and his friends repair it and go for a little trip—and find more adventure than they bargained for, in the person of a father coyote. Fortunately, their new friend is up to his reputation for cunning: When Buffalo Seed is cornered by an angry puma, it will take all of the coyote’s tricks, combined with Yakari’s bravery, to get the young hunter out of his predicament.”

I’d not read any Yakari before, but it’s not tough to  pick up – Yakari’s a young Sioux with the ability to talk to the animals. He hangs around with friends Rainbow and Buffalo Seed and has a loyal horse Little Thunder. Together they get into gentle scrapes and always end up okay.

It’s not deep, it”s not complicated, and it’s probably the youngest of all the books Cinebook publishes. There’s none of the clever humour and knowing themes of books like Iznogoud, Spirou, Cedric, or the Bluecoats, all-ages with that little extra. This is simple and light, innocent fun.

The story is just as simple as it needs to be, characters going from one little scene to another – getting a canoe from the beavers, fixing it up, heading out into the river.

It picks up a lot when they fall foul of father coyote, played as the original trickster character of myth and legend made real, all tied off neatly at the end for the kids with a little Coyote God myth retelling. Father Coyote tricks the gang, then conveniently makes firm friends oveer some moccasins and is on hand when they need him most after Buffalo Seed gets trpped by a determined and nasty (in a very age-appropriate way) Puma.

So yes, it’s almost impossibly gentle, and it’s a read just this side of bland in many ways, but there’s a certain charm in here. And I just have a feeling that it’s somewhat antiquated charm will appeal to those children in the school library currently burning their way through countless animal books. And that’s no bad thing.

The art is bigger in scale and uses fewer panels than other similar Euro comedy albums, really ramping up the cuteness factor nicely, all adding to the feeling that, as long as you realise this is saccharin sweet Disney-fied storytelling, you’ll enjoy it. Or rather you’ll enjoy seeing somebody much, much younger enjoy it.

By Jean Van Hamme and William Vance

Cinebook

“Captured and imprisoned in the Roca Negra fortress, XIII is being tortured by the sinister Colonel Peralta. But, for all his pain and suffering, he’s also in the same building as Maria, the woman who may be his wife. And they have plenty of dedicated, resourceful friends outside… as well as at least one traitor. Still unsure of his past, Jason McLane will have no choice but to become the man known as “El Cascador” to clean up Costa Verde once and for all.”

Here we are, the halfway point of Van Hamme’s ridiculously twisty and turny action thriller, his “what if Jason Bourne’s story just kept going and going and going” thriller, where each new story means new identities, new threats, new conspiracies, new bad girls to throw in XIII’s way, new women to fall at his feet, new places to go, new impossible situations to get out of.

I’ve said some variation of this practically every time I’ve reviewed XIII, and I’ll say it again here with Volume 10, this is ridiculous, an overblown conspiracy thriller action adventure that would be dismissed as frankly over the top for something so prone to over the top as Hollywood.

But dear lord, is it a lot of fun or what? The slight flabbiness of last volume, the inevitable come-down from the conclusion of sorts in Volume 8 is forgotten, and we’re back on familiar, exciting, ridiculous ground here…. and there’s a helicopter chase in the early stages to prove it….

In the last volume “For Maria“ we followed XIII on the increasingly spurious trail of bizarre coincidences and obviously manufactured clues to Costa Verdi and evidence that points not only to XIII being the Irish mercenary/freedom fighter El Cascador, but to his marriage to the deposed President’s daughter Maria.

Who is, of course, languishing in prison, due to be executed, which leads inevitably to XIII trying to rescue her, and just as predictably at the end of Volume 9 XIII ends up in dire straits in famed prison Roca Negra.

But predictably…. not for long….

And that’s where “El Cascador” picks up…….. there are fights, intrigue, manoeuvrings galore, a false ending three quarters of the way through the book leading to a climactic and very nicely drawn out courtroom scene.

Time and again I describe XIII as a thriller, as an action-adventure, yet it’s a continual surprise, a continual pleasure to realise that, yet again, Van Hamme and Vance are more than happy to thill and excite with their characters standing around talking at length. Brilliant storytelling.

Yep, XIII is ridiculous nonsense, but it’s bloody well done, hugely entertaining, absolutely enthralling nonsense….. Van Hamme is intent of sending us twisting and turning right up to Volume 19′s conclusion.

What started out as a fantastically over the top and original (well, apart from the whole Jason Bourne thing) thriller has settled down, in these middle sections as a fantastically fun thriller following a familiar path of identity, action, and thrills leading to the next stage of XIII’s possible true identity.

But the execution more than makes up for the repetition. And as usual, Vance’s artwork is top notch. And as usual, I fear my exuberance for the story rather underplays just how good, how skilful Vance really is. So as way of apology, have a couple of bits of close-up Vance beauty:

But just in case you haven’t time, here’s some of the highlights ….

Largo Winch – The Price Of Money & The Law Of The Dollar by Van Hamme and Francq (February & April 2012):

Van Hamme, especially with Largo Winch and XIII is a guarantee of a great thrill ride, a perfect action movie in comic form.

“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.”

XIII by Van Hamme and Vance – The Trial and Top Secret (March and May 2012)

“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!”

Valerian – The Land Without Stars by Mézières & Christin (April 2012)

I wasn’t convinced by the first volume, but by volume 2, I was much more into it, and started to believe it was as good as people were telling me.

“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.”

Crusade Volume 4 – The Fire Breaks by Dufaux & Xavier (Feb 2012)

“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.“

But if there’s one Cinebook title I’m really excited about in their new catalogue it has to be Spooks Volume 1 – The Fall Of Babylon by Dorison, Nury & Rossi (March 2012)

The reason is simple – Xavier Dorison. His Long John Silver series has been a spectacular read. And if I can’t have Volume 4 quite yet, then something new written by him will just have to do. And this western tale may just be wonderful – I have high hopes:

“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.“

Yep, Dan Berry, of the recently enjoyed After We Shot The Grizzly, is taking himself off to the Angoulême Comics Festival this week, to soak in the atmosphere and enjoy the build up to next week’s festival. Lucky so and so.

Angoulême is of course, the biggest and most important of the European Comics Festivals, where the entire town of Angoulême becomes comic town, celebrating all that is good and great with the 9th art. One day, one day I shall go. If only it wasn’t in school time. (Although Olivier Cadic of Cinebook did suggest to me recently that organising a school trip to Angoulême would be a fantastic thing to do – if only schools had money for that sort of epic trip).

However, we can join in and track his progress on a Tumblr he’s set up for the occasion: angouleme2012.tumblr

And I did like this Art Spiegelman poster for this year’s festival:

By Jean Van Hamme and Grzegorz Rosinski

Cinebook

“Still travelling with Kris of Valnor, Thorgal runs afoul of a local tribe. When a mysterious old woman offers him a chance to escape the hostile villagers, he accepts. But there’s more to the bargain: She says that if he can make his way into the Invisible Fortress, he’ll be able to erase his name from the Stone of the Gods, cancelling his destiny—and finally have a chance at a normal life.”

Again, my ridiculous flip-flopping of opinion with Thorgal continues. I know I keep saying I should stop, keep promising myself, with each new and disappointing volume I read, that this will be my last. Except there’s obviously something beyond a guilt based desire to actually read all the things sent for review, something that does bring me back, something I’m actually getting out of Thorgal.

So here we are again….. and after last volume I wasn’t expecting all that much, here’s what I said then:

“And now, after Volume 10, I just think I might have finally had done with it. If Volume 9 felt like Van Hamme doing Thorgal by the numbers then this is simply Van Hamme phoning it in. The story doesn’t really amount to anything and throughout the volume it reads almost childishly, this happens, then this, then something else, then this again…. over and over, a parade of moments with none of the style or skill Van Hamme has shown himself supremely capable of in other stories and indeed in previous Thorgal volumes.”

And here, at least at the start, we’re on familiar(ish) ground – Thorgal is travelling, sharing a cosy barbarian’s retreat with the Lady Kriss, his sometime enemy, obviously madly infatuated with everyone’s favourite humanist barbarian. And of course, he manages to tick off another set of local barbarians – you can tell they’re barbarians – they’re the ugly ones compared to Thorgal’s manly yet sensitive look and Kriss’ seductive yet occasionally vulnerable look.

So far, so hmmm. I’m beginning to get that feeling again, of really not being all that bothered by what goes on. I know Thorgal sold in excess of 200k each volume, but it’s just not for me I’m afraid. That sort of “why do I read this again?” feel.

BUT, BUT, BUT….. About a third of the way through it sort of does that thing it did back in Volume 7, which had a weird time-travel plot going through it. And I find myself enjoying just that little bit of weirdness, as Thorgal and Kriss find themselves venturing into the blank whiteness of The Invisible Fortress, as seen on that very, very, attractive Rosinski cover. It’s not much, but it takes it out of the entrenched (and frankly, to my reading tastes, dull) realms of by the numbers sword & sorcery just enough to get my attention.

And that puts me in mind of a theory about the series. I’m thinking that I don’t really care that much for the episodes which veer too far into standard sword & sorcery stuff, as it’s just not something I’ve ever really enjoyed. But when it begins to veer a little bit into the weird, even when it’s simple a bit of weird capping off a whole heap of very little going on like it is here in The Invisible Fortress, I grab onto that difference and it’s just enough of a hook to raise the whole thing up.

As usual, the one thing I can’t really criticise at all is the artwork – Rosinski’s stuff is just lovely, really, really lovely. Even when I’m being a little bored by Van Hamme doing the latest twist in the Thorgal saga, he at least gives me something lovely to be looking at and most importantly to keep my attention – because if it wasn’t for Rosinski I’d probably be gone from Thorgal. Like I say, I know it’s beloved, I know so many people read it. But it’s just not me.

It was an amazing year, with excellent new titles by older and younger established creators.  As far as I’m concerned, these three creators really play in the premier league from now on.

1. Cyril Bonin
I knew of him as the artist for the comic series Fog, but as it turns out he’s also a keen script writer.  Last summer his Chambre Obscure was published in Dutch, and was a very well crafted whodunnit with all the ingredients that were typical of the genre at the start of the twentieth century.  And La Belle Image (which is based on the novel with the same name by Marcel Aymé), only confirms all this : an intriguing story with brilliant visualisations about a man who walks into his own life a complete stranger.

2. Frederik Peeters
Ever since Pillules Bleues (Atrabile, 2001, published as Blue Pills by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) I’ve been keeping the work of Swiss cartoonist Frederik Peeters on my radar. Château de sable was published near the end of 2010, but I only read it after New Year’s. It’s an incredibly well drawn science fiction story that totally captures the atmosphere of the Twilight Zone (the real one) :
captivating and alienating at the same time.

3. Ralph Meyer

Ralph Meyer’s work harkens back to the great realist artist of the French-Belgian school.  Nothing too earth-shattering, probably, but it is proof of great craftmanship.  Page Noire (published in 2010 but widely awarded in 2011) provided him with an excellent script (by Frank Giroud and Denis Lapièr) about a writer in hiding, a character that was obviously based on J.D Salinger.  It was one of the great surprises of the past year (as far as my own reading goes).

Uitstekend jaar, met goeie nieuwe titels van oudere én jongere vaste waarden, Ook deze drie stripmakers spelen wat mij betreft voortaanecht wel in de eredivisie mee:

1. Cyril Bonin
Ik kende hem als tekenaar van de reeks Fog, maar nu blijkt hij ook uitstekende scenario’s te kunnen schrijven. Zijn Chambre obscure verscheen afgelopen zomer in het Nederlands, en bleek een geweldig goed gemaakte whodunnit met alle ingrediënten die bij het begin van de twintigste eeuw nog eigen waren aan het genre. En de romanbewerking La Belle Image (naar het gelijknamige boek van Marcel Aymé) bevestigde al dat moois: een intrigerend, schitterend in beeld gebracht verhaal over een man die als vreemdeling zijn eigen leven komt binnengewandeld.

2. Frederik Peeters

Sinds Blauwe Pillen houdt mijn radar alle werk van de Zwitserse stripmaker Frederik Peeters in de gaten. Château de sable verscheen eind 2010, maar las ik pas na nieuwjaar. Een fantastisch getekende sf-vertelling in de sfeer van de televisieserie The Twilight Zone, meeslepend én bevreemdend.

3. Ralph Meyer

Zijn werk gaat terug op dat van de grote realistische tekenaars uit de Frans-Belgische school. Niet wereldschokkend wellicht, maar wel bewijzen van groot vakmanschap. Met Page Noire (in 2011 in het Nederlands verschenen), op scenario van Frank Giroud en Denis Lapière, kreeg hij bovendien een uitstekend scenario over een ondergedoken, duidelijk op J.D. Salinger gebaseerde schrijver in handen. Een van de verrassingen van het voorbije jaar.

By Jean Van Hamme and Philippe Aymond

Cinebook

“Suzan and her father are taking a well-deserved break in the south of France. But their holidays are cut short when several men burst into the house and kidnap James Fitzroy. What Suzie doesn’t know is that the attackers are actually CIA operatives: The Agency is offended by the existence of an unofficial European counterterrorist outfit. But in their attempt to use Lady S. to draw her employers out, it’s the American spooks who may be made the fools…”

The third volume in Van Hamme’s saga of a reluctant female spy takes us in a strange and rather unexpected direction, and gives me the best read so far in the series.

Volume 1 (review) was an enjoyable intro to the life of Suzan Fitzroy, adopted daughter and principal assistant to James Fitzroy, the roving US ambassador in Europe. Her past as a thief has been used against her by the mysterious CATRIG (Centre for Anti-Terrorism Research and Intelligence Gathering), and she’s set to work as a high class spy.

But when I last read her exploits in Volume 2 (review) it proved a real disappointment, and I referred to Van Hamme’s story as “merely a shadow of what he’s done before“, calling it a “thriller by the numbers” and ending with “the inevitable attempted plot twist is sloppy and telegraphed almost from the off“. So, either Van Hamme was having an off day or I was, but I stand by the review. Whenever I open a Van Hamme book, expectations are almost ridiculously high, possibly too high, maybe I just expect too much every time?

And maybe, just maybe, knowing I hadn’t enjoyed Lady S. Volume 2 meant I went into this one not expecting all that much? Which might be why the change around in the story, the unexpected shift from yet another mission seemed fresh and interesting?

Because this is essentially a “what Suzie did on her holiday story“, where that nasty old C.I.A., complete with the nasty old, fat, and bloaty boss, gets wind of the CATRIG organisation and, determined to root them out, arranges for Suzie’s adopted dad to be kidnapped. A big, big mistake on their part.

Suddenly, instead of being in control of the situation, the C.I.A. is on the backfoot at every turn (and there are lots of turns), as they work to protect Suzie, work to thwart the C.I.A. plot, knowing that by doing so, Suzie’s dad will be released. What it becomes is a series of journeys for Suzie, escaping the clutches of the US agents and the French police, who’ve finally made the connection between Suzie now and the thief she used to be, with everyone along Suzie’s journey seemingly proving to be an agent of CATRIG… even the dear old lady on the bus:

So instead of spending all volume on a mission, Suzie spends it being subtly moved around by CATRIG, obviously in complete control of the situation.

Eventually she’ll find herself at their secret HQ, and it’s secret is a lovely twist on the spying game, with elements of classic spy stories thrown in. I’m loath to blow the pleasant surprise of this, but my only regret is that Aymond, whose art is (as before) a gloriously controlled, always perfectly paced and very tight affair, didn’t play with the idea a little more and do what a lot of artists would and filled every scene at CATRIG HQ with old, familiar faces.

So, Lady S. Volume 3 proves to be another top notch Van Hamme thriller, albeit a slow paced, almost tongue in cheek thriller. It surprised and delighted. After the disappointment of Volume 2, it’s a pleasure to get back on track.