By Jean Van Hamme and Philippe Francq

Cinebook

At this stage, having reviewed the previous 6 Cinebook volumes (and 10 parts – the first 4 volumes were double sized) I’m at the stage where it’s getting a little silly doing these individual volume reviews.

Here’s a selection of bits from previous reviews to give you an idea…..

“Largo Winch is wonderfully good, old fashioned escapism. But it’s also very cleverly done, a thriller with a brain. Perfect stuff. It’s my favourite of all the Cinebook releases I’ve seen so far.” (Volume 1: The Heir)

“I think the really impressive thing about Largo Winch, and especially here in Takeover Bid, is the way that Van Hamme essentially spends the entire book playing out a complicated series of business deals and an awful lot of dialogue – yet still manages to make it as thrilling as the very best action thriller you’ll read or see. When the action does kick in towards the end it’s almost a distraction from the brilliance of the high flying financial machinations that make up the majority of the book.” (Volume 2: The Takeover Bid)

“Largo Winch is an absolutely cracking thriller. Incredibly cinematic in it’s plot and pacing and essentially it’s a great James Bond movie but without the ridiculously overblown set pieces that rather take something away from the essential brilliance of Fleming’s books.” (Volume 3: The Dutch Connection)

“…it just doesn’t get tired, you’re propelled through a Largo Winch adventure by the sheer manic entertainment of the thing.” (Volume 4: The Hour Of The Tiger)

“It’s not original, not anymore, but every time I finish a story I don’t think of it as unoriginal, I just luxuriate in the thrill of a great story, featuring a great front man, written and drawn with skill and style. Take your Bonds and your Bournes and throw them out, Largo Winch is the classiest action thriller around.” (Volume 5 & 6: See Venice…. And Die)

So yes, I’m a fan. And essentially, until Van Hamme completely blows it and produces a terrible story – you may as well take it as read that Largo Winch is a consummate thriller with similarly impressive artwork from Philippe Francq.

(Simon Ovronnaz. He may be a good friend to Largo Winch, but he’s a terrible actor. From Largo Winch: Golden Gate by Van Hamme and Francq, published by Cinebook)

In this latest volume we’re off to the movies where Largo’s friend Simon has landed a starring role as Mike Shadow in the utterly terrible 30s gangster TV series “Golden Gate”. But all is not well, as you might expect. Golden Gate is part financed by the W Group and irregularities in the funding of the series have been uncovered. The first Largo hears of this is when the investigator sent to look at the problem disappears.

(A page of that wonderful Largo Winch business speak. From Largo Winch: Golden Gate by Van Hamme and Francq, published by Cinebook)

Which is all it takes to throw Largo (and us readers) into an American adventure, complete with lavish excess, organised crime, prostitution rings and people trafficing. The list of potential bad guys builds and builds – the rival movie studio boss? W9′s new manager? The ominous Don Candido, owner of W9′s partner in the Golden Gate venture? And who exactly is the mysterious Shadow – could it be someone inside the W Group? So many possibilities, so much potential for big business intrigue, so many wonderful scenes to be set…..

So as usual, by the end of the volume, Largo finds himself up to his neck in trouble, wanted by the police, a victim of a carefully constructed conspiracy designed to destroy the W Group.

(Smart suits, Mafia style Dons, beautiful women – it’s just so Largo. From Largo Winch: Golden Gate by Van Hamme and Francq, published by Cinebook)

Volume 7; Golden Gate continues the standard Largo Winch format – each story with Largo Winch takes place across two volumes. The first sets everything up and inevitably puts Largo into some dire predicament at the end, where he’s at risk of losing his life or his ownership of the W Group and often it’s both.

There’s precious little action – that all comes next time in the concluding part. But the lack of action certainly doesn’t make Golden Gate less thrilling. Van Hamme is an absolute master at building up his story, setting everything up so well. And in Golden Gate he does it again. There’s an awful lot of dialogue in Largo Winch, particularly during the complicated build up. And it’s something I’ve criticised for killing the pacing of a story dead in Blake & Mortimer before now. But somehow, with Van Hamme, both here with Winch and in his other great thriller XIII, it works quite magnificently. (I must get around to seeing what the Blake & Mortimer volumes written by Van Hamme are like.)

As usual, I loved my regular fix of Largo Winch. It had everything I’d come to expect from Van Hamme’s writing in this series. It really has become a favourite treat, a guaranteed great read every couple of months along with Van Hamme’s other perfectly constructed thriller XIII.

My only real criticism is of the new format. I know it’s in keeping with how it was originally produced and I know Van Hamme writes each story to be split across each volume. But I much preferred being able to get the whole thing in one go – the build-up, the cliffhanger and the action packed second half – all in one satisfying read. This way I have to wait, impatiently, for Volume 8; Shadow. And that’s just not fair.

When you love a comic as much as I do with Van Hamme and Francq’s Largo Winch (see here for the last review) there’s bound to be a conflict when it comes to any movie adaptation. There’s an attraction – a desire to see something in another form, but also an expectation that it wont live up to the original.

Part of me really wanted to see Largo Winch, part of me wondered how bad it could mess it up.

And the film is nowhere near as good as the source material, of course it’s not. But that was never what I expected. I got just what I was really hoping for; a thoroughly enjoyable, action packed but intelligent bit of cinema. It’s a very good but less substantial copy, a very good adaptation, and it works in the narrow confines of 2 hours of film.

But the film had so much going for it. It was French. It was stylish. It was international. And it very sensibly didn’t bite off more than it could chew and condensed, altered and adapted the source material from the first few books rather than slavishly converting them to film. And it proved to be a very enjoyable couple of hours of exciting and stylish thriller.

Largo Winch is the adopted son of Nerio Winch, who dies in the first moments of the film. Over the next 100 minutes, Winch comes to terms with his new life as head of the W Group, tracks down his father’s killers and discovers that big business can be a very dangerous occupation indeed. Just like in the comic.

And that’s the all important thing about Largo Winch the movie – it retains the spirit of the original – all the action, the intelligence, the intrigue of big business. Sure, the action sequences aren’t as explosive – special effects and stunts in comics are infinitely possible and don’t depend on budgets. And the intrigue of big business, the machinations behind the story of young Largo Winch inheriting his father’s global business, aren’t as in depth as the comics – again, the comics have far more space and time to play with than a 2 hour movie. And sure, they blew the ending by wanting to have a little too much action, but you can’t have everything I suppose. But by that point I’d bought into it enough to go with it and enjoy it anyway, even though I knew it was going too far.

Screenwriter Julien Rappeneau and director Jérôme Salle do a fine job of bringing Van Hamme and Francq’s creation to the screen and Tomer Sisley brings an intriguingly original leading man style to it. All in all definitely one to pick up on dvd.

The second film is released in February (Wim discusses it here). I’m looking forward to seeing it.

The French comics blog BD Gest points us towards the trailer (or bande-annonce, as the French say) of the new Largo Winch movie, which is to be released on February 16th, 2011.  As was the case with the first movie (and the desastrous TV series bevore that), this film is based on the comics series by Belgian creative team Jean Van Hamme (writer) and Philipppe Francq (artist).

The movie, quite fittingly called Largo Winch II, picks up the storyline from its predecessor, which saw Largo, the unknown son of one of the most powerful businessmen on the planet, suddenly confronted with immense riches after his father’s death, but also with having to battle new and powerful enemies who want to control the Winch empire.  In the second film Winch has defeated his adversaries, but decides to sell off the complete multinational corporation in order to set up a mega-ambitious global humanitarion foundation.  This, however, does not fit well into the plan of certain of his, still powerful, enemies, and on the day of the sale, Largo finds himself accused of crimes against humanity by a mysterious witness.  Poised at proving his innocence, Largo sets off to the Burmese jungle, in order to find out what happened in the past, and to set things right.

The film was directed by French réalisateur Jerôme Salle (as was the first one), and again stars Tomer Sisley (who won the French film critics’ Etoile d’Or award in 2009 for the first Largo Winch).  Sharon Stone takes over from Kirsten Scott Thomas as internationally acclaimed female co-star.

Judging from the trailer and on the synopsis, it’s clear that the film’s creators have opted for retaining the atmosphere and general themes from writer Jean Van Hamme’s series of novels, and later his and Philippe Francq’s hit comics series, rather than slavishly following the original storylines.  The comic series alone currently counts 17 books, and simply contains too much background information, characters and intrigues to translate to the big screen in a manner that is also enjoyable for people who haven’t read the books.  That, I think, is a good thing.

If you want, you can follow the film’s post-production and launch on the Largo Winch II Blog. The comics series Largo Winch is published in English by Cinebook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVDwVy2Rs7k&

Jean Van Hamme and Philippe Francq

Cinebook

At this stage, after 6 volumes of Largo Winch, I know exactly what to expect from Jean Van Hamme’s adventuring businessman serial. The originality I saw in the very first story is gone, since every volume, every story, follows pretty much the same path – throw some adversity and business related threat into the life of Largo Winch, the “anti-establishment, womanizer, wanderer, iconoclast and fighter” who inherited the $10 billion W Group at just 26. Then spend the story seeing him think and fight his way out across two volumes. Then repeat with the next two, and again, and again. Only the scenery and the names change.

But it just doesn’t matter – because Van Hamme’s an absolute master of the form and, although the originality’s gone, the action, adventure and sheer exuberance of the thing, tied together with Van Hamme’s skilful craft and Franccq’s stylish visuals makes every Largo Winch a wonderful piece of pure, breathtaking escapism.

(Yep, the murders, the plots – definitely something Largo brought to the stuffy boardrooms of the W Group. And I, and many hundreds of thousands of satisfied readers wouldn’t have it any other way. From Largo Winch Volume 5, See Venice… published by Cinebook)

See Venice … And Die deals with Winch and his W Group embroiled in the machinations of Big Oil, an old business adversary and a shadowy figure in Venice somehow tied to an international kidnapping and extortion ring. That’s all you really need to know. The plot really isn’t the thing here, it’s all about the setup, the intricacies of the boardroom politics followed by the bursts of action, complete with exotic locations, femme fatales and Winch playing the perfect role of the cerebral action man. A heady, intense mix, a perfect thrill.

There’s an extended scene in “See Venice…” that sums up everything I love about the series: Winch is at lunch having the economic and political background to the story explained to him, he listens carefully, yet still finds time to eye up the waitress. Francq’s artwork plays around the room as the speech bubbles do the work and I find I’m entranced by the way it plays out, interspersed with a W Group employee fleeing an assassin in a futile attempt to get a fax to Winch.

The dialogue and setting of Winch’s scenes are so restrained and controlled, contrasting perfectly with the action away from Winch that’s so intense, until it all comes together and Winch is racing off in pursuit of the assassin, careering madly through the building, bullets flying, eventually climbing the outside of the building in a stunning climax to the set piece that’s been 16 pages in the making. Wonderful.

(Two scenes from the extended sequence in See Venice… that so perfectly sum up the thrill of a Largo Winch tale. A meticulous, tension building setting of the scene that explodes into action, with Francq’s art fitting both so beautifully. From See Venice… published by Cinebook)

Largo Winch is a fantastic and fantastical series. It’s not original, not anymore, but every time I finish a story I don’t think of it as unoriginal, I just luxuriate in the thrill of a great story, featuring a great front man, written and drawn with skill and style. Take your Bonds and your Bournes and throw them out, Largo Winch is the classiest action thriller around.

By Van Hamme and Franq

Cinebook

“No family, no connections, anti-establishment, womanizer, wanderer, iconoclast and fighter, he inherits at age 26 the W group, which is worth $10 billion. Largo Winch”

That back cover blurb is really all you need to know when reading Largo Winch. Well, that and the fact that you’re unlikely to find a more enjoyable action adventure anywhere in comics right now.

Volume 4 sees the jeans wearing billionaire taking some much need R&R on the ski slopes whilst his best friend, Simon Ovronnaz heads for Myanmar (formerly Burma) for a little R&R of his own. Except the powers that be have a plan to use Ovronnaz and his relationship with Winch to sort out a few of their domestic problems. Ovronnaz is setup on a murder charge, condemned to death and transferred to the infamous Fort Makiling, an impregnable fortress of a prison deep inside Myanmar.

(Fort Makiling – rather inaccessible. Looks like Simon Ovronnaz may be in a little trouble ….. unless he happens to know a billionaire adventurer who just wont give up no matter what the odds against him are.)

On hearing about his friend’s plight Winch tries the diplomatic approach but soon discovers that it’s not just Myanmar he’s fighting against but the US Government, the C.I.A. and insiders at his own company. Unable to get his best friend out by legitimate means Largo heads to Myanmar and quickly into more trouble than even he can handle.

The Hour Of The Tiger adheres to the formula for the previous Largo Winch tales; albeit with less of the complicated business dealings I’d enjoyed so much in previous volumes. But in their place we get more on Largo’s past and his previous dealings with the rebel group in Myanmar; The Golden Tigers. And it’s Largo’s past that saves the day here as he uses it to make a veritable deal with the devil to mount his rescue mission on Fort Makiling – a debt that will no doubt be called in at some point in the future. But although the settings for Winch have changed, the ideas and the action stay the same. This would be a problem if Van Hamme and Franq weren’t absolute masters of putting Winch through the wringer time and time again.

I’ve read three of the volumes so far and it just doesn’t get tired, you’re propelled through a Largo Winch adventure by the sheer manic entertainment of the thing. Franq’s artwork just sparkles here, more so than in earlier volumes – maybe it’s the different locations, maybe it’s just him getting even better – but page after page of stunning art all flooded with sumptuous colours – blues, yellows and gorgeous greens – all capturing the Thai/Burmese surroundings.

(Franq’s artwork here in Largo Winch Volume 4 is made even better by the beautiful colouring job – making the very best of the lush colours of the book’s setting.)

Largo Winch is definitely my favourite of the Cinebook. It’s the glorious predictability of the stories that I really enjoy. A bit like every great action-adventure hero, we know what’s going to happen, we know that Winch is going to be imperilled, will get the girl, will beat the baddies and will prevail. But that’s never the point – it’s about the journey and how much fun we have along the way. And just like the other Largo Winch Volumes this one doesn’t let us down at all.

Richard Bruton.

by Jean Van Hamme and Philippe Franq

Cinebook

I’m reading these in the wrong order – Volume 3, Volume 1 and now Volume 2. I know what happens and it still doesn’t matter since Van Hamme does write such deliciously self contained thrillers. This is what I said last time about Largo Winch and it still serves as a great summary of why you should be reading the series:

….. an absolutely cracking thriller. Incredibly cinematic in it’s plot and pacing and essentially it’s a great James Bond movie but without the ridiculously overblown set pieces that rather take something away from the essential brilliance of Fleming’s books. It’s a much underused way of writing genre thrillers, intrigue and planning over action, plot and characters over car chases and it’s a style I’ve always loved.

All you need to know to really enjoy Largo Winch is the neat little summary on the back cover:
“No family, no connections, anti-establishment, womanizer, wanderer, iconoclast and fighter, he inherits at age 26 the W group, which is worth $10 billion.
Largo Winch”

In Takeover Bid Winch is settling into his new multi-billionaire role while his rivals, both in and outside the W Group, circle and plot his downfall. Winch and the W group find themselves the target of a hostile takeover bid, the IRS is on their case and worst of all for Winch, a marriage happy Hollywood has-been is seeking to make him husband number 12, whether he likes it or not.

(Largo Winch: The Takeover – it’s all about the business, it’s all about the deal – and it’s still a fantastic thriller.)

I think the really impressive thing about Largo Winch, and especially here in Takeover Bid, is the way that Van Hamme essentially spends the entire book playing out a complicated series of business deals and an awful lot of dialogue – yet still manages to make it as thrilling as the very best action thriller you’ll read or see. When the action does kick in towards the end it’s almost a distraction from the brilliance of the high flying financial machinations that make up the majority of the book. But even though there are car chases, gunfights and political intrigues that go to the very highest level at the end, this is still a book where everything here is about the thrill and tension of the deal.

The art by Philippe Francq is as accomplished, as glamorous, as great as always. To deliver such good artwork from a story which involves so little action and so much dialogue is a very impressive thing indeed.

Largo Winch is still the best thing I’ve read from Cinebook. And Jean Van Hamme is truly a master of writing the perfect thriller – better than Bond, better than Bourne, better than anything US comics can produce – Largo Winch is really something great.

Richard Bruton.

by Jean Van Hamme & Philippe Franq

Cinebook

(Comprises the original Volume 1 The Heir and Volume 2 The W Group)

I’m rather approaching Largo Winch the wrong way, I first read Volume 3 and now I’m here with Volume 1. But it really doesn’t matter, in much the same way that it doesn’t matter what James Bond film you start with – the key elements are so easy to pick up and, thanks to Cinebook collecting each of their volumes with two original volumes, you get one complete story in each of these Largo Winch thrillers. And like I said in that review of Volume 3:

Largo Winch is an absolutely cracking thriller. Incredibly cinematic in it’s plot and pacing and essentially it’s a great James Bond movie but without the ridiculously overblown set pieces that rather take something away from the essential brilliance of Fleming’s books. It’s a much underused way of writing genre thrillers, intrigue and planning over action, plot and characters over car chases and it’s a style I’ve always loved.

All you need to know to really enjoy Largo Winch is the neat little summary on the back cover:
“No family, no connections, anti-establishment, womanizer, wanderer, iconoclast and fighter, he inherits at age 26 the W group, which is worth $10 billion.
Largo Winch”

Just like Volume 3, I found Volume 1 to be an absolutely engrossing bit of escapism, full of all the thrills and complex plotting I’d enjoyed first time around. This time it’s the story of how Largo came to inherit his adoptive father’s $10 billion dollar W Group (which, these days is the equivalent to buying Marvel Comics twice over with a spare $2 billion). As you might expect, it’s packed with action, exotic locations, fights, car chases, intrigue and more than a little corporate wheeler dealing and business speak.

(One of these men around the boardroom table wants Largo Winch dead. And the others just want his company. From Largo Winch: The Heir)

Largo is the adopted son of Nerio Winch, the man who built up the $10 billion W Group and has kept Largo’s existence secret from the world for 25 years to give him a chance to be normal and a chance to train for the massive undertaking of controlling the W Group. This story deals with Largo’s inheritance following his father’s death and the lengths that someone around the boardroom table will go to to keep him from taking his place as head of the W Group. It starts as it means to go on, with Largo attacked in Turkey, thrown in jail, set-up by one of the board of the W Group. From here, it’s off to the boardroom in New York, where Largo’s about to find out just how honourable the presidents of his fathers company can be. And then it’s off on a rollercoaster of an adventure as Winch sets about proving his credentials to the board, showing them he really is the man to head the W Group and in the process, flushing out the murderer amongst them.

(Suave, sophisticated, knowing, anti-establishment and looks great in a suit. Swoon. Largo Winch sets off to prove his worth to his board. From Largo Winch: The Heir.)

It’s elegantly done, a real page turner of an adventure with Van Hamme carefully setting up many disparate plot threads across the world and cleverly and seamlessly tying them all up at the book’s end. The pace is never allowed to flag for a moment, with Van Hamme cutting between action and embellishing scenes to maintain the pace. And it all just works quite brilliantly. In a book of this sort you may have expected the action to take centre stage, but you’d be surprised; Van Hamme is so good at plotting his set-pieces that I actually found myself enjoying the board-room battles more than the out and out action sequences – but in essence, the way Van Hamme writes them, these complex boardroom stand-offs are just as tense, just as volatile and just as exciting as any car chase. And that’s all part of what makes Largo Winch such an enjoyable piece of escapism. Similarly the art by Franq is a joy of tight, controlled dynamism, action sequences and boardroom confrontations are full of tension, the scenery and backgrounds to the pages are truly beautiful, as are the many women who fall for Largo’s charms.

(Just because I’ve focused on the boardroom battles so far with the artwork, I wouldn’t want you thinking there’s no action in Largo Winch – there’s plenty, and it’s all as beautifully drawn by Philippe Franq as this scene)

( And what is any truly great piece of escapist thriller action with a Bond-like leading man without beautiful women? And Philippe Franq does draw some very beautiful women. But then again, he draws some very beautiful men as well.)

Largo Winch is wonderfully good, old fashioned escapism. But it’s also very cleverly done, a thriller with a brain. Perfect stuff. It’s my favourite of all the Cinebook releases I’ve seen so far. I’m off to track down Volumes 2 & 4 right now – all 4 volumes are available here.

Richard Bruton.

Written by Jean Van Hamme, Art by Philippe Francq.

Cinebook

(Comprises the original Volume 5: H and Volume 6: Dutch Connection)

Largo Winch is an absolutely cracking thriller. Incredibly cinematic in it’s plot and pacing and essentially it’s a great James Bond movie but without the ridiculously overblown set pieces that rather take something away from the essential brilliance of Fleming’s books. It’s a much underused way of writing genre thrillers, intrigue and planning over action, plot and characters over car chases and it’s a style I’ve always loved. It’s the reason that old Hitchcock films always win the day over the latest blockbuster or the reason that my favourite bits of most action thrillers are the set-ups and once the initial fun of the introductory pieces are over and the explanations are done I lose interest. But in Largo Winch the action sequences are so short and infrequent that I found it enthralling to see the constant set-up, resolve, set-up, resolve, all done through this character manoeuvring his pieces around the elaborate game he’s developing.

(Largo Winch; suave and sohisticated and capable of thinking his way through most of the situations he finds himself in. A most European thriller indeed. From Largo Winch: Dutch Connection.)

All you need to know to really enjoy Largo Winch is the neat little summary on the back cover:

“No family, no connections, anti-establishment, womanizer, wanderer, iconoclast and fighter, he inherits at age 26 the W group, which is worth $10 billion. Largo Winch”

And that’s it. With just those couple of lines you have everything you need to launch yourself into another great bit of European comics thriller. Each Largo Winch story when originally published takes two volumes, with the first putting Largo Winch in some perilous situation and the second seeing him triumph. Cinebook have made the very sensible decision to package each complete story in a single volume. The other important thing about Largo Winch is that essentially each story tells a variation of the same story so joining midway through isn’t a problem at all.

(The James Bond analogy goes far; Largo Winch has that same spectacularly successful way with the ladies, no matter how he’s dressed.)

In H & Dutch Connection Largo Winch discovers his organisation is dirty from the top down and has been acting as a front for drugs for years. His efforts to expose the drug traffickers start badly, with the head of one of his insiders on a platter at a gala dinner, and get worse from there until Largo finds himself on the run from the law, wanted for murder and accused of being the man in charge of the drug trafficking network he’s been trying to take down. He knows he’s been set up, we know he’s been set up, but it’s so well written and so enjoyable that even though you know where you’re going to end up on the final page (pretty much exactly where you started to be honest) it’s bloody great fun all along the way.

(The set-up moment. After this Largo is on the run from the law, wanted for murder and accused of drug trafficking. From Largo Winch: Dutch Connection.)

Jean Van Hamme works his plot masterfully and on re-reading it I couldn’t help noticing that Largo Winch doesn’t actually spend much time on the page, this is all about the characters around him, with Largo taking a controlling influence throughout. It’s very nicely done, a very intelligent thriller indeed. Philippe Francq’s artwork is almost stereotypically European, but that’s never a bad thing in my limited experience. Every page is dispatched with style and flair, whether it’s panel after panel of talking heads or the sumptuous world of cruise ships, casinos and high finance.

The Largo Winch stories appeared originally in French, and have been translated across Europe with annual sales of nearly 500,000 copies (numbers unheard of for oh so many years over in the US – this sort of graphic novel really does represent the real mainstream). From my initial involvement in Largo Winch I can certainly see why it’s so popular and with 16 volumes of material for Cinebook to complete, of which they’ve put the first 6 into the available 3 volumes I can see myself coming back to Largo Winch fairly regularly for a slice of intelligent, escapist European thriller.

Cinebook website.

Richard Bruton, international man of mystery