Comic Books (2024)
- 2024-04-19: La flèche ardente
- 2023
- Language: French
- Scénario: Jean Van Hamme
- Dessin: Christian Cailleaux, Étienne Schréder
- Rating: 3/5
- NOTES: It is hard to evaluate this volume. On one hand, it must reproduce the spirit of the original “Rayon U” from the 1940s. That is an album that reflects its time. I like it, but it is not exactly a masterpiece. On the other hand, it needs to provide good art, and a story interesting enough to justify the effort. The art of “La flèche ardente” is not bad, but I noticed some inconsistencies in the faces of the characters, which I found a little unsettling. Now the story itself is fine, without being extraordinary. I was surprised by how Marduk, the scientist, suddenly got world domination ambitions when he realizes the power in his hands. In the end Hollis appears to calm Marduk’s ambitions. For now, I will consider this a middle-of-the road album.
- 2024-04-17: Les nouvelles aventures de Lapinot - 1. Un monde un peu meilleur
- 2017
- Language: French
- Scénario et dessin: Lewis Trondheim
- Rating: 4/5
- NOTES: I liked this first album of the new adventures. Then I realized that there are already 8 volumes out. Trondheim remains quite the prolific author.
- 2024-04-16: Les passagers du vent - 8. Le sang des ceries
- 2018
- Scénario et dessins: François Bourgeon
- Rating: 4/5
- NOTES: Continuation of the series after many years. This is a more difficult opus, I think. The art is still beautiful.
- 2024-03-06: Yoko Tsuno - 30. Les gémeaux de Saturne
- 2022
- Roger Leloup
- 62 pages
- 3/5
- NOTES:
- I bought the “Esquisse d’une oeuvre”, the large format album, with a dossier in the end.
- I had bought this a while ago, and for some reason deferred its reading.
- This again could have been Leloup’s last work, but not only it is not, but album 31 is coming out soon.
- There is no doubt that the art is still suffering from Leloup’s old age, especially the characters’ faces. The decor are still great, although, like in most of Yoko’s space adventures, they tend to be less sophisticated than those of the earth adventure’s.
- This said, looking at the original drawings, not inked, the art tends to be better than the final result. The inking seems to be a problem for Leloup now. Maybe he could have outsourced this part of the work.
- Again, reading Roger Leloup’s explanations help understand this album. It is anchored in the idea of the Vinéens’ early Earth colonization and mistakes they made, in this case genetic modifications. Interestingly enough, there is also an AI aspect, but Leloup had AI way before these days’ LLMs were fashionable.
