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.

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&

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