tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-979659626193962292023-11-16T17:03:12.236+00:00The 9th Art FormReviews of graphic novels, comic strips and more.Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-88768065174096116722017-11-30T10:00:00.000+00:002017-11-30T10:00:15.521+00:00Asterix in Spain by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 14<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The fourteenth <i>Asterix</i> adventure is quite a curious tale. It sees our heroes visit another of France's neighbouring countries but it's surprising that it's taken the series this long to look towards such a significant neighbour. Equally curious is the length of time it takes the story to get Asterix and Obelix to Hispania (Spain) despite a journey that takes barely six pages to reach the border. It all suggests an adventure thrown together in a hurry or to meet some external requirement.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />At a glance there's no obvious cultural or political reason as to the <i>Asterix</i> adventures would suddenly look to Spain in 1969. The story is set after the battle of Munda and the final defeat of Pompey's supporters which puts the whole of Spain under official Roman control. Although the series hasn't been the greatest for historical accuracy, this does at least fit into an approximate real-world sequence following on from <i>Asterix the Legionary</i>. And perhaps reader (or even teacher) feedback had encouraged Goscinny to adhere more closely to actual dates, explaining why the opening panel sets the story in 45 BC, rather than the more usual rather elastic 50 BC into which the stories are more usually located. But adhering to a real-world timeline has never dictated the settings of adventures before and it's hard to see this as the explanation for this. Perhaps the story was produced to meet the demands of publishers, especially in the wider international market. This was in fact only the second <i>Asterix</i> adventure to be translated into English.<br /><br />The story's restoration to its original place in the series is a surprise given that it introduces what is one of the most memorable features of life in the Gaulish village and yet it comes over halfway through the original twenty-four stories. Here we meet for the first time the fishmonger Unhygienix, whose wares easily provoke arguments amongst the villagers that can be relied on to lead to a full-on fight. As is usual with the second tier of named villagers, Unhygienix isn't especially developed here but does serve a useful purpose in taking our heroes south to the Spanish border in his boat as well as being the source for plenty of jokes about fish being hired and used for non-food purposes.<br /><br />The main thread of the story involves the kidnapping of Pepe, the son of a Hispanic chieftain whose village holds out against the Romans. Caesar hopes to bring the mutinous village to heel by holding the boy hostage, sending him to Gaul where he can't be easily rescued. The trope of the lost prince whom the hero(es) must take on a journey back to his own land is a common one in fiction and it was perhaps inevitable that it would show up in the <i>Asterix</i> tales. So too is the presence of an insufferable child who cannot be disciplined because of his rank. Pepe is annoying and selfish, and the plot makes much of this as he proceeds to make life hell first for his Roman captors and then for his Gaulish liberators. As a result almost everyone is privately relieved when another group will have to actually look after him. Unfortunately, his annoyingness spills over, making him a difficult character to care about and thus undermining the effectiveness of the tale.<br /><br />The first half of the story shows Pepe's capture and then his time in Gaul, with extended scenes devoted to his games, the attempts to recapture him by his Roman warder Spurius Brontosaurus and the Gauls' attempts to make Pepe happy. It's as if Goscinny and Uderzo really want to do more with the villagers and are deliberately delaying getting to Hispania despite the now established pattern of the adventures alternating between Gaul and abroad. This may also explain the slightly bizarre journey made when the Gauls eventually decide they cannot put up with Pepe any longer and must get him back to his village. Unhygienix ferries Asterix, Obelix, Dogmatix and Pepe all the way down the west coast of France but for some unexplained reason he lands them just before the border. This then leads to a sequence as they have to sneak through a mountain pass to avoid Roman patrols. It would have been much simpler if they'd lander on the Hispanic side of the border and the lengthy traffic jam on the Gaulish side could just as easily have been set in Hispania itself.<br /><br />In 1969 Spain was still under the rule of Franco but experiencing a massive economic boom that saw rapid industrialisation transforming the country. But none of this is noticeable in this story. Instead the ancient Hispania that our visit is a land of badly maintained roads, wild flamenco dancers, bull fights and religious festivals with much of the interest driven by tourism, especially Goths acting in line with stereotypes of German tourists. There's even a mad man trying to recreate the era of chivalry, drawn in the style of Don Quixote. It's not clear if the creators were seeking to avoid commenting on modern Spain because of the Franco regime or were just pandering to dated stereotypes but the result is a rather brief depiction of a backward and superstitious country that doesn't hold up well especially when compared to other foreign trips in the series.<br /><br />It's very telling that at the end of the story events are suddenly rushed, with Asterix released from captivity for his performance in the arena and the next panel shows him arriving at Pepe's village thanks to directions from Brontosaurus rather than showing any attempt at the journey. The concluding events at the village take about a page as the story rushes to wrap it all up. Overall this story is badly paced and feels like a struggle between competing demands about what to do and where to go, resulting in a drawn-out scene setting followed by a rush through an outdated tourist postcard vision of a country. This is one of the more disappointing tales.<br /></div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-86685106218486572252017-11-23T10:00:00.000+00:002017-11-23T10:00:28.846+00:00Asterix and the Cauldron by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 13<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Appropriately for the day after Budget Day we come to a story with a bit to say about taxation. The thirteenth of the <i>Asterix</i> adventures resorts to the well-worn trope of the hero being wrongly convicted for a crime he didn't convict and sent into exile to redeem his honour. In the process he's forced to turn his hand to making money, resulting in a mild satire on commerce and finance.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Often when a regular series does a story about money and taxes it's usually because one of the creators is going through some financial difficulties, perhaps an excessive tax bill or perhaps having made an unfortunate investment. The presence of multiple confidence tricksters in this story would suggest the latter, though near the end there's a scene where Asterix and Obelix confront a tax man. He is drawn as a caricature of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, then a former Minister of Finance (who would return to the role the following year and then, in 1974, become President) and amusingly all his speech comes in tax forms and questionnaires. But the real villain of the story is ultimately revealed as the Gaulish chieftain Whosemoralsarelastix, a character whose name just helps to contribute to the rather weak mystery as to who stole the money in the cauldron in the first place.<br /><br />The plot, such as it is, involves the chieftain trying to hide his money from the Roman tax collectors by entrusting it to the rebellious village, where Asterix is tasked with guarding a cauldron full of sestertii. However, in the middle of the night someone breaks into Asterix's house and steals the money, leaving just the titular cauldron. Under the Gaulish law Vitalstatistix has no option but to exile Asterix until the blow to the village's honour has been redeemed. And thus the hero sets out to raise enough money to fill the cauldron once more, with Obelix and Dogmatix choosing to accompany him.<br /><br />Most of the subsequent tale is taken up with a succession of money making schemes that just demonstrate how poor at business the two Gauls are. Thus they try their hand at selling captured boars in the market, only to wind accepting a ridiculously low price for their entire stock that just depresses the price of boar in general. Their lack of foresight means that even this money is soon lost. They later try gambling, only to accept tips from the aptly named Confidenstrix. Attempts to win money in competitions fail just as badly when they plough through a whole audience in prize fighting and the "magnificent prize" turns out to be worthless little statues.<br /><br />There's more fun in a sequence where they try their hand in the theatre, having been recruited by the actor Laurensolivius who tries to demonstrate that he can get good performances out of anyone. What follows is a satire on the experimental improvisation of the age as a piece of spontaneous theatre is put on for a packed audience, with the thespians seeking to deliberately shock and offend. Unfortunately, Obelix proves to be exceptionally good at this and the result is the Roman prefect gets very offended. But despite this Laurensolivius is delighted at the prospect of getting to play the circus in Rome. The whole sequence lasts just five pages but works well in mocking both the pretentions of some star actors and modernist trends in the theatre.<br /><br />There's more conventional action when the two Gauls try direct force to fill the cauldron. Initially they suspect the Romans of having taken the money and storm into the camp of Compendium, only to create a lot of confusion as a garrison awaiting pay assume it has arrived and start rioting when they realise their pay is owing. The next suspects are the regular pirates, who are trying a change of business by beaching their ship and turning it into a restaurant. If nothing else, it means they can't be sunk. By the end of the story they've returned to sailing and for once come out as the winners of the piece when an unexpected bonus literally lands their way.<br /><br />Probably the weakest of all the sequences involves Asterix and Obelix trying their hand at robbing a bank. They have a small amount of personal money on them which proves to be surprisingly enough to allow them to rent a room in an inn overlooking the bank long enough to research the guard timetable, instead of just using their enhanced strength to charge in and out. It all turns out to be a waste as the bank has been emptied by the tax increases.<br /><br />Quest format stories are natural in serialised fiction, allowing for short pieces within a broader framework, but when collected in album form they often don't stand up so well as the overall plot is thin and there is no natural connection between the incidents or any limit beyond space to their number. Here the resolution comes as Asterix and Obelix concede defeat and set off to apologise to Whosemoralsarelastix, when they come across the tax collector and find one last opportunity to raise the replacement money. Then Asterix makes a discovery that leads to a final confrontation. However this discovery is not very surprising with the story barely concealing the mystery. The only person who doesn't understand is Obelix, who is still wondering why anyone would throw away onion soup just to put money in the cauldron instead.<br /><br />This is a story that's trying to make some points about finances but is a bit all over the place as it tries to cover taxes, salaries, self-starter businesses, gambling and more. The result is, unfortunately, a quest tale that meanders all over the place, not really driving its points home and producing what is one of the least memorable of all the <i>Asterix</i> stories so far.<br /><br /></div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-59832632334333613922017-11-16T10:00:00.000+00:002017-11-16T12:14:34.340+00:00Asterix at the Olympic Games by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 12<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It should come as little surprise that Asterix's participation in the Olympic Games was originally printed to coincide with the real-world games, in this case the 1968 games held in Mexico City. The English translation followed four years later, coinciding with the 1972 games at Munich. (And the live action film adaptation's release coincided with the 2008 games in Beijing.) Once again, the series taps into contemporary culture and projects it back onto the ancient world, albeit with invariable anachronisms. In the real world there were no games in 50 BC - the nearest were in 52 BC and 48 BC - and it seems that the Gauls never took part in the ancient Olympics. But Asterix discovers a vital technicality...<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />In the real world the Olympic Games were originally an exclusively Greek affair but with the Roman conquest more and more Roman athletes began participating. Asterix suddenly points out that the Roman conquest means that the Gauls now <i>are</i> Romans. I'm not entirely convinced that this interpretation of both Roman citizenship laws of the time and the Olympic participation rules would have got passed real world lawyers (and the idea that the inhabitants of a place that has opted out of a continental spanning political entity can still claim the rights and privileges of its citizens is an interesting one which naturally brings to mind the current Brexit negotiations, but this isn't the place to go into that). However, in the story this interpretation is not challenged and thus all the men of the village set off to Greece to support the participation of Asterix and Obelix.<br /><br />This is a very different story from the norm, with no grand battles between the Gauls and the Romans. Even the pirates escape conflict on the first meeting, though they still scuttle their ship, and the second encounter is covered by a single panel showing the aftermath. There are a few individual moments when rival athletes are knocked away but otherwise the fighting is limited to the wrestling contests. Instead the emphasis is on both competitive sport and tourism, with the links between the two explicitly acknowledge when the Olympic officials opt to create an extra event exclusively for Roman athletes in order to maintain international interest and tourist income. As in the real world, sporting victory brings prestige not just to the athletes and their trainers but also to their homes, making the contest a peaceful way for intra-Empire rivalries to assert themselves.<br /><br />The tourism industry is mocked heavily with both dubious bookings and nepotistic arrangements highlighted. The Gauls travel to Greece on a galley that has "One class only, deck games, open air sports and marvellous atmosphere". It turns out they have to row themselves to the atmosphere of drums beating. When they arrive at Athens they are soon taken up by the tour guide Diabetes, who ensures they can find hotels, restaurants, taxi buses and bureaux de change - all run by cousins of his. In general, the Gauls wind up playing the role of stereotypical disrespectful tourists, cramming into hotel rooms, bringing their own food, making a spectacle of themselves at nights and being rowdy in the stadium, in stark contrast to the stoic approach of the Greek spectators.<br /><br />Much of the contest with the Romans winds up a struggle of will and determination, with the local Roman athlete Gluteus Maximus initially extremely confident of victory until he encounters Asterix and Obelix in the forest and they outperform him in evert way. This results in a crisis of confidence, broken only when he believes he won't have to compete with the Gauls, until eventually his centurion Gaius Veriambitius gets a ruling on the magic potion. This story is especially contemporary in its handling of the issue of drugs and other enhancing substances in sports. In the real world the 1968 Olympics were the first games to take place with a ban on such substances, with the first athlete to fall foul being Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, who drank two beers to steady his nerves. Although the real ancient games had involved many substances, here the rule is back projected and thus the Gauls' hope that the magic potion will bring them easy success is soon thwarted whilst the Romans are warned off alcohol. Without such enhancements, Asterix and the Romans lose to the Greek athletes every time, though it's notable that Asterix is still shown as faster than the Romans. But even this is not enough to give confidence of victory in the "Romans" only event and so he and Getafix concoct a cunning plan to take advantage of both the rules and the magic potion.<br /><br />This solution is entirely in keeping with the depiction of Asterix as a man who succeeds through cunning and not merely because he can quickly magnify his strength to overcome his foes. But normally he is in a situation where there are no fair rules and he has to survive by his wits end. Here he is taking part in a long-established tournament with clear rules of contest and setting up his rivals to get them disqualified is undoubtedly a form of cheating, even though it's the Romans who commit the actual offence themselves. This doesn't feel quite within the rules of sport and perhaps explain why Asterix opts to give away his palm of victory, though he explains to Getafix "I gave it to someone whose need was greater than mine" and asks the druid to not repeat this. Although it's not dwelt on, the earlier races had shown Asterix beating at least the Romans and so it's highly likely he could have won the race fair and square anyway. As a result, the ending of this tale feels somewhat off, undermining the hero's physical prowess and making for a highly unsatisfactory ending.<br /><br />It's a pity that the story ends in such a way as it's previously been a marvellous satire on tourism and sport, making many good points through humour. Unfortunately, by focusing on the hero's cunning instead of his physical abilities even without enhancement it results in this dissatisfactory conclusion. <br /><br /></div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-63772052431766516422017-11-09T10:00:00.000+00:002017-11-09T10:00:11.091+00:00Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 11<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The <i>Asterix</i> adventures as a whole have a tinge of French nationalism, celebrating heroes who have resisted the invasion of their country and triumphing against the odds just a generation after the Second World War. But to date none of the stories has been so directly rooted in national myth history as <i>Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield</i>, the eleventh adventure in the series. It shows how both the Romans and Gauls seek to harness the history of past battles for present day propaganda advantages, with the added complication of a quest to find the titular shield.<br />
<a name='more'></a>Of course, France's history includes both victories and defeats, making for selective historical memory. Thus throughout this story much is made by the Gauls of their great victory over the Romans at Gergovia. By contrast the Romans focus on their ultimate victory at Alesia. When troubles stir again, the response is to host a triumph recalling that great battle. Notably both sides ultimately want the same object for their assertion of superiority, reminiscent of how in the real world the Germans in 1940 chose for the French Armistice to be signed in the exact same railway carriage in the same location as the 1918 Armistice. And though the setting in the Auvergne region is historically accurate for the battles, the choice of Vichy (Aquae Calidae) as the spa where Vitalstatistix is sent for treatment feels more than a coincidence. Notably there's not a single identifiable Roman there, whereas a later trip to a spa at La Bourboule (Borvo) sees many working there. It may have reflected the spa's initial post war boom but it also demonstrates a subtle reclaiming of the town for the French.<br /><br />Once again the series takes some liberties with recorded history. In the real world the battles of both Gergovia and Alesia took place in 52 BC, just a couple of years before the setting for the <i>Asterix</i> adventures. However here the events are treated as having happened at least fifteen years ago, with many of the soldiers on both sides having moved on in life, albeit with the conspicuous exception of the centurion Titus Crapulus who is stuck in a career rut due to his drinking. Apart from the flashback at the start there is no sign of the great chieftain Vercingetorix himself, even though in reality in 50 BC he was a prisoner in Rome and thus would have been a potential alternative symbol for Julius Caesar's planned triumph. Most significantly, none of the Gauls will admit to knowing where Alesia is. This is one joke that has dated heavily as at the time of the story's initial publication the location of the town and battle was a source of great debate amongst histories and archaeologists. However since then a consensus has emerged. But even today this forgetfulness reinforces the sense of how peoples remember the good bits of history and don't like to be reminded about the bad.<br /><br />The plot in this story is driven by the search for the shield of Vercingetorix, with Caesar seeking to subdue resistance in Gergovia by holding a triumph using the chieftain's shield to show that the Romans have ultimately triumphed. However the shield has gone missing and Asterix and Obelix set out to find it, aiming to hold their own triumph. A prologue on the first page of the story tells how the shield was initially laid at Caesar's feet after the battle, but subsequently taken by an archer and then became a piece of currency in its own right amongst gamblers and drinkers. The panels steadily decrease in size, disguising the identities of the last known owners. Asterix and Obelix set off to follow the trail, taking advantage of a lose-tongued drunken Roman spy who witnessed the initial removal of the shield, with the Romans soon discovering the same trail. Eventually it leads to some very familiar faces.<br /><br />The eventual holder of the shield is a surprise. Although the scenes aren't absolutely specific, it seems that the Gaulish warrior from outside the region who took the shield was fully aware of its significance rather than just taking a liking to its design. And given his subsequent role in fighting against the Romans, it's very odd that his possession of the shield, thus making him the spiritual heir to Vercingetorix, is something he has not made anything of. Often search stories that end up on the regular characters' own doorsteps (metaphorically here) can get into a mess when it's not too clear why the location of the object of the quest wasn't known about to start with and that's very true here.<br /><br />There's a good use of the settings and plot devices within the story. Our heroes have come to the region in the first place because Vitalstatistix is suffering liver trouble and is sent to a spa to be cured, with Asterix and Obelix as his guards for the journey. The scenes in the first spa play well on the problems when not every guest in the establishment is there to be cured, with much resentment of Asterix and Obelix's regular diet and misuse of the pool. However they get a comeuppance later on when trying to locate a Roman last known to be working at another spa and have to infiltrate it, thus enduring the limited diet and rigorous regime that they had previously avoided. Vitalstatistix's own slimming is rapidly reversed on the journey home, betraying a cynicism about the longer-term effects of such treatments. The inhabitants of the Auvergne region were originally written with a distinctive accent but this is dropped in translation in favour of meat based jokes. There's also a running pun on the local economy being dominated by joint wine and charcoal merchants who seem to just sell to each other. The charcoal makes for many gags as the Gauls have to repeatedly hide in it and the Romans search it, all emerging absolutely covered in dust, as shown on the cover.<br /><br />Although the resolution of the quest element of the story is weak, overall this is quite a good tale that takes elements of the Gauls' history and weaves them into a narrative with quite a bit to say about the use of history as propaganda for present day political effect.<br /></div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-1761466230603489792017-11-02T10:00:00.000+00:002017-11-03T00:44:21.971+00:00Asterix the Legionary by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 10<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Once again the <i>Asterix</i> adventures are parodying a cultural wave of the time and adapting their world in order to do so. This story was originally serialised in 1966, the year of a big budget adaptation of <i>Beau Geste</i>, beating the <i>Carry On</i> film <i>Follow That Camel</i> to satirise the French Foreign Legion by a year. But in order to translate this to a military adventure in ancient North Africa, the series once again takes some liberties with history in order to present a version of the Civil War, and specifically the Battle of Thapsus, slightly earlier than they actually happened.<br />
<a name='more'></a>In theory this could also throw up some confusion about the power of Julius Caesar in the series up until now, but the series is not his story but rather that of the two Gauls. As a result, this is the tale of the ordinary soldiers' involvement in a wider conflict, rather than a grander fictional version of the war. The other big liberty taken is the presence of foreigners as legionaries, when in reality they were restricted to Roman citizens. Although some of the recruits are from within the Roman Empire, others, most notably the Goths, are from outside whilst Asterix and Obelix's own status is ambiguous (though this is more of a plot point in later stories). The result is a multi-national team of Gauls, a Goth, a Greek, a Briton, a Belgian and an Egyptian, making for a motley crew who prove utterly uncontrollable.<br /><br />Much of the story focuses on the training and journey to Africa, with the actual civil war being largely a convenient conflict to provide a motivation for the recruitment and search. Asterix and Obelix largely wander into the legion when they set out to rescue Tragicomix, the fiancé of Panacea, a young woman from their village. Obelix has fallen for Panacea in a somewhat cliched sequence but shows his honour in immediately setting out to rescue his rival rather than seeing the impressment as an opportunity. However, what he and Asterix hoped would be a simple rescue mission from a training camp turns out to be a much longer quest when the military bureaucracy eventually reveals that Tragicomix has already been shipped out and the only way to follow him is to enlist.<br /><br />The romantic side of this story is another light element that ultimately functions as a simple plot device to give Asterix and Obelix a quest rather than making it an exploration of how infatuation can drive a person to do anything for another's happiness even if it means rescuing a rival and denying one's own chances. This again shows up the influence of the French Foreign Legion genre where enlisting men are expected to have put their past lives behind them and not dwell upon their sweethearts. Even though our heroes have no intention of staying around once their mission is complete, the story still follows the pattern of a military recruit comedy.<br /><br />The scenes in training show how order and discipline can so easily fall to pieces when respect hasn't been earned. Asterix and Obelix are eager to get to north Africa and do whatever they can to speed things up and improve conditions without regarded for the broader plan. Other legionaries have their own interests, whether in having a good time or financial advantage, and won't buckle down easily either. And there's a running joke throughout the whole story as Ptenisnet, an Egyptian, thinks he's found an inn and been taken on a holiday expedition to a camp, never realising he's been recruited into the army and the interpreter is ordered not to tell him. There's quite a bit of humour derived from the language barrier as both the Egyptian and Goth legionaries cannot understand the language directly, leading to some hilarious exchanges involving officers and trainers.<br /><br />The art in this story has an extra task in making both Panacea and Tragicomix look stunningly attractive to justify the instant reactions and in this Uderzo succeeds well. He also has the fun of drawing two identical forces at war with one another that really emphasises the confusion and division amongst the Romans, best shown when Scipio orders a retreat only to find both sides' trumpeters are in the same spot. However, the nature of a suddenly divided civilisation and the conflicts it throws up aren't really explored beyond some jokes about everyone being confused and unable to tell one side from another, making for an utterly chaotic battle as nobody knows who to give orders to.<br /><br />This story as a whole ultimately feels rather light. It has a clear structure, direction and purpose that serve to pull the narrative forward, but it just doesn't feel particularly filling - it's more like the initial army rations served rather than the better food cooked up after Asterix and Obelix have had words with the cook. There's no particularly awful moments or overlong dull sequences, but it just doesn't manage to excite too well.<br /><br /></div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-14792058399004688432017-10-26T10:00:00.000+01:002017-10-26T10:00:19.153+01:00Asterix and the Normans by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 9<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>Asterix and the Normans</i> was the ninth adventure in the original run but is another that had its first English translation relatively late, being the twentieth of the original twenty-four stories to appear in this language. It's easy to see why (although the current editions restore the original French order). For much of this story's humour and background rests upon knowing something that may be common classroom knowledge in France, but which is less well-known here. Indeed that's probably why the translators didn't go down the obvious route, as the later film did, and change the title to <i>Asterix and the Vikings</i>.<br />
<a name='more'></a>Normandy was settled in the ninth and tenth century by Viking invaders, with their descendants becoming the Normans well-known to both sides of the Channel. The Normans in this album demonstrate a much greater sense of future history than most characters in the series, being aware that their descendants will become invaders and conquerors, and even knowing that "Hastings" isn't a word of significance until 1066. They're also some of the most anachronistic characters yet seen in the series, drawn to resemble Middle Age Viking invaders when there are no records of attacks until the eight century and their long ship is of an even later design. The story skirts around this anachronism with the explanation that this is no invasion but an investigative mission of Normans trying to discover the meaning of fear.<br /><br />Also potentially confusing for a non-French audience are the stereotypes of the people of Normandy back-projected onto their ancestors. Absolutely every single meal involves cream, though unlike many other cuisines from around Gaul this one does not horrify our heroes from Armorica (Brittany). The roads are terrible and the drivers even worse. Children are defiant and not put off by threats of bogeymen. Once again in the series we get a set of regional stereotypes that are not so well known outside the country and again this must have been another factor in leaving this one untranslated for so long. The Normans themselves are shown to be literally fearless warriors and the plot stems from this as a group set out to rectify this gap in their knowledge, choosing Gaul at random.<br /><br />This proves an unfortunate choice as there's not much the Gaulish villagers fear either. However their lives are already being disrupted by another visitor, Justforkix. Hailing from Lutetia, the nephew of Chief Vitalstatistix has been sent to the village in the hope it will make a man of him. The story was originally serialised in 1966 and it's there that the cultural revolution of the 1960s hits 50 BC by storm. Justforkix is an uppity city teenager who brings modern fast ways with him, including rock music, leading to a clash of culture with the village. He even likes Cacofonix's music and suggests the bard has potential in Lutetia, leading to the latter heading out to seek fame and bringing terror everywhere he sings. Despite Asterix and Obelix's best attempts, Justforkix just doesn't take to their attempts to beef him up. Then he spies a Norman ship on the horizon and is terrified. By contrast all the villagers can't wait to fight the Normans and Justforkix can't understand it.<br /><br />Much of this is story is about characters who can't understand the world around them. Justforkix and the villagers can't understand each other. The Normans can't understand fear. And Oleaginus, a new wet behind the ears Roman legionary, can't understand why the rest of his patrol seek to avoid confrontation with the Gauls at all costs despite their orders and duty. As a result, this tale shows a lot of character development all round as the regulars bring enlightenment. The Normans make the mistake of assuming that Justforkix's terror makes him an expert on fear who can teach it to them, hoping it will make them fly in a misunderstanding of the term "flying in fear". Thus they kidnap him and Asterix and Obelix have to find a way to bring fear in order to rescue them.<br /><br />There's a lot more action than usual, including Asterix and Obelix having a long fight with the Normans that runs over six pages, including a Roman patrol spotting it, returning to camp and then being sent back with orders to keep the peace. Such is the length of the fight that it's unsurprising to see it provides the scene for the cover of the modern edition, replacing the old image of Justforkix frightenedly pointing out the ship from the beach. It's a change for the better, making for a much bolder image.<br /><br />There are a couple of minor developments for the series as a whole, with Dogmatix's distress at trees being destroyed shown for the first time whilst Fulliautomatix is now depicted in his settled look and established as Cacofonix's fiercest critic who will often take action to silence the bard. However the tables are turned at the banquet at the end of the story.<br /><br />The plot is more leisurely paced than some of the other adventures, allowing for greater character development. This works to its advantage even though the development by necessity involves the newly created characters. However from an international perspective it is a pity that there is nothing in this story itself which explains just why there are a bunch of Vikings called "Normans". It would probably have been better for the translation to have called them "Vikings" from the off and just assume that readers who recognised the stereotypes of Normandy would understand the connection. Instead this is a story whose success largely hinges on whether or not the reader has the necessary historic knowledge, which is ultimately a failing.<br /><br /></div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-53127490505983494772017-10-19T10:00:00.000+01:002017-10-19T10:00:25.519+01:00Asterix in Britain by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 8<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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And so we come to Asterix and Obelix's visit to Britain. The British have many, many, many (x infinity) clichés and stereotypes of the French so it's always interesting to see how they view us. Thus we get a straightforward tale of Asterix and Obelix crossing the channel to help the former's first cousin once removed, Anticlimax, and his village which is holding out against the Roman occupation. All they have to do is get a barrel of magic potion to the village but the Romans are onto them...<br />
<a name='more'></a>Both history and geography are thrown to the wind in this story. In real life the Romans did not conquer Britain for nearly another century. And it's never clear just why our heroes need to travel through Londinium (London) at all when they are heading for a village in Cantium (Kent) and have travelled across the straits of Dubrae (Dover). But, as ever, the Asterix adventures are not aiming for realism (here's hoping that no school children have ever repeated any of the inaccuracies in classes) but instead taking the reader through a satirical take on culture both ancient and modern, here mocking the inhabitants of the old enemy. And it's perhaps inevitable that any story written in the 1960s about Britain would invariably include a take on London when in real life it was starting to swing, with even an ancient version of the Beatles making an appearance.<br /><br />A good number of the stereotypes on display will be familiar to the British, derived from our own upper-class twit tropes. Thus many of the characters talk in a strange way, what old boy, maintain a stiff upper lip no matter what the situation and are obsessed with drinking hot water with milk. Funny customs are commented on throughout the story such as the use of the imperial system of measurements, the awkward structure of the currency (this story was first translated in the transition period for decimalisation when the new coins were circulating but the old system was still in place) or even just driving on the wrong side of the road. The British are shown sticking rigidly to their customs of a late afternoon break and taking two days off a week, being willing to put up with much inconvenience no matter how great they dislike it but willing to stand up to defend their way of life such as when a group of Roman soldiers are about to run across a freshly cut lawn.<br /><br />Perhaps the biggest jokes are based around the food and drink. British food is presented as similar to Gaulish in content but prepared very differently, with a lot of boiled meat, to the point that Obelix would rather flee the country than enjoy a victory banquet. Mint sauce is also used a lot, and reviled by both Gauls and Romans (hilariously so when a prefect threatens to serve his generals to the lions with mint sauce, causing cries of pity... for the animals!). And then there's the beer which is always warm. This may all seem strange to us, especially now that boiling meat has largely fallen out of fashion and many pubs serve frozen beers (though cellar temperature ale - which is not as warm as legend has it - is much better), but then how often do the French <i>really</i> eat frogs' legs and snails or drink wine compared to our portrayals of them? None of the clichés and stereotypes on display are in any way nasty, just affectionate. The earliest English language editions of this volume came with a forward explaining that this was an affectionate parody and mirror, but it isn't necessary and has since been dropped.<br /><br />A portion of the book is given over to events at a rugby match, which does actually get a decent amount of explanation. This surprised me at first given how big a rugby nation France is, but both Goscinny and Uderzo were from northern France where football is more popular, whilst most rugby activity is based in the south. As somebody who has never really understood rugby it's helpful that enough of the basics are explained so that the narrative isn't confusing, at least before Asterix, Obelix and Anticlimax race onto the pitch to recover the barrel of magic potion, pursued by a patrol of legionnaires in disguise. Overall this is one of the more straightforward plots in the <i>Asterix</i> adventures, being a mission to deliver a McGuffin with the complications of both the Romans and thief, but it works well as the pace and flow of the narrative serve to drive the story forward instead of meandering all over the place for the sake of it.<br /><br />The British village itself brings a few more caricatures, with Chief Mykingdomforanos resembling Harold Wilson (the British Prime Minister of the day) and, in deference to more modern uses of the term "Britain" (in Roman times it was a province covering most of England and Wales), there are allied chieftains from Hibernia (Ireland) and Caledonia (Scotland) present as well. The story ends with a fictional explanation for another common British stereotype as Asterix combines some strange herbs with water to solve a problem.<br /><br />This is one of the most fun of the <i>Asterix</i> stories so far. There's no animosity in the portrayal of the British at all, just an affectionate parody of stereotypes that show how our neighbours view us as a country of strange but determined people. It's easy to see why this one has not been shunned in this country but instead embraced as a wonderful insight.<br /><br /></div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-17329970094966051022017-10-12T10:00:00.000+01:002017-10-12T10:00:01.774+01:00Asterix and the Big Fight by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 7<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There's a pattern emerging of the <i>Asterix</i> series alternating between volumes set in Gaul and those set in other countries. And the Gaul based adventures are starting to say a few things about occupation. This comes to the fore in the seventh volume, <i>Asterix and the Big Fight</i>, which parodies various aspects of colonialism.<br />
<a name='more'></a>How a society responds to being occupied is one of the more complex themes yet tackled in the series. Here we get a good contrast between traditional Gauls, of whom the village is a prime example, who stick to their usual ways, and the "Gallo-Romans", Gauls who seek to adapt and integrate into the society and culture of their hosts. The tales is firmly on the side of the former, with the latter shown as almost ridiculous in their attempts to adopt Roman clothing despite the climate being unsuitable, adopting Roman architecture and insisting on Roman technology like aqueducts for the sheer sake of it. But the Gaulish influence remains through and through, as shown most obviously with Cassius Ceramix's very name, combining the Roman and Gaulish naming conventions (as well as giving the opponent in the fight the former name of the greatest contemporary boxer of the time).<br /><br />This new chief is regarded as a straightforward collaborator by the Romans. He's also a sign of just how difficult it is to assimilate into an occupying power, with the Romans regarding him as a Gaul through and through and recruiting him for the purpose of a Gaulish tradition, the Big Fight of the story's title, whereby chiefs can challenge each other for control of their villages. Although the precise tactics varied, this general method of tasking a friendly local leader is highly reminiscent of how many later colonial empires operated through encouraging and promoting indigenous leaders to take on the difficult tasks and provide an empire on the cheap, rather than committing endless resources to try to hold down rebellious subjects. In this regard the story shows a strong degree of original thinking by the Romans, helped also by this being the first adventure to use a different camp from Compendium, this time instead featuring the soldiers garrisoned at Totorum.<br /><br />What is unfortunately not so original is that once again a key plot point to this story involves the potential ending of the supply of magic potion. Perhaps Goscinny and Uderzo had realised early on just how difficult the Gaul's super strength could make the storytelling but being now committed to it they have to find ways to make the threats seem credible as not even Cassius Ceramix will agree to fight a potion empowered Vitalstatistix. And so this time we have the disaster of Getafix succumbing to loss of memory when he is accidentally hit on the head by a menhir. The result is a stereotypical and slapstick depiction of the druid who now cannot remember any of his friends or his magic or even his taste in music. Much of the volume's humour derives from attempts to cure him, including giving him a cauldron and ingredients in the hope he can find either the medicine or the super strength potion. For an individual story the mechanism to neutralise Getafix works to advance the plot and also there's a lot of mileage derived from the Romans seeking to make sure the druid is out of action in order to get Cassius Ceramix to the fight. However, it demonstrates the long-term problems the series as a whole has with such an obvious solution to so many problems that the stories repeatedly should threaten it.<br /><br />The Romans also demonstrate themselves to be complete fools in not pressing the advantage and attacking the village directly whilst Getafix is out of action. The plot point is explicitly addressed, with centurion Nebulus Nimbus considering an attack but his aide-de-camp Felonius Caucus advises instead leaving it to their existing scheme. It's a further sign of how the story mirrors later colonial tactics, but also shows the Romans as foolish as the Gauls try everything they can to cure Getafix, even recruiting the services of the druid Psychoanalytix, whose name matches his career. Unfortunately, he too soon gets a tap on the head and spends the rest of the story trying to make potions alongside Getafix with fantastic results. Amazingly it's Obelix who works out the solution to the problem.<br /><br />The big fight itself is steadily built up to, with both chieftains shown in training and a parody of modern day carnivals springing up around the fight, but it's one of the least interesting aspects to the plot, along with the misadventures of the Roman soldier Informofpurpus who gets used as a test subject for Getafix's wilder potions and befriended by an owl. When the climax comes the fight itself is not that spectacular, with Vitalstatistix first running round and round the ring and only turning to fight when he hears good news. The real big fight comes afterwards in battle with the Romans.<br /><br />Sometimes the focal point of a story isn't the most interesting bit and this is definitely the case here. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing as this gives for an interesting tale that shows how the various characters react to the main threat and challenges around them instead of focusing just on the threat itself. The humour is mixed but has good moments, whilst the underlying themes of the tales make for an interesting take on aspects of colonialism.<br /><br /></div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-19439525971623636552017-10-05T10:00:00.000+01:002017-10-11T22:42:52.810+01:00Asterix and Cleopatra by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 6<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It's not hard to spot the influence for this album, with the original serialisation having come in the same year as the film <i>Cleopatra</i>, with the title character even drawn to resemble Elizabeth Taylor. This album used to have a non-traditional cover that resembled a movie poster, calling it "The Greatest Story Ever Drawn" and even listing what had gone into it in terms of writing & drawing materials and beer. However, the modern editions have dropped this in favour of the overall standardisation of the series and perhaps also because the passage of time has diminished the parody. Still it's a sign of the series riding the cultural zeitgeist of the day and presenting its own take on the relationship between the Queen of Egypt (who has a very pretty nose) and the Roman Dictator.<br />
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Featuring two of the best known historical characters in the series, there's inevitably a lot of historic licence taken with this story. But the series has never set out to be historically accurate and so we can simply ignore the fact that in 50 BC Julius Caesar and Cleopatra (who has a very pretty nose) hadn't even met yet. The story also has absurd vessel speeds, with Edifis given three months to build a palace in Alexandria and yet somehow finding the time to travel by sea all the way to Armorica (Brittany) and back. The Sphinx also appears to lose its nose rather earlier than in reality. Again, this is a sign of how the series takes elements of popular history and distils them to tell adventures without regard for the known historical facts. In a story parodying a Hollywood film this approach could almost be seen as deliberate.<br />
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The story sees the series and our heroes continue their visits to the best-known locations in the ancient world, but this time there's a strong plot to the tale as Cleopatra (who has a very pretty nose) commissions the architect Edifis to build a great palace in order to win an argument with Caesar. Both Caesar and the rival architect Artifis seek to stop the construction, each for their own reasons. Edifis turns to Getafix for help and Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix accompany the druid to Egypt where they aim to get the palace built in time and stop the various machinations in time. It's a well thought through scenario that still allows for some travel within Egypt to see great sites such as the pyramids and the Sphinx yet also retaining a narrative cohesion that has been lacking at times in some of the earlier albums as they jump from one location to another.<br />
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Here we finally get a name for the little dog who followed Asterix and Obelix all around Gaul in <i>Asterix and the Banquet</i>. Now named "Dogmatix", a pun that works well in taking the original French name ("Idéfix") and translating it directly yet in a way that adds as well. He's also now clearly established as Obelix's pet whereas before he had shown no clear preference between Asterix and Obelix. At first Asterix is angry about the dog coming, but later Dogmatix proves his worth in rescuing them from a pyramid, although he's unable to a message to Cleopatra (who has a very pretty nose) on his own. The series shows a continued awareness of its own conventions, with the pirates by now seeking to avoid conflict with the Gauls to the point that when they discover them they opt to save on a battle and sink their own ship immediately rather that get beaten anyway. Caesar is also now fully aware of the Gauls, instantly describing all three of them when his spy reports back. There's also a drawn-out pun about Obelix trying his hardest to taste the magic potion, although there's a rather odd scene when the three Gauls are trapped inside a pyramid and Getafix decides to give him a few drops. It's not clear if this is actually the real potion, and thus represents the series breaking one of its established rules, or merely a psychological trick to give the menhir deliveryman the determination to break down the doors.<br />
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The story is unambiguously on the side of the Egyptians in Cleopatra's bet, portraying them as a proud and sophisticated society, though their modern architecture leaves something to be desired. The Gauls mainly supply physical support in the form of Getafix's magic potion that soon gets the workers moving and also in outwitting first Artifis and then Caesar in their machinations. Artifis in particular is depicted as one of the most despicable yet cowardly villains seen so far, plotting to have both Edifis and the three Gauls executed but seeking to do so by manipulating Cleopatra (who has a very pretty nose) rather than directly. Even more cowardly is his henchman Krukhut who crumbles at the first threat. It is a real surprise when at the end of the story the two architects announce that they have reconciled and gone into business together.<br />
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Death is ever near in the story, with Krukhut at one point trapping the Gauls inside a pyramid to die amidst the pharaohs. Later Artifis sends a heavily poisoned cake to Cleopatra (who has a very pretty nose) to frame the Gauls, with the royal taster nearly killed. Cleopatra lives in fear of assassination. The threat to be fed to crocodiles is ever present. Caesar launches an assault on the palace that is much more brutal than previous attacks, including an artillery bombardment. It's a much strong and darker tale than we've seen before in the series, thus upping the stakes and making for a tenser finale.<br />
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There are some jokes that are a little repetitive, such as the near constant mentioning of Cleopatra's nose, but otherwise this is easily the best story in the series so far, delivering a strong coherent narrative in a tense setting.</div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-16816655796397589472017-09-28T10:00:00.000+01:002017-09-28T10:00:05.316+01:00Asterix and the Banquet by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 5<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Even before opening the fifth Asterix album this loses some of the joke in both translation and colouring. The original French title is <i>Le Tour de Gaule d'Astérix</i> and the German translation makes the joke even more specific "<i>Tour de France</i>". However, the English translation shifts the emphasis away from the journey to the end goal. Also undermining the joke is the colour of the shopping bag. Originally this was yellow with a patch, to mimic the lead cyclist's jersey, but the cover and now the modern interior colour have instead rendered it green. Although the colouring may be an error that was "corrected" in the wrong direction, the overall result is that the title and cover of this album now downplays somewhat fact that this is an exploration of France in all its glory. Perhaps this is also why it was one of the last of the original twenty-four Asterix albums to be translated into English. This placing, along with some of the cover croppings used over the years, has also disguised the introduction of one of the most beloved of all the characters in the series.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />The little dog isn't yet given a name. Indeed, for almost all of the story he could just as easily not be there. He first appears on the ninth page, sitting outside a pork butcher's in Lutetia, and then decides to follow the two Gauls without either of them seeming to notice him until the very last page, even though he must have had some help in boarding the various vehicles they use. He makes no sound until the banquet, when he's given a bone, but otherwise just dogmatically follows them all the time despite not actually contributing to the plot. The result is a nice little element that visually enhances the story.<br /><br />The plot itself is even more absurd than usual and yet more so than previous stories plays upon the fact that the country is under occupation but the village holds out. Thus a new inspector general, Overanxius, turns up determined to bring the village under Roman control and then when that fails he resorts to building a wall to keep the village isolated under siege. However, he proves susceptible to blagging and easily accepts a challenge from Asterix - if he can escape from the siege, travel around the whole of the country and bring back local delicacies for a special banquet then the siege will be lifted. Normally this sort of challenge between opposing powers would look very silly, though in today's world where certain leaders make especial public bluster it might not be such an odd idea. It's also notable that the village holding out against the Romans is seen as far more of a problem for the rest of Gaul in keeping up a beacon of resistance whereas the Roman soldiers stationed in the local camps just regard it as a settled way of life and will do anything to avoid actual conflict.<br /><br />Occupation, collaboration and resistance are recurring themes throughout this story, which originally appeared just a generation after the wartime occupation of France. The majority of the Gauls shown in Occupied Gaul are depicted as passive resisters who time and again aid Asterix and Obelix in evading the Romans and obtaining the items they've come for, but punches aren't spared with traitors. Both Unpatriotix and Uptotrix seek to lure the heroes into a false sense of security so the Romans can capture them. The former is shown to repent, commenting "I'll never betray my fellow-countrymen again. The pay's good but it's dangerous work ... and morally indefensible", delivering a blunt lesson in a country still dealing with the Vichy legacy. But it is implicitly emphasised that these traitors are a minority. Otherwise resistance is depicted with various levels of organisation, with the most prominent coming in Lugdunum where an organised resistance has spies in the occupying headquarters and arranges safe passage for the visitors in a thinly disguised parody of the French Resistance in what is now the city of Lyon. Elsewhere many a Gaul aids and abets our heroes, with the patrons of an inn in Massilia taking a fun approach as they block the street with a game of boules and threaten the Romans with "Riots! Revolution" We're thinking of writing a song about that." The city is now Marseilles.<br /><br />A lot of this album derives its humour from internal French stereotypes that are not so familiar to other countries - the jampacked streets of Lutetia (Paris), the maze-like layout of Lugdunum (Lyon) the summer exodus to the south, the inhabitants of Normandy being unable to give a straight answer, the hot-blooded exaggerators of Massilia (Marseilles) and so forth. At times even the humour evades the translators, as shown with the meeting with a man milking a cow outside Rotomagus (Rouen) which seems to be trying to make a joke about Normandy's cuisine smothering dishes in cream, but the translation just gives up with a confusing comment by Asterix about the milker not quite doing things as expected. Elsewhere things are better, with Nicae (Nice) depicted as a summer resort where the beaches are literally packed with tourists and there are lengthy queues to reach it. Perhaps it's for the best that the story skips over the visit to Tolosa (Toulouse) and instead focuses on dealing with a camp of Romans stationed outside. But overall this is a problem for the story for audiences that just don't have the cultural background, just as much as the French must find many a British regional stereotype utterly bewildering. This is probably the reason why the story was left untranslated for so long.<br /><br />The tour nature of the story means there's no real option to build a detailed narrative with in-depth characters. Instead it's one brief visit after another, with the Roman efforts to stop Asterix and Obelix being undertaken by local forces sent orders, instead of having an antagonist pursue them. The back cover of the current Orion edition tries to play up the role of Villanus and Unscrupulus but they're just a couple of thieves who steal the shopping bag of delicacies only for their size to result in their being confused for the real Asterix and Obelix. Appearing on just over three pages they don't contribute a great deal to the adventure overall and are surprising choices for a brief summary.<br /><br />The story sees the return of the pirates from the previous <a href="http://ninthartform.blogspot.com/2017/09/asterix-gladiator-by-rene-goscinny-and.html"><i>Asterix and the Gladiator</i></a>, who now seem set to be a recurring nuisance every time a story involves a sea voyage. But such is the trivial nature of the threat that their entire appearance is confined to a single page, which would be an easy candidate to excise if ever the story needed to be trimmed down. Like nearly all the albums, this story climaxes with a banquet only this time there are guests as Overanxius is shown first the proof of the tour and then the speciality of the village itself - "the uppercut".<br /><br />Overall this album is somewhat disappointing, but that's probably because of the difficulties it faces in working for a non-French audience. More so than most Asterix stories this one is heavily rooted in how the French see each other and that results in humour that doesn't translate well. When stripped of that it becomes an over simplistic travelogue which can have as many or as few incidents as the creators decide, rather than a firm narrative structure. It's thus something of a disappointment.<br /><br /></div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-60862102517936430662017-09-21T10:00:00.000+01:002017-09-21T10:00:06.220+01:00Asterix the Gladiator by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 4<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The fourth Asterix album shows the series still developing and adding concepts, whilst also upping the humour levels. For the first time in the run so far a story's plot does not revolve around a threat to the village's supply of magic potion. Instead the victim this time is the bard Cacofonix, captured to be presented to Julius Caesar as a mere gift. This results in Asterix and Obelix heading off to Rome to rescue him.<br />
<a name='more'></a>This story features the first sea voyage in the series, showing the wisdom of setting the village on the coast. It also introduces the pirates who will go on to be the most frequent individual foes in the whole series. Also introduced for the first time in the series is Obelix's habit of collecting helmets from Roman soldiers, and indeed any other foes, as a proof of how many he's knocked out. It starts off as a bet that Asterix rapidly forgets about, but continues here and in later stories as a regular obsession, to the point that Obelix is often more annoyed about soldiers fighting bare-headed than even their commanding officers.<br /><br />Once again, the title and cover of the story build expectations that take a while to meet. It's not until page 14 that our heroes arrive in Rome and then it takes until page 27 before they actually start training as gladiators. These stories were originally serialised a page at a time and so the patience required to get to the promised setting must have been immense. But rather than ramble around, the story focuses on getting all the characters to the destination, thus starting with the kidnap to order of Cacofonix, then showing the rest of the villagers making a natural rescue attempt by assaulting the camp of Compendium, before Asterix and Obelix set off for Rome. Once there they make natural enquiries, though are helped by the coincidence first of encountering one of Cacofonix's guard and then by discovering one of their main acquaintances is Caius Fatuous, the impresario and self-proclaimed biggest gladiator trainer in Rome. (Although the actual training is done by the even larger Insalubrius.) However things don't go according to plan, making for a tense build-up to the climax in the arena, with all worrying about what will happen there.<br /><br />The one page a week format limits the opportunity to show Rome on a grand scale but there's certainly a sense of awe and wonder about the city, with sophisticated restaurants, public baths, council housing, a great arena and more. This is undeniably a greater city than the Lutetia portrayed back in <a href="http://ninthartform.blogspot.com/2017/09/asterix-and-golden-sickle-by-rene.html"><i>Asterix and the Golden Sickle</i></a>. Such is the scale that Asterix and Obelix even sneak out of training (or what they've turned it into) in order to go sightseeing. When they reach the arena, the audience includes not only Julius Caesar but also Brutus, truly emphasising the grand sense of the occasion. It's a tale that knows it's special and isn't afraid to embrace this.<br /><br />There's also a lot of good characterisation. Cacofonix has up to now largely been treated as a one-note joke but here we get plenty of comedy as he moves through the proceedings completely unaware of just how terrible his singing is. Soldiers, wild-life, slaves, audiences - everyone who hears him is desperate for him to stop. Even the galley slaves who row him to Rome declare they'd rather have the whip. However, his singing does save him from the lions in the arena and then right at the end the mere threat of it is enough to get Caius Fatuous to start rowing a ship all the way to Gaul. Throughout much of the story Cacofonix is restrained but his thoughts make his ego all too clear as he silently protests the indignity of being treated as a gift and the inability of his successive audiences to appreciate his musical talents.<br /><br />The story also contains a lot of satire on more contemporary affairs, ranging from the dubious contractual practices of the trader Ekonomikrisis through to advertising keeping entertainment going even though the products are no good to the conflict between neighbours in a block of flats (although the joke about them being Greater Latin Council - GLC - flats has dated heavily). The way the trader and his partners/oarsmen react to approach pirates not with defensive measures or escaping but by proceeding to discuss how to amend their contract is a nice play on the habit of some trade unionists bringing everything to an immediate standstill to discuss trivial matters whilst the very survival of the business is under threat. Obelix also adds to the humour and conflict, especially with his constant habit of accidentally knocking down doors, whilst even Asterix is not above reacting, knocking out masseuses, bath owners and gladiator trainers whenever threatened.<br /><br />The climax in the Circus Maximus is wonderfully hilarious as all the plans of Caius Fatuous fall apart due to the involvement of the Gauls, yet as he gave them star billing there is very little he can do about the situation. The result is a final battle in the greatest arena of all, before one of the most powerful individuals in all of human history. Throughout it all both Asterix and Obelix demonstrate a strong sense of spirit, refusing to let the situation or the difficult characters around them overwhelm them, and instead make their way through.<br /><br />This is probably the best of the <i>Asterix </i>adventures so far, showing the series really hitting its stride and showing a range of imagination of both plot and scope.<br /><br /></div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-3679328564028360962017-09-14T10:00:00.000+01:002017-09-14T10:00:06.996+01:00Asterix and the Goths by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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With the third album, the <i>Asterix</i> adventures now step outside of Gaul for the first time, taking our heroes into neighbouring Germania. Goths have appeared in both the previous adventures but now we get to see a full depiction of the neighbouring country. It's another sign that this is a series determined to show the full range of its scope fairly early on and not confine itself merely to the relations between the Gauls and the occupying Romans.<br />
<a name='more'></a>However, for an adventure that literally crosses frontiers, this story takes some time. It's not until page 18 of 43 that we actually enter Germania. Beforehand the focus is on Getafix's visit to a conference of druids and then on confusion amongst the Romans on the frontier as they get confused between the Goths and Asterix and Obelix, resulting in a lot of misidentity and runarounds. These scenes have a charm to them, but do drag a little given the main appeal of the adventure. It's also a little dubious that Getafix would be allowed to enter the strength magic potion in a contest for new methods and there must surely have been some other way for him to have unwittingly demonstrated it to the Goth spies - maybe perhaps an accident in the forest that required super strength to rescue a druid. There's some fun moments in this part of the story and some fun jokes, but invariably the reader's attention is drawn to the latter part of the tale as we enter ancient Germany.<br /><br />This story was originally published just a generation after the occupation of France by the Germans. So far in the series there hasn't been a particularly overt use of the Romans as proxies for the Germans, but now we get to see France's most recent occupiers directly. And it's the portrayal is very negative, showing a brutal, war mongering race devoted to militarism and conquest. There are a lot of anachronisms in the portrayal, with the emphasis on the distinction between the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths owing more to the 1960s, when Germany was divided between West Germany and East Germany, rather than 50 BC when this distinction isn't so well recorded. The Goths wear helmets reminiscent of the Pickelhauben worn by the Germans until the end of the First World War, the scene in the arena has the feeling of a political rally right down to the draped flags and the symbols used to portray Gothic swearwords include the swastika. Given the nature of the story and the space available it's inevitable that shortcuts are taken with the presentation of the resolution, but the story as a whole shows many of the Goths to be easily susceptible and highly treacherous, with even allies and family members turning on one another, and each Goth approached by the Gauls easily avails themselves of the opportunity to raise an army and turn on their leaders. This is a tale that isn't pulling its punches. In the real world De Gaulle and Adenauer may have been leading attempts at Franco-German reconciliation, but Goscinny and Uderzo were instead showing that not all the French were feeling quite so positive about their neighbours. The lesson at the end of the story is exceptionally blunt, namely that the way to check German expansion is to keep the peoples divided and squabbling amongst themselves so they won't have time to think about invading their neighbours. For a story written less than a century after German unification and now in an era of new division it is all too obvious message.<br /><br />The series is also still developing ideas about how to do the storytelling, as shown with a special page entitled "The Asterixian Wars" which humorously tells of all the Gothic leaders attacking one another, with many ambushes and backstabbings, constant conflict and even illogical attacks as weaker chiefs turn on each other. It's not strictly necessary to the story which has already established the civil war created by the heroes but it makes for a nice piece towards the end. Elsewhere the characters continue to be developed, with Asterix getting involved by volunteering to be Getafix's bodyguard on the way to the conference and Obelix coming too simply because "Menhirs are out of season at the moment", rather than the story contriving a connection to justify his inclusion. Of the rest of the regular cast only Cacofonix makes any noticeable appearance as the other villagers rapidly prevent his attempts to mark first the departure and later the banquet celebrating the return with a song.<br /><br />The story is slightly weakened by being the third of only three tales so far to see a situation that threatens to end the supply of magic potion to the village, with Getafix once again kidnapped. In the English-language this problem was less noticeable in the previous Hodder Dargaud editions which numbered the series in the order in which they were translated, but with both the original French publication and now the Orion editions the repetitiveness does start to show. Fortunately the story doesn't play up the potion aspect too much and instead concentrates on Asterix and Obelix going to rescue their friend but it does show a need to broaden out the range of problems to respond to.<br /><br />Overall this is quite an enjoyable adventure. It may drag a little in the first half but there's plenty of good humour throughout and it presents a strong threat to be overcome with thought and imagination rather than the Gauls simply bashing their way in and out of a situation. The depiction of the Goths may be reflective of its time but it makes them a strong foe to be overcome. This is easily the best story so far.<br /><br /></div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-57517266292296916652017-09-07T10:00:00.000+01:002017-09-13T22:25:42.881+01:00Asterix and the Golden Sickle by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The second <i>Asterix</i> album shows a boldness to the series in rapidly taking the main character away from the village and thus demonstrating early on that this is a series with a much broader scope than merely events in the village itself and the besieging camps. Instead much of the story is set in and around Lutetia, the ancient incarnation of the city of Paris.<br />
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In the current English translation, at least, the city isn't so obviously flagged as Paris. No footnotes identify it as such and many non-French readers may not immediately recognise the city on the river when it first appears. References to stereotypes of Parisians are also not so obviously on display to a non-French audience, whilst the city's iconic architecture is obviously too anachronistic to appear here. Only a reference to going down an underground tunnel as "take the subway" and a comment by a fisherman that all he catches are amphoras discarded by wine drinkers really reference the modern-day city. As a result, this could really be any city under Roman occupation<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The sickle of the title is the object that Asterix and Obelix have come to buy, as the druid Getafix has broken his and needs a new one for a conference of druids which is often mentioned but not shown here. It's a little concerning for originality that both stories so far have involved the potential neutralisation of Getafix, even though here more emphasis is placed on his forthcoming conference than on the potential loss of some of his magic powers, though there are lines stating that mistletoe has to be cut with gold in order to be magic. The magic potion was initially portrayed as effectively a growth hormone, building up strength through regular doses, but here it is now settled as an instant source of strength, taking it away from the drug implications but at a risk of making the stories even more magical than needs be. Wisely once in Lutetia there's no mention of the potential magical effects of the sickle and it instead becomes an item in high seasonable demand, made worse by the disappearance of the best maker, Metallurgix.<br />
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Metallurgix is the first of many one-off characters who are distant relatives of one of the main cast, in this case Obelix. He even looks almost identical to his distant cousin, albeit being shorter and rather thinner. The connection is such to get Obelix to accompany Asterix on his mission whereas later on the strong friendship between the two would be enough to explain his leaving his menhir business behind for the duration. As a result, this is the first story to really fill out Obelix with his quirks such as smashing down doors by accident, embarrassing people with his offer of menhirs and obsession with wild boar. There's a clear affection between him and Asterix which makes for a good duo with strong dialogue between them. The rest of the regular cast are confined to small cameos at the start and the end, with the only items of note being that Cacofonix is shown to also be a teacher and his final look has not yet been settled on. The ending introduces the running gag of the bard being tied up so he cannot ruin a feast; earlier on his attempt to sing a song to mark the heroes' departure merely results in the whole crowd running away.<br />
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In Lutetia, the story is a somewhat simple tale of a missing person and the reluctance of locals to say what happened to him, followed by a hunt for the mastermind behind the kidnapping and theft. However, for an identity mystery the story doesn't really offer much in the way of clues and there are really only two potential suspects, the centurion and the laid-back prefect, Surplus Dairyprodus. The resolution comes all too quickly with the culprit confessing to his fellow Romans rather than simply asserting his veracity over the claims of the Gauls. Otherwise there's a bit of back and forthing as Asterix and Obelix head around Lutetia to chase clues and suspects, with the complication of routinely running into the same Roman squadron, led by a decurion (a rare sign of poor research as that was a cavalry not an infantry rank) and being put in jail time and again.<br />
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Overall the story is very much a run-around. There are signs that the series is still finding its feet with the jokes and satire not particularly obvious, whilst there's not much in the way of a travelogue and thus for all the prominence the cover gives to Lutetia (even more so than its predecessor which showed the city in silhouette and the heroes at a sign to it), this is a story that could be set in just about any city. In the long term it was probably a mistake to go to such an important location this early in the series and the result is a rather unmemorable tale.</div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-5870198066555147152017-08-31T10:00:00.000+01:002017-09-21T01:45:20.082+01:00Asterix the Gaul by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - volume 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One of the best known of all the French bandes dessinées is the <i>Asterix</i> series which first began in 1959 and is still going to this day. In recent years the series appears to have had a small makeover with updated translations, new & more consistent colouring, modified covers and the original publication order being used for listings & numberings, with the result that the albums currently on sale (which will be looked at in this and subsequent posts) differ somewhat from the editions I remember from childhood. However, <i>Asterix the Gaul</i> was the introductory album even then and shows a strip that was in development even when it began to be serialised. Significantly there doesn't appear to have been any major latter day rewriting or redrawing of the album in order to make it more closely match the rest of the series.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The setting of the series is Gaul (ancient France) in the year 50 BC, with the Romans having conquered the country but one small coastal village in Armorica (now Brittany) is resisting the occupation and thus lives under siege from four Roman camps. The Romans make various attempts to conquer the village but are unable to because of the villagers' use of a magic potion that gives them super strength. The location in Brittany was reportedly entirely the choice of artist Albert Uderzo, who had spent a year in his teens there during the Second World War. Given the period when the series began and the artist's history, it is hard not to see the series as rooted in a romanticisation of French resistance to occupation even though this album avoids specific parallels with the war (apart from one panel where the Goths from modern Germany vow to return). Asterix himself is the ultimate little man who relies as much on his wits as on strength in order to evade and defeat the Germans.<br />
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The development is clear early on with many characters including Asterix himself, Getafix and Julius Caesar all developing their looks between the start and end of the album, whilst others who are not used as much at this stage like Obelix, Cacofonix and, especially, Fulliautomatix have not yet settled into their most familiar looks. Even menhirs look different on their very first appearance compared to later on. There are also other details that would change over time, with Obelix initially content to share a boar with Asterix whereas later he would regularly consume a whole one (or even more) on his own. The villagers even all gather to dance to a song by Cacofonix, rather than flee in terror at the bard's awful singing. But more significantly for the plot, the villagers seem to regularly take the magic potion like a regular supplement rather than specifically consuming it immediately before battle. Thus, losing Getafix does not mean the village faces immediate conquest in the way that the druid's loss or incapacitation in later stories would threaten. It's also surprising just how long Asterix and Getafix appear to be held prisoners for, especially when they tie up the garrison in a search for strawberries at the wrong time of year.<br />
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The plot of this album is quite straightforward, introducing the basic set-up in the space of just a few pages and then following an attempt by a Roman centurion to discover the secret of the villagers' strength and then harness it for his own personal ambitions. However, he reckons without the cunning of Asterix and Getafix. There's humour aplenty in the story that even extends to some highly comic characters, ranging from Caligula Minus the reluctant spy to the oxen dealer whom Asterix repeatedly manipulates in order to infiltrate and fool the Romans. The album introduces the practice of giving most characters names that are puns, ranging from the functional like Fulliautomatix for the blacksmith through to the sheer comedic such as Crismus Bonus for the centurion. Even minor characters are given a degree of comedic realism with legionnaires regularly expressing their fears. The only place where the comedy falls down is through the use of Latin which can be confusing if a joke hinges on knowing what a phrase means, though at times it works well such as when Crismus Bonus explodes in anger at his troops for preferring to speak it to volunteering.<br />
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Of the main characters in the series, only Asterix and Getafix are really developed here, with Obelix primarily serving as plot exposition and not accompanying Asterix to the camp of Compendium whilst Chief Vitalstatistix, Cacofonix, Fulliautomatix and Julius Caesar all have only very brief appearances compared to their subsequent use. This is beneficial in not tying too many characters down immediately and instead allowing potential for organic growth. Nor does the adventure take place on a grand scale, with all scenes set either in the village, the Roman camp of Compendium or the forest between the two. Thus, the story is relatively low-key compared to some of the grander events to come, but for a first adventure this works well in establishing Asterix and his world.<br />
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As is so often the case with the very first strips from a series, this is a bit rough and ready with the development all too clearly on display. In setting up the basics of the series there's a restraint on the scope of the tale but it does ultimately serve its purpose to launch the series. However, the best is yet to come.</div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-73739639139561676032017-08-24T10:00:00.000+01:002017-08-31T13:44:27.435+01:00Combat Colin #1 by Lew Stringer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Lew Stringer has created many strips over the years for a huge variety of titles and publishers, but he's probably best known for his work for Marvel UK for various titles in the 1980s and early 1990s. Week in, week out he would produce a wonderful comedy strip appropriate to the themes of the comic in question. Many such as <i>Robo-Capers</i>, <i>Captain Wally</i>, <i>Snail-Man</i> or <i>Macho Man</i> are fondly remembered by readers to this day, but above all the top stand-out strip is <i>Combat Colin</i>. Created for <i>Action Force</i> weekly, the strip could have ended when that title died after just fifty issues but it instead made a transfer to <i>Transformers</i> (into which <i>Action Force</i> weekly was nominally merged) and lasted until the end of that title, even when the <i>Action Force</i>/<i>G.I. Joe</i> strip wasn't running in it. Recently Lew Stringer has produced the first of a series of collected editions of the strip, with issue #1 reproducing all of the strips from the <i>Action Force</i> days and today I'll be looking at that.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>(A quick word on <i>Action Force</i>. This series was based on a toyline that has a somewhat convoluted history but by 1987 it was almost completely an import of the US <i>G.I. Joe</i> toyline in all but name with just a few changes to the character profiles to present them as an international unit. The comic combined reprints of the Marvel US <i>G.I. Joe</i> series with new British originated strips and the occasional other Marvel US strip as a back-up story. However, it didn't present the combined material as well as some other Marvel UK titles, resulting in a somewhat confusing continuity. Stuart Webb has written <a href="http://thesolarpool.weebly.com/transformers-addendum-4.html">a fuller introduction</a> as part of <a href="http://thesolarpool.weebly.com/">The Solar Pool</a> blog.) <br />
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This reprinted edition is in black and white (apart from the cover). All the strips were originally printed in colour but it would appear that whilst Lew Stringer obtained the copyright on his own work, he does not own the colours - the introduction notes "Colours were added by the Marvel UK staff, as was the norm back then." However, as the strip would later go black and white for nearly half its run in <i>Transformers</i> this isn't much of a problem and in the long-run it will help to give a more uniform feel to the series. The strips seem to be sourced from a mixture of original artwork in plain black & white and some scans that have the colour burnt in as greyscale. Artwise there's a subtle development as first Colin and then Semi-Automatic Steve undergo slightly visual changes, mainly with their noses, before settling in as their most familiar looks.<br />
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The material reproduced here shows a strip that goes through a heck of a lot of development in just ten months. Early on the focus is on humour about Combat Colin, a military nut living with his parents in a somewhat surreal world that has such oddities as raining tanks and anti-tank guns coming in cereal packets. This oddness drops away as the series develops into a comedy action series with a mixture of standalone mini-stories and ongoing epics featuring daft characters but in a recognisable world. It's notable that even at this early stage Stringer is dropping in references to previous strips, with Captain Wally, Snail-Man and Macho Man all applying to be part of Colin's gang, only to be literally blown aside by the arrival of Semi-Automatic Steve. The introduction of a sidekick sees the strip step away from the earliest jokes, with the parents rapidly fading away, and instead it moves towards more ongoing serial adventures with Colin and Steve tackling menaces both at home and around the world.<br />
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The adventures soon establish a recurring foe in the form of Doctor Nasty, a mad scientist who initially rules the jungle kingdom of Evilonia but whose schemes range from conquest to mere destruction. There's something a little awkward about a white scientist ruling over a tribe, even though it's shown they are no primitives and apparently working on a YOP scheme (an anachronism even at the time as in the real world the scheme had been replaced four years earlier). Doctor Nasty appears in no less than four different multi-part stories, accounting for a total of sixteen of the forty-three different strips. This feels a little excessive, even when taking into account that the final three-part story in this issue is clearly a rush job to tidy things up before the merger and allow readers of <i>Transformers</i> but not <i>Action Force</i> to follow the strip without having missed too many key details. The only other significant villains introduced are Aunt Arctic, an eccentric villain with an army of Kung-Fu penguins, and Cap'n Barnacle, a latter-day pirate in a submarine. They are used more sparingly. Beyond that Colin faces the odd spy, but in a number of strips his biggest enemy is his own stupidity.<br />
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Some of the strips have not dated too well. Stringer admits as much in a footnote to "Combat Crush" where Colin falls for a woman without even having spoken to her and then proceeds to harass her first by phone and then by visiting her house. At first Steve has the catchphrase "Ja ja, mein general!" which feels very odd but is soon dropped. Elsewhere there's a suicide bomber on a plane, whilst some of the earliest strips derive their humour from Colin playing with guns at home (or using them as tools for such tasks as dealing with flies), or even taking them out and about. Possibly coincidentally there's a shift away from using guns in such domestic settings right around the time of the real-life Hungerford massacre, when public attitudes to weapons did noticeably shift. Had the series remained a pure gag strip it would probably have struggled in such a changing environment, but fortunately by this stage the adventures were increasingly established and thus able to make it last. By the end of this issue the series has clearly found its groove and even indulges in some of Stringer's notable obsessions, including a set of Dalek spoofs in the form of the Snowbots, or even a homage to a classic Marvel story when Colin and Steve defeat a villain in a great atomic explosion, "...but at what cost?" asks a cliffhanger ending.<br />
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The strips in this particular issue are contenders for the least well-known of Combat Colin's years at Marvel, given that <i>Action Force</i> weekly ended after less than a year. Thus, although this series as a whole will especially appeal to nostalgic readers from those years, these particular ones are an interesting curiosity as many nostalgic fans from later years may well not have seen them. As a result, this is a fun collection of new/old material that is definitely worth checking out.<br />
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<i>And you can check it out at the </i><a href="http://lewstringer.com/page7.htm">Online Shop</a><i> at </i><a href="http://www.lewstringer.com/">Lew Stringer Comics & Cartoons</a>.<br />
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<i>No, I'm not getting any commission.</i> </div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-31157651804118718232017-08-17T13:30:00.000+01:002017-08-17T13:30:00.159+01:00Tintin and Alph-Art - The Adventures of Tintin 24 by Hergé<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Whenever a popular creator dies there's inevitable speculation about works that might have been, either stories that were planned but never made or unpublished material sitting in an archive somewhere. Perhaps the most frustrating is when there's an incomplete tale that has a start and a middle but no clear indication of how it was meant to end.<br />
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Hergé had stated that he wished <i>The Adventures of Tintin</i> to die with him and it's a request that his heirs have upheld, to the point that <i>Tintin and Alph-Art</i> was never officially completed by the Studios Hergé (although they did carry on with a few more volumes of <i>Quick & Flupke</i> before closing). Although there have been some fan produced completions, the official version remains the unfinished sketches which have been released in a couple of formats with the current version being a 62-page album that appears to only be available in hardback from Egmont. (The American publishers, Little Brown, have, however, published it in paperback.) The bulk of the album is taken up with forty plus pages of thumbnail sketches on which Hergé had drafted the first two-thirds of the story, with the text and some directions transcribed, plus some additional pages of notes at the end that show some of his ideas during the development of the story, some of which were abandoned on the way and others may also have fallen aside.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Because this is only a partial draft it's not certain that it would have followed this structure exactly had Hergé lived. Notably it's not until page 31 (on Hergé's notes, this is page 40 in the album) that Tintin, Snowy and Haddock travel to Ischia and this might have been brought forward in the finished version, perhaps by trimming down some of the scenes in and around Brussels. Indeed, the notes suggest the scene with Mrs Laijot the book-keeper on an additional page 20 (album pages 26-27) was to be cut and the numbering indicates another page around this point on the book would have been either dropped or merged into a neighbour. It's also unclear who Endaddine Akass was intended to be - Tintin recognises his voice but his identity is not revealed in the sketches. Notes at the end suggest he was going to be revealed as Rastapopoulos but as they contain other ideas not present in the sketches, such as drug smuggling and Haddock having a total lifestyle makeover, it's questionable whether this was still Hergé's plan.<br />
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The story itself is a relatively traditional style of plot for a Tintin adventure, although notably it's Captain Haddock who first gets drawn into the plot when he steps into an art gallery in the hope of hiding from Bianca Castafiore. The result is a trail of crime in Brussels, with the man who seemingly knows what is going on murdered and Tintin himself subject to attacks, before Tintin and Haddock decide to follow the clues to the source and travel to another place, in this case an island off Italy. There Tintin discovers the full nature of the crimes but is captured and taken away to be disposed of... The elements are familiar, although it's notable that the travel keeps Tintin within continental western Europe whereas most previous stories have taken him further afield. There's also a more restrained use of returning characters outside the regulars than in previous albums, though a number appear in various group settings, no doubt to provide multiple suspects for the identity of Endaddine Akass. Also notably on display is a high degree of topicality for the time, drawing heavily on the modern art of the era and the fad for religious sects with charismatic leaders. Though there are still holes on the story, particularly the coincidence of Fourcart suddenly wanting to talk to Tintin when Haddock is in the gallery, these could well have been tightened up by a full final version.<br />
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One character in the story has been the subject of much speculation and that is Martine Vandezande, Mr Fourcart's assistant. Tintin talks with her four times in relatively rapid succession, even walking her home after a meeting of Akass's followers albeit with Haddock accompanying them as well. Although some of the scenes do help to advance the plot, particularly when Tintin tries to set up a trap through the bug, they are somewhat drawn out, leading many to speculate that Hergé was building up a romantic interest for Tintin. There's certainly a liking between them but it's all up in the air at this stage, leaving it very much open to speculation as to what would have happened. Given the traditional boy's own adventure nature of the <i>Adventures</i>, a romantic interest would have certainly changed them but change was already in the air. Alternatively, could this have been a sign of Hergé seeing this as the likely final story and opting to change the hero's circumstances as part of the ending? The beauty of this incomplete collection is that so much is left to the imagination and we can only speculate on just what was intended.<br />
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Did Hergé intend to kill off Tintin? The last sketched panel shows Tintin being marched off to be encased in liquid plastic, leading to suggestions that his creator had grown tired of him and was intending to dispose of him this way. But this is midway on what is numbered as page 42 (album pages 54-55), with a good third of the story still to come. It's not an unfinished cliffhanger at the end of a page, nor does it have any hint of being conclusive. And although Hergé appears to have done little work on the story in the very years of his life, this may just indicate writers' block and distractions rather than some grand plan to give up at a point where the hero is going to his death. Had it been intentional to stop here, it would have been more natural to have abandoned the story with the liquid plastic itself? Quite simply it feels like a pause in thought, perhaps to think through the depiction of the actual apparatus and how Tintin would get out of this situation, with that pause becoming permanent.<br />
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Being an unfinished outline, this album is invariably of interest primarily to collectors only. But from the material contained here it seems there was quite a strong story being developed that would have been a definite step up from some of the last <i>Adventures</i>. The plot may at times be as rough as the thumbnails and absent final third means there's a lot to speculate about, but as an unfinished work in progress it holds up very well. Although this inconclusive ending is unfortunate, it is well that Tintin has remained confined to the <i>Adventures</i> created by Hergé, forming a definitive canon of work that has not been diminished by lesser successors.</div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-91598739464891547172017-08-10T13:27:00.000+01:002017-08-10T13:27:14.476+01:00Tintin and the Picaros - The Adventures of Tintin 23 by Hergé<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As the final complete album in the <i>Adventures</i>, <i>Tintin and the Picaros</i> inevitably has a lot riding on it, more so when one considers that this was the only completed story produced by Hergé in the last fifteen years of this life. There are some signs that the series is aware that things are winding down and thus it tries to tidy up some matters. But at the same time this story also sees some changes to the regular characters, as though the intention was to take them into the last quarter of the twentieth century in a far more modernised pattern.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>One of the most commented on aspects of this story is the fact that Tintin's wardrobe has been modified. Gone are his traditional plus fours and instead he's now wearing full-length brown jeans. This change had originated with the Belvision cartoons but is now carried forward into the series itself. It's an odd move for what ultimately turned out to be just one book but it's one of the strongest signs that the character was to go forward and not just fade away. Tintin is also shown practicing yoga and briefly wearing a motorcycle helmet with a peace symbol on it, which if anything dates him even more than before. He's also rather side-lined in the story, with much of the action driven by those around him and merely reacts apart from persuading Alcazar how to pull off his revolution. He even disappears for ten pages, initially declining to go to San Theodoros with Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus because he suspects a trap, but then suddenly turns up there a few days later with no plans and just gets caught with the rest. The cover is telling in that Tintin is third in line as they flee, perhaps revealing that Hergé was getting a little tired of his creation.<br />
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Also changed somewhat is Captain Haddock. Though he remains temperamental and cannot stand Bianca Castafiore, here he loses his enjoyment of alcohol and not by choice. A mystery runs through the early part of the story as to why he now finds first whisky and then other alcoholic drinks foul and disgusting when everyone else who tastes them cannot find any change from before. It transpires that Calculus has invented a special pill that makes all subsequent alcohol consumption taste horrible. The pills themselves are a step towards the fantastic that has normally been avoided with Calculus's inventions, but also show a rather disturbing side to the professor. There is little discussion as to the ethics of administering the pills to people without their knowledge or consent, nor is there any indication that they will wear off or can be cancelled out. Instead Calculus has taken it into his own hands to stamp out alcoholism, with the others all too easily accepting his actions because of the need to sober up the Picaros. By the end of the adventure Snowy has also eaten food laced with the pills and the indication is that both he and Haddock will no longer be enjoying the whisky, ending many years of character moments and gags with it. Attitudes to drinking have changed over the years and this has caused problems for adaptations of the <i>Adventures</i> but such drastic character changes are all too forced to feel right.<br />
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The story follows the trend in the later <i>Adventures</i> for revisiting characters and settings although on this occasion the main returnees feel more natural as it's been a loose end over multiple albums. Most of the returns come from <i>The Broken Ear</i>, with this story revisiting the politics of Latin America as General Alcazar once more seeks to overthrow General Tapioca after years and multiple appearances in exile. On this occasion Alcazar is said to be the International Banana Company whilst Tapioca, who is actually seen for the first time, is being supported by Borduria and thus the Communist Bloc. But whereas in the early years the <i>Adventures</i> had taken sides in political satire, here it is more nuanced. There's no attempt to portray the corporate backed general as inherently better than the Communist backed one. Instead Tintin's main motivation for helping to restore Alcazar is to save Bianca Castafiore, her entourage and Thompson and Thomson from the sentences or a kangaroo court and regime change seems his only hope. In a rather pointed note, an early panel shows a plane flying over a part of the capital, now named Tapiocapolis, as two police soldiers pass a terrible slum with a poster proclaiming Tapioca. The very last panel is similar as the plane leaves what is now Alcazaropolis and two of the Picaros walk past a slum proclaiming Alcazar. The names and uniforms have changed but for the masses the revolution has brought no difference to their lives. It is a very cynical comment about the seemingly endless cycle of military coups and a far cry from the polemics of the early <i>Adventures</i>. The story shows a surprising degree of foresight at the start when Tapioca and Haddock engage in an exchange of short messages sent electronically, with a head of state taking time out to pick a public fight with a minor celebrity in a distant country.<br />
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Tapioca is underdeveloped but from what we see he's broadly similar to his rival, Alcazar. The latter is operating out of the jungle, aided by a group of mercenaries called Picaros and also by the Arumbaya tribe including the explorer Ridgewell, previously seen in The Broken Ear. The latter's inclusion feels somewhat superfluous as they contribute little to the outcome. Alcazar is the same old blusterer as before but now has a domineering wife, Peggy, making for some henpecked comedy. The Picaros have been weakened by Tapioca's forces dropping alcohol in the jungle to get them addicted, but once weaned off it they prove effective in pulling off the coup despite having to sneak in disguised in the costumes of the Jolly Follies, a group of performers led by, of all people, Jolyon Wagg.<br />
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Wagg's appearance feels like a resort to familiar faces for the sake of it. However, the presence of Colonel Sponsz, previously the Bordurian Chief of Police seen in <i>The Calculus Affair</i>, feels rather more natural as it's understandable that a supportive ally would send officers to help and prop up the regime. Sponsz has manipulated events in order to lure Tintin, Haddock and Calculus to San Theodoros in order to dispose of them in a staged incident, thus making their presence feel natural and providing some interesting early scenes as they discover they're under arrest in an elaborate villa jail. Less convincing is the return of Pablo, previously seen in <i>The Broken Ear</i> where he was an assassin who ultimately saves Tintin's life but now he turns out to betray him for no clear reason. It's a sign of too many characters being brought back from a single tale.<br />
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Being the final complete Tintin album it's natural to look for a sign of closure. But there's little here. Although Alcazar is restored to power, the implication is that the cycle of revolution and counter-revolution through endless coups will just go on and on. Although Tintin and Haddock get to save their friends in this final adventure, there isn't really much sign of closure for them or final comment. Instead this story feels more like it was seeking to clear the decks of the series, removing elements from Haddock's alcoholism through to Alcazar's movements in exile, and this move the series forward into the new decades. That this didn't happen leaves this as a relatively straightforward adventure but one which downplays the role of the central character. It's not the best final adventure to have had, but then many series stop at a rather arbitrary point.</div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-382223508877746312017-08-03T10:00:00.000+01:002017-08-03T10:00:07.695+01:00Tintin and the Lake of Sharks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It's actually slightly surprising to see this album is kept in print. In many other comic traditions movies come and go, with a flurry of adaptations made at the time of the initial release but they usually then drop off the radar, going out of print and never being included in subsequent collections without much comment. But some of the Franco-Belgian comics instead keep the adaptations around, regardless of their status in canon. (Another example is the book <i>The Twelve Tasks of Asterix</i>, which is the illustrated text adaptation of the film of the same name, though the comic adaptation, with the English-language title "<i>Asterix Conquers Rome</i>", is long out of print.) Another curiosity is the title of this album - "<i>Tintin and the Lake of Sharks</i>" is almost a literal translation of the French "<i>Le Lac aux Requins</i>" but the English-language Region 2 DVD calls this "<i>(The) Mystery of Shark Lake</i>", with the "<i>The</i>" appearing or not in different places. (Even more strangely the French title is used on the sleeve cover.) It's not clear how this difference arose but one effect is to isolate the album from the source material to the point that it can appear to almost be a twenty-fifth adventure. The back-cover gallery on all of <i>The Adventures of Tintin</i> relegates this to the list of "Other Tintin Adventures to collect" (yes, plural, even when this sometimes the only one listed) but it can be found along with the other albums in bookshop displays to be obtained with all the rest, in spite of its status in the canon.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Hergé did not write the 1972 film which was instead written by Greg (Michel Régnier), then the editor of <i>Tintin</i> magazine, whilst it was directed & produced by Raymond Leblanc, the publisher who had set up the magazine and rescued Hergé from his immediate post war problems before going on to set up Belvision Studios. Bob de Moor, one of the founders of the Studios Hergé who provided support and backgrounds, was the Graphic Consultant. Belvision Studios had produced the first series of cartoon adaptations of the <i>Adventures</i>, first for television and then for the big screen in the form of <i>The Calculus Affair</i> (a compilation of the television adaptation of the album of that name) and then <i>Prisoners of the Sun</i> (a straight to cinema to adaptation of both <i>The Seven Crystal Balls</i> and <i>Prisoners of the Sun</i>). Thus <i>The Mystery of Shark Lake</i> boasts the strongest credentials of any Tintin production that lacks the direct involvement of Hergé himself (though he had some supervisory role). With Hergé's stated desire that the <i>Adventures</i> would not continue after his death having been adhered to, this is thus the only non-Hergé Tintin story of any official standing. (Hergé is credited on the spine on some, though not all, editions of this album, but the title page is clear that it is fact based on his characters.)<br />
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The book appears to be using stills from the film itself as the basis for the pictures, though a comparison shows that at least some of the precise shots are absent from the finished picture and there are a few differences - for instance in the film, Captain Haddock uses a dead match to draw a moustache on the poster of Bianca Castafiore but in the book he uses a pen. Whatever the precise origins of the pictures they are clearly sourced from Belvision itself, to the point that the same highly detailed backgrounds are in use with the more simplistically drawn and coloured characters in the foreground, a consequence of the animation techniques of the era but one that produces images that don't always gel together too well. The regular characters are drawn in their familiar appearances, though it's notable that Tintin's wardrobe has been slightly updated and instead of his traditional plus fours he's now wearing standard length trousers. The art aims at the style of Hergé but is all too clearly not his own work. The script is again taken from the film, at times a little too much as there are many captions and even some panels composed entirely of words that provide narration which feels too much like stage directions. This affects the pacing of the book, with some key plot scenes flowing rather quickly, whilst the action scenes are more drawn out.<br />
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The plot itself feels fairly traditional, with Professor Calculus in the process of inventing a machine that can create identical duplicates of objects, though it is not yet perfected. This attracts the interest of a criminal masterminding the theft of priceless works of art and jewels, leaving forgeries behind. Unfortunately this is a plot hole as the story opens with the theft of a pearl with a brilliant forgery being left in its place, making it strange that so much effort has been gone to in order to capture the machine when the criminals are doing just as well without it. Worse still is the extravagant nature of the villain's base, located within the lake that Calculus happens to be working right beside. And bizarrely Calculus's work is deemed sufficiently important to have security (even if it is Thompson and Thomson), yet he's working right by a lake that forms part of the border between Syldavia and its rival Borduria. The lake itself is artificial, suggesting a bizarre level of co-operation between the two countries.<br />
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Presumably to provide child appeal, the story contains the extra characters of siblings Niko and Nouchka and their dog Gustav. In book form they're less annoying than on screen and there's naturally no irritating song to endure. But they still feel rather out of place in the story and too much attention is devoted to their independent escape and use of an underwater tank. Gustav is even more redundant, being just a cute animal to add to the scenes and does nothing that couldn't have been done by Snowy himself.<br />
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The film reflects a strong influence from the Bond movies with an over the top villain operating out of a hi-tech hidden base with fancy vehicles, secretly monitoring his targets through spies and hidden cameras. The villain uses the code name "King Shark" but is revealed to be Rastapopoulos. His appearance here is the one potential problem with continuity with the canonical <i>Adventures</i> as he's clearly survived with Tintin thinking him dead and he's imprisoned at the end of the story. There's no explanation for how he's escaped the aliens in <i>Flight 714 to Sydney</i> but it doesn't really work to set this adventure before then. Otherwise it would not clash with the regular series though there are other reasons for not including it in the canon. Rastapopoulos is at his most arch in this setting, yet he also appears far more honourable than before, being willing to release the children in exchange for Calculus's device and only reneging on this deal because the device is not as he was expecting. However his foolishness is also present when his attempts to escape by submarine through an underwater channel fail because he's left the periscope up.<br />
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This story has the traditional mix of intrigue, action and slapstick comedy of a Tintin adventure but it doesn't really mix well enough to feel like a genuine entry. Part of the problem comes from the excessive emphasis on the children and their dog who feel as though they've been stuck into the story by executive order. Calculus's device also feels more fantastic than is usual for the stories, as does Rastapopoulos's base. The look of the piece is jarring and the pacing off, at times feeling more like a condensed series of storyboards than anything else. Ultimately this is a flawed adaptation of a film that doesn't effectively capture the nature of <i>The Adventures of Tintin</i> and can be safely ignored.</div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-58246041496683707602017-07-27T10:00:00.000+01:002017-07-27T10:00:24.217+01:00Flight 714 to Sydney - The Adventures of Tintin 22 by Hergé<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The full title of <i>Flight 714 to Sydney</i> is a recent change, bringing it closer to the original French <i>Vol 714 pour Sydney</i>. The English language translation was originally published as just <i>Flight 714</i> back in 1968; the same thing happened with the Dutch (<i>Vlucht 714</i>) and a number of other translations seem to have taken their cue from one or other of these editions. But in the last decade the destination has been added, maybe to increase the album's appeal in Australia, maybe to create greater conformity, maybe for some other reason.<br />
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But however long the title is, it's a misnomer. For the whole adventure is an interruption from Flight 714, with the characters having temporarily disembarked in Djakarta (now Jakarta) for a refuelling stop, only to transfer to another flight. Only at the end of the story do they once more board a commercial flight, also numbered Flight 714 and we never actually see them arrive in Sydney. In between they wind up on a deserted island and make some highly unusual discoveries.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The first two-thirds of this album reads as a relatively conventional Tintin adventure, making a change after recent experimentation. The cast is relatively small, leading to some notable absences. Thompson and Thomson are nowhere to be seen, perhaps because the structure of the story doesn't allow them to come in midway through. Also absent is Bianca Castafiore who doesn't even pop up on a radio. Jolyon Wagg does make an appearance at the end, representing the ordinary public as he watches a report on the aftermath of the events in sheer disbelief. Returning though are a few characters last seen in <i>The Red Sea Sharks</i>. Skut is now working as a private pilot and proves the link that draws Tintin, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus and Snowy into the story. And when they are diverted to the island of Pulau-Pulau Bomba they find the kidnap has been arranged by none other than Rastapopoulos, once again accompanied by his sidekick Allen.<br />
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With <i>The Adventures of Tintin</i> having now grown beyond a series into a franchise, it's understandable that there was a desire to have a recurring foe who could be brought back time and again - and even here Rastapopoulos's fate is sufficiently open ended that he could potentially return again. But for such a recurring foe to work, there needs to be a personal element to the repeat appearances beyond merely being a persistent nuisance. There's just no sense in this encounter that Tintin has become that for Rastapopoulos, despite the latter's fall from grace such that he is now reduced to trying to steal a fortune from another business tycoon. Also, there needs to be a real sense of menace to make a recurring foe credible. In one regard Rastapopoulos is shown to be quite an intelligent foe, who despite his limited resources has managed to assemble a strong plan. His advanced planning is the most credible, having seemingly played on the resentment by Spalding, Carriedas's secretary, at the way he is treated by his employer such that he betrays confidences, as well as having tricked Sondonesian nationalists into believing he will be a key ally in their struggle. He has also recruited Doctor Krollspell, the head of a psychiatric clinic who has a devised a truth serum, in order to obtain the information needed. Unfortunately, Rastapopoulos's third caper plays him for laughs, time and again failing to achieve such limited goals as treading on a spider or finding that when applied to compulsive lying businessmen the truth serum in fact results in endless confessions of everything but the desired account number. He gets accidentally injected with it himself, then later stumbles around the island getting knocked on the head by accident, nearly blown up with a grenade and even has his mouth plastered shut. This high level of slapstick just undermines the character, reducing his credibility for such a role as an archenemy.<br />
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The target of the grand kidnapping is Laszlo Carreidas, an eccentric millionaire and tycoon involved in many different industries. In a remarkable piece of foresight his interests include both aviation and a rather disgusting cola, some decades before Richard Branson did either of these. However the parody was instead of the French industrialist Marcel Dassault. Carreidas is a self-centred obsessed man with limited regard for those around him and, as he admits, a lifelong history of theft and deception, stretching from stealing fruit as a young child through to using closed-circuit television to cheat in a game of Battleships with Haddock. Such is his track record in business that he and Rastapopoulos actually wind up arguing who is the worst. Despite this he is ultimately rescued by Tintin, though not without causing problems on the way.<br />
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The setting on a deserted island makes for a tense tale on a limited scale though even within this confines some elements of the story go undeveloped. Rastapopoulos is aided by Sondonesian nationalists, but this aspect of the story is underdeveloped and it's not clear just where "Sondonesia" is supposed to be or exactly who the nationalists are struggling against. Thus we get a generic set of natives, with rather primitive English though some of their dialogue is in an Indonesian language. The island itself has resources left over from the Japanese occupation and makes for a tense environment as Tintin and the others escape through the jungle. Though not without its faults, the bulk of this album is a reasonably strong traditional style adventure.<br />
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And then things get silly.<br />
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During their flight, Tintin hears a strange voice in his head that guides him and the others to a series of caves containing a temple to strange beings whose depictions look like astronauts. Inside they discover Mik Kanrokitoff, a journalist for a space magazine, who is equipped with a telepathic transmitter and comes to the island twice a year to communicate with aliens who have been coming to the planet for thousands of years. Through a mixture of telepathy and a flying saucer, Kanrokitoff is able to rescue Tintin and the others from a volcanic eruption triggered by explosions, wipe their minds and leave them floating in a dinghy whilst Rastapopoulos and his key men are taken away aboard the flying saucer. The aliens themselves are never directly shown.<br />
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This story was written at a time when the "ancient astronauts" theory received a lot of special attention and thus aliens who have visited Earth over thousands of years and been mistaken for deities can be found in a lot of science fiction from the period. But the <i>Adventures</i> have generally been rooted in a degree of scientific fact, to the point that even the Moon adventure avoided all aliens and other fantastic elements in favour of realism. Although there have been some elements of fantasy in the series so far, in general it's been pretty much tongue-in-cheek adventure in a realistic setting. The aliens thus do not fit what has been shown of this world up to now. Worse still this revelation pretty much comes out of nowhere towards the end of the story, with only Snowy's howls and Calculus's pendulum even hinting that something strange is afoot and that doesn't excuse the deus ex machina resolution. Though it isn't a complete reset switch, as the villains are spirited away, the end of the story puts most of the characters back where they were at the start with no memory of what happened on the island and only Snowy knows the truth. This ultimately makes the whole thing feel inconsequential.<br />
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Had this story been about ancient astronauts from the start then it might well have made their introduction to Tintin's world at least feel like a natural build-up. Instead this album is two-thirds kidnap adventure/farce and one-third science fiction, making for a very awkward hybrid tale with an extremely poor resolution. For a story that seemed to be a return to the more conventional style adventure after recent experiments this instead turns into a right mess.</div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-26679713344347618482017-07-20T10:00:00.000+01:002017-07-20T10:00:05.596+01:00The Castafiore Emerald - The Adventures of Tintin 21 by Hergé<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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There's a notable cover variation with <i>The Castafiore Emerald</i> with the size of the spotlight on the cover varying, with a corresponding effect on how dark the remainder of the cover is. One effect on the current Egmont edition, with the smaller light, is that Tintin almost looks like he's been lifted from a cartoon cell. By the time this story appeared the series was now being adapted as a cartoon (known in English as <i>Hergé's Adventures of Tintin</i>). It's a reflection of the changing environment in which the <i>Adventures</i> now appeared. With this story they also began appearing much less frequently, with this album coming out three years after the preceding one, then it would be five years before the next, eight years until the one after that and presumably even longer had the final story been completed at the time. Tintin was more famous than ever before with an established volume of work and further appearances need not be so frequent. It was now possible to sit back, relax and bask in the fame, much like one of the characters in this tale.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>This is by far the most unusual of all the <i>Adventures</i>. Instead of travelling great distances or even chasing a mystery around Brussels and the countryside, it instead takes place entirely in Marlinspike, nearly all in the grounds of the Hall even though Captain Haddock desperately wants to get away but can't as he's strained his foot on a broken stair. It's often claimed that this is a story in which "nothing happens" but this is demonstrably false as a lot does happen, it's just not the usual action, adventure or intrigue. Instead this is about Tintin and Haddock trying to enjoy life at home where the worst things that can happen are a broken step, a lazy builder who keeps making excuses for not coming to fix it and the continued problem with the telephone numbers that means they are forever calling and receiving calls intended for Cutts the Butcher. But this tranquillity is shattered by the arrival of Bianca Castafiore, trying to get away from the press. The bulk of the album revolves around the chaos this brings.<br />
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Herein lies the fundamental problem with the story. Castafiore has been long established in the series by this stage, but she's invariably been a recurring one-note joke. An opera singer who is reputedly one of the world's best but whose singing leaves Tintin, Haddock and Snowy in pain, she also seems to have only one song in her repertoire. Most of her previous appearances (or voice-only moments on radios) have played on this pain, having her singing popping up at moments when it's really not appreciated. Alternatively, she has been a guest of the rich and famous who has at times helped Tintin evade capture without ever seeming to understand just what is going on. As a recurring bit part the character just about works. But she isn't really a well-developed enough character to structure a whole story around, even if there are other even less developed characters who could conceivably have caused no end of trouble - an adventure focused on Jolyon Wagg's inability to get the hint does not seem like a missed great opportunity. Here she's portrayed in a bad light, simultaneously seeking to evade publicity yet also revelling in stardom. She seems utterly oblivious to how much discomfort she's putting Haddock in, whilst also making life a misery for both her lady's maid Irma and accompanist Igor Wagner. Nor does she care about the intrusion of the press into Marlinspike Hall, even dismissing reports that she and Haddock are to marry as just typical media nonsense. And all too often she believes her jewels have been stolen, making the eventual disappearance of her emerald initially seem like another misplacement. Her self-centredness and vanity makes it hard to feel sorry for her loss. Hergé was clearly working through some issues about opera, fame and the media.<br />
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The loss comes two-thirds of the way through the album and leads to a brief mystery as the various suspects are explored but are found to have alibis. So a man who ran away during a television interview was nothing more than a paparazzi photographer getting a shot for another publication. Wagner appears to have been acting suspiciously but Tintin manages to get an explanation out of him. Strange noises from the attic are nothing more than an owl coming in through an open window. More notable is the automatic assumption of many that the thieves are from a Romany camp that Haddock has allowed to settle in a meadow on the estate instead of on the village rubbish tip. Right from the start they face prejudice and automatic assumptions even before anything goes missing, with the accusers including Thompson and Thomson, the local police inspector and Nestor. It's refreshing to see the book confound such prejudiced expectations and show them to be completely innocent. The eventual culprit is found when the title of an opera gives Tintin an idea, rather than rationally going through all the clues, but it's a simple explanation that adds to the sense of anti-climax throughout the story.<br />
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Otherwise this is a tale mainly made up of moments and recurring gags, ranging from the broken step that results in just every character falling down the stairs except Castafiore to Calculus's latest inventions. Once again the professor is shown to be interested in a wide range of fields and here we find him breeding a new strain of white rose which he names Bianca as well as creating the "Super-Calcacolor". This aims to deliver a colour television picture, which at the time of the original publication was something not yet available in Europe although the United States and Japan had already adopted it. Although the fact that's he reinvented a wheel could be a gag in itself, Calculus's device in fact seems to be aiming to add colour to existing black and white pictures. Unfortunately, it so badly distorts the image and generates extra sounds that it makes the results utterly unwatchable. Elsewhere Jolyon Wagg continues to invite himself in, hoping to sell insurance to Castafiore but she proves to be the only character able to actually make him go away. The Thom(p)sons appear in their usual role of investigating officers who proceed to cause chaos as they bungle around. Meanwhile Tintin and Snowy wander through the whole affair hoping for peace.<br />
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This is by far the most experimental of all the <i>Adventures</i>, daring to do something different with the characters by exploring them in a sedate home setting. In itself it's a good idea that offers a good deal of comedy and characterisation. But the problem comes with making the focal point a character who hasn't been properly developed before and who now doesn't come across as being especially likeable but at the same time isn't malevolent. It's hard to feel sympathy for her, either when she loses her jewels or when the media intrude upon her, and this undermines some of the points the story is trying to make. Though it has its good moments, particularly in the treatment of the Romani, and it is to be commended for trying to do something different, overall it falls down because of this key weakness.</div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-42408902386064418952017-07-13T10:00:00.000+01:002017-07-13T10:00:04.814+01:00Tintin in Tibet - The Adventures of Tintin 20 by Hergé<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In some corners of the internet, which is an inevitable warning sign about the truth of this, there are claims that <i>Tintin in Tibet</i> was intended to be the final of <i>The Adventures of Tintin</i> and that everything which came afterwards was by publisher and popular demand. It's not clear how true this is, and it may be a misunderstanding of Hergé's considerations and circumstances at the time when it was conceived, but it's interesting to consider how this album might have stood as a conclusion to the series.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The title evokes the format of the earliest <i>Adventures</i> and there's also a notably limited use of most of the regular supporting cast. Snowy and Captain Haddock are ever present but Professor Calculus appears only in the early scenes at the fiction resort of Vargèse, Bianca Castafiore is only heard on the radio and Nestor is merely mentioned. Of Thompson and Thomson and Jolyon Wagg there is not a sign. Nor is there any great mystery or conspiracy to untangle. This is instead a quest story that takes Tintin to a remote and difficult terrain in the hope of rescuing his friend.<br />
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That friend is Chang Chong-Chen, the sole character from a previous story to be reused here. Hergé had devised the character for <i>The Blue Lotus</i>, basing him on a visiting art student he had befriended. The two had lost contact after the outbreak of war in 1937 and would not meet again until the 1980s. In Tintin's quest for his friend it's easy to see a creator also wishing for a reunion no matter how difficult it might be, as though it would help to tidy away the threads of the past. For this is a story very much about friendship and the lengths to which people will go to help their friends, no matter how dangerous or hopeless it may seem. Chang is a passenger aboard an aeroplane that crashes in the Himalayas with all aboard assumed dead but Tintin refuses to believe this is the case. He persists with this despite being advised otherwise by many, including Haddock, Chang's uncle Cheng Li-Kin and Tharkey the Sherpa guide, but it's only the Grand Abbot at a monastery in the mountains who finally persuades Tintin there is no hope. But then comes a sign that all is not lost.<br />
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But it's not only Tintin's devotion to his friend which is on display. Time and again Haddock advises Tintin against taking a course of action but then shows he will not abandon him, first travelling to Kathmandu with him and then unexpectedly coming on the expedition into the mountains. Haddock is written as his traditional self with a strong thirst for whisky, a quick temper, a poor grasp of local customs and a habit of blundering into situations, most notably when he attempts to shift a cow from blocking the streets of New Delhi, but is also loyal and dependable although at times Tintin does have to manipulate him into staying. One of the most memorable scenes comes as he and Tintin climb a cliff when Haddock slips and falls, dragging Tintin towards the edge. It seems impossible to save him and so Haddock pulls out his knife and is prepared to cut the rope, sacrificing himself so that his friend can live. Though the scene isn't dwelt on for long, with numbness preventing Haddock from using the knife, and the return of Tharkey saves them both, it's a powerful moment that shows the strength of friendship at its most extreme, such that he has no hesitation in being willing to do this for his friend.<br />
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Equally loyal is Snowy, though, in some of his best scenes for ages, he has to face down temptation. Twice he is visited by angelic and demonic images of himself that urge different courses of action when he finds whisky dripping from Haddock's rucksack and again when he is sent to the monastery with a message to get help but sees a bone on the way. Later on he proves effective at sniffing out the scent of the yeti. Snowy has often been relegated to a bit part in the series, merely offering the odd cynical comment about events, so it's good to see him given a better role in the story.<br />
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The setting of Tibet contains most of the traditional imagery of the land - mountains, villages, monasteries, Sherpas and the so-called Abominable Snowman. No mention is made of Tibet's political status despite the 1959 Uprising occurring midway through the story's serialisation. This is not a polemical adventure but rather a personal tale. Tharkey the Sherpa is the only other character of note throughout most of the book and he is inspired by Tintin's courage and determination to return and help the young reporter rather than retreating down the mountain with the porters. The monks are also depicted respectfully, with one of them, named "Blessed Lightning", having strange powers of levitation and visions of events afar. Fantasy elements have previously not worked well in the <i>Adventures</i> but here the visions of the monk and an early dream by Tintin help drive the characters into action.<br />
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More fantastical still is the yeti, here kept a deliberate mystery throughout most of the story, only appearing at a distance in snow storms or covered by a tent blown away in the wind, until the ending when Tintin discovers his cave and Chang inside. But this is not some rampaging beast but rather a reclusive who seems only to crave friendship, having rescued and cared for Chang. Though fearsome when startled, he does not randomly attack or live up to the name "abominable snowman". At the very end he is shown sadly looking on as a group of monks escort Tintin and Chang away. This is a very human character at heart, one who again does everything to help his friend.<br />
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This is a highly unusual entry in <i>The Adventures of Tintin</i>, featuring no real enemies, few of the supporting cast, no political commentary and no mystery. Instead it's a very personalised tale of the importance of friendship and the lengths people will go to help friends in need. Set on a small scale with a narrow and focused cast, this is triumph of characterisation. It is easy to see why Hergé and many others consider it the finest of the <i>Adventures</i> and it's certainly a triumph.</div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-16299781190743044472017-07-06T10:00:00.000+01:002017-07-06T10:00:17.661+01:00The Red Sea Sharks - The Adventures of Tintin 19 by Hergé<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>The Red Sea Sharks</i> is a rare example of one of the later <i>Adventures</i> which had subsequent modifications to solve problems that brought up with it. However, the current Egmont edition appears to be a translation of the original album and thus the problematic dialogue, mostly relating to characters' understanding of the language in one way or another, is present here. One notable change from the original French is the title - originally this was called Coke en stock, meaning "Coke in stock" or "Coke on board", but it was felt that in English this evoked the soft drink far more than the fuel (and it would have also dated badly as coke is now little used domestically).<br />
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<a name='more'></a>What leaps out above all else in this story is the sheer number of returning characters from previous stories, introducing many new ties amongst them. So at the start Tintin and Captain Haddock meet General Alcazar, originally from <i>The Broken Ear</i> and once more in exile but in the process of purchasing weapons from none other than Dawson, previously the police chief in the International Settlement in Shanghai back in <i>The Blue Lotus</i> but now an arms dealer. He is also selling to Bab El Ehr, the ambitious sheikh previous seen in <i>Land of Black Gold</i>. Also appearing from that story is Abdullah, who has been sent to Marlinspike for his protection (if not the residents'!), and his father, the Emir Ben Kalish Ezab who has been overthrown. In the hope of escaping Abdullah's tricks Tintin, Snowy and Haddock journey to Khemed where they receive help from Oliveira de Figueira, originally seen in <i>Cigars of the Pharaohs</i>, then are attacked by forces sent by the officer "Mull Pasha", who is actually Dr. Muller, again from <i>Land of Black Gold</i>. They soon discover there is a trade in slaves, with the key ship being commanded by Allan, originally seen in <i>The Crab with the Golden Claws</i>, though retroactively added to <i>Cigars of the Pharaohs</i> when that story was redrawn. Over on a pleasure liner is none other than Bianca Castafiore, first seen in <i>King Ottokar's Sceptre</i>. At the head of it all is the businessman the "Marquis di Gorgonzola" who is revealed to be Rastapopoulos, again first seen in <i>Cigars of the Pharaohs</i>. Returning to Marlinspike, Tintin and Haddock discover that the nuisance of Abdullah has gone, only to be replaced by a nuisance from <i>The Calculus Affair</i>, Jolyon Wagg.<br />
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This is by far the largest number of return appearances yet seen and it's little surprise that Thompson and Thomson, Nestor and Calculus are used sparingly, primarily to deliver key information to Tintin and then suffer the antics of Abdullah. But the result is a tale that almost meanders from returning character to returning character without really stopping to explain the logic of it all. Even the level of coincidence is addressed right on the first page as Tintin and Haddock discuss plot holes in a film they've just seen and the absurdity of how they could just bump into someone like Alcazar, only to do just that. Whilst some of the characters have been previously shown to have links to Khemed or to be well travelled, others are repurposed in order to fit the needs of the story. At the heart of it is Rastapopoulos, clearly being built up to be Tintin's archenemy to the point that he's shown to actually escape at the end under cover of seemingly drowning. Though the <i>Adventures</i> have reused elements before, even elevating one-off characters into recurring parts, it is with this story that takes the key leap into an integrated fictional universe. But in trying to make the stories seem grander for these ties, the universe as a whole becomes so much smaller and it becomes harder to go anywhere without falling over familiar faces. It can also create problems in languages where the <i>Adventures</i> were translated either incompletely or out of order.<br />
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Because of this overloading, the plot of the story is so messy that this is almost a return to the random wanderings of the earliest <i>Adventures</i>. At the start of the story it seems the main focus will be on General Alcazar's plans to regain power and the weapons he's purchased for the task. But this is quickly forgotten and instead Tintin decides to go to Khemed in the hope of freeing the Emir and getting Abdullah off their hands. Once there the story eventually finds the Emir, but rather than focusing upon attempts to restore him the story instead turns to trying to expose the slave trade and bring down "di Gorgonzola". Although the latter has been supporting Bab El Ehr, this doesn't particularly feel like a mission to remove a key ally but instead a sign of just how all over the place the story is. Such are the twists that the eventual restoration is covered by a collection of newspaper clippings confirming also the capture of most of the other villains. The title of this book reflects the problems as only one actual shark is seen and the term is only sparingly applied to the slave traders. The original "Coke on board" isn't much better. It may follow the tradition of <i>Cigars of the Pharaohs</i> and <i>The Crab with the Golden Claws</i> in being named after the disguise for what is being smuggled, but the term comes very late in the day and confuses more than it enlightens. Also evoking the early days, but doing so successfully, is a resort to a series of coincidences saving Tintin instead of relying on his wits. So when a bomb is place on a plane, instead of Snowy successfully raising the alarm a separate engine fire brings the plane down in time to escape. Whilst riding across the desert our heroes are attacked by armoured cars and planes sent by Mull Pasha, only for the planes to misunderstand their orders and destroy the armoured cars before flying away. A diver is sent to plant a depth charge to sink the ship Ramona, but gets hit by the lowering of the anchor and a shark swallows the charge. This story is trying too hard to recreate the feel of the early days and it flounders as a result.<br />
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Also reflecting the early days of the series is the appalling depiction of African characters. As noted above, Hergé did modify their dialogue for later editions but the current edition on sale in English appears to be a translation of the earlier edition. On board the ship Ramona, Tintin and Haddock discover the "cargo" are in fact men from Senegal and Sudan who believe they are making the Hajj - a pilgrimage to Mecca - but have been tricked by the crew and are in fact being taken to be sold as slaves. Speaking pidgin English and taking a long time to understand what Haddock is explaining to them, they do not come across as devout worshippers determined to get to Mecca in spite of all the dangers but rather as simple minded children who only finally understand when one of the eldest amongst them recalls the previous disappearance of men from his village. There's also an almost casual attitude to the whole business, with the Emir mentioning the trade in passing merely as something he threatened to blackmail di Gorgonzola's company Arabair with, and when Tintin and Haddock discover the men are on board they are slow to release them from the hold, being more concerned with the radio and Skut, a pilot from Estonia shot down by Tintin who rapidly switches sides. The contrast between the depiction and treatment of Skut and the nameless Muslims could not be starker. Haddock even calls the latter "Coconuts" in his outbursts. Hergé may have been inspired to draw attention to the modern-day existence of slavery, but over a quarter of a century on from <i>Tintin in the Congo</i> he was still presenting an assertion of European racial superiority. He may have tried to correct the mistake subsequently, but that correction does not appear to be the one currently available.<br />
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This story is effectively an anniversary reunion special, albeit without an actual anniversary during the original publication, bringing back many characters, settings and ideas from earlier tales. Unfortunately, it brings too much back and the result is a deluge of characters that force the story to twist and turn in order to accommodate them at the expense of a clear narrative, whilst the appalling depictions of Africans are something that most definitely did not need to be revisited. The weight of all this makes this a rather disappointing album.</div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-65000193473819046222017-06-29T10:00:00.000+01:002017-06-29T10:00:04.545+01:00The Calculus Affair - The Adventures of Tintin 18 by Hergé<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i>The Calculus Affair</i> is the most overtly political of the <i>Adventures</i> since <i>King Ottokar's Sceptre</i>. Appropriately it returns once more to conflict between the fictional countries of Syldavia and Borduria. Yet whilst the earlier tales were making clear points about and jibes at contemporary political developments, this one instead just uses situations to provide a framework for the plot.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The backdrop is the Cold War and the weapons race that was underway in the 1950s as countries rushed to secure ever more powerful devices, spying on each other and also on neutral countries for scientific breakthroughs. Here Professor Calculus is undertaking experiments with ultrasonics, a method that was also investigated during the Second World War. His device proves of interest to the Bordurian government who set out to capture both Calculus and the device in order to use the latter as a weapon to destroy whole cities in seconds. Tintin and Captain Haddock set out to rescue him.<br />
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This tale came relatively early in the development of the spy genre but it contains many of the elements that would become familiar including a chase across multiple countries, agents discretely following the heroes, car chases, fancy gadgets, hidden compartments, tense social encounters with foes, desperate escapes and more. For a story that comes from 1954 this is a remarkable pioneer. Notably though it sidesteps the actual Cold War in favour of conflict between individual fictional countries. This is a surprising move as Hergé had previously shown willingness to attack the Soviet Union without hiding behind the shield of a fictional analogy. But here he instead finally shows us Borduria.<br />
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Hergé had, of course, experienced the German occupation of Belgium during the Second World War and there's a clear German influence on the portrayal of the Bordurian regime even though it seems to be draw more directly from the Soviet Union, right down to the unseen dictator Kûrvi-Tasch having statues that resemble Stalin in both look and pose. But significantly the underlying ideology of the totalitarian regime is not in any way explored and Tintin does not get involved with any revolutionary movement. Instead this is a permanent oppressive regime with troops and secret police maintaining order with Tintin, Snowy and Haddock only seeking to rescue their friend and escape the country. Thus the regime remains a straightforward totalitarian experience that fuses Nazi and Communist dictatorships more by accident than out of a deliberate Orwellian state that seeks to highlight the similarities of such regimes. It's entirely in keeping with the spy genre that usually seeks to obtain small but valuable gains from rival powers rather than regime change, but in the wider context it's quite depressing. However, there's no doubt left that this state of affairs is undesirable, a point that Hergé was sensitive on given the criticism and attacks on his wartime career. Indeed, the scene where it's revealed that Calculus will be forces into making a statement of voluntary co-operation has an element of pleading for understanding about how those who find themselves under a totalitarian regime have no real choice in the matter.<br />
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Borduria, especially the harsh Chief of Police Colonel Sponsz, may be the main foe in this story but it's not the only country interested in Calculus's work. This leads to one of the more awkward parts of the story as agents from Syldavia are also trying to secure Calculus, and there's nothing to suggest that they are in fact a protective mission. Previous adventures have depicted Syldavia as a benign regime, if at times heavily secretive, so to find it now taking a hostile approach to Calculus and Tintin is odd, made even more so when one considers their previous contributions to the country. It may help reinforce that countries are often acting for themselves but it feels like a significant continuity breach without any clear explanation. It's not the only awkward part of the story as it's also unclear as to why Calculus has been experimenting with ultrasonics to build a device that can clearly only really be used as a weapon. It certainly hasn't been for this purpose as upon realising the application he immediately sets out to destroy the plans. But then again, many a scientist, both in fiction and in reality, has pursued knowledge for its sake without thought to the practical consequences or the potential application. The early experiments provide a surreal element to the start of the story as many glass and ceramic items around Marlinspike Hall start suddenly shattering with no explanation readily apparent. Calculus's absent-mindedness also plays a role at the end when it's revealed he left the plans for his device behind at Marlinspike all along, though this does not detract from the threat to him.<br />
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There's plenty of comedy in this tale, including the introduction of another character who will recurring throughout the remainder of the series. Jolyon Wagg is an archetype familiar the world over, the over-bearing smug type who is completely oblivious to his failings and who quickly imposes himself on others. An agent for the Rock Bottom Insurance company, he takes on the role normally performed by the Thom(p)sons by blundering around and impeding Tintin's attempts to get on with things. Thompson and Thomson themselves are used sparingly here, first turning up to investigate the situation at Marlinspike, Hall, showing a complete failure at secrecy, and later arriving in Switzerland only to be arrested as suspects and soon after their release they have an accident which rapidly confines them to hospital. The other recurring gag introduced here involves the heavy confusion with the telephone numbers in Marlinspike, causing no end of confusing between the Hall, the police and Cutts the Butcher. A more unique gag involves a plaster that Haddock tries to throw away and it keeps coming back over the course of several pages.<br />
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The adventure continues the strong attention to detail, with the scenes set in Switzerland sidestepping all the clichés about the country and limiting the stereotypes to the national dress that the Thom(p)sons turn up in. The result is a country full of excitement and danger without feeling tired and hackneyed. Instead it's a strong environment as Tintin and Haddock try to catch up with Calculus and then pursue his kidnappers through a highly realistic landscape. The chase scenes both here and in Borduria make good use of multiple vehicles, whether cars, boats, helicopters and even a tank to keep the action fresh and exciting.<br />
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Overall this is very much an action focused tale, concentration of the pursuit of and escape with Calculus rather than exploring either exotic locations or the underlying ideology of the regime. It manages to combine this high adrenaline approach with some good comedic moments which show strong imagination is still at the forefront of the series. There may be the odd plot hole or continuity weakness but the story manages to move at such a pace that these aren't noticeable and thus make for another strong adventure.</div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-5494169647519908802017-06-22T10:00:00.000+01:002017-06-22T10:00:00.787+01:00The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko: Mr. Pump's Legacy, Destination New York and The Valley of the Cobras by Hergé<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As previously noted, much of Hergé's non-Tintin work isn't well known in English because so little is still in print in translated form. However, there is one other series with three albums currently available in the UK, which can often be found alongside <i>The Adventures of Tintin</i> in bookshops.</div>
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<i>The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko</i> are the tales of a brother and sister and their pet monkey. Hergé created them on request from one of his French publishers but ultimately only produced five complete albums. Two of the albums, <i>The 'Manitoba' No Reply</i> and <i>The Eruption of Karamako</i>, have only had a limited English-language circulation in a double-volume that used the overall story title <i>The Secret Ray</i> and is now out of print. Some of the depictions in them are controversial and were thus passed over by first Methuen and then by Egmont.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The remaining three are in print today and will be looked at now. There's one two-part tale and one standalone adventure and these will be considered in the order in which they were originally published in French. This is different from the order the current Egmont editions list them, presumably reflecting the order in which they were first translated in the 1980s. The title characters are Jo and Zette Legrand, the children of a French engineer, and Jocko, their madcap pet monkey.<br />
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<i>Mr. Pump's Legacy</i> is the first part of the saga <i>The Stratoship H.22</i>, a title that actually appears on the cover and inside front page of this album. It tells of the circumstances that lead to the creation of the Stratoship plane itself and how Jo, Zette and Jocko come to fly away in it. Mr. Pump himself was an eccentric multi-millionaire obsessed with speed who left a large sum in his will for the first person to fly transatlantic at over 1000 km/h.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijNUquBcjaLu_cds0RwelcBLiM9jUCnydc_gcMLAhlOPN-1Ap6X17R16HGLa0Xiu5KxjvnvaatR_g8_BkOObyJENv8FEM9pmm7bMDS_AD8vyWfRGyeM0LQcyvMOEOrbkSDzeSmMY59Huvm/s1600/JZJ+04+DNY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijNUquBcjaLu_cds0RwelcBLiM9jUCnydc_gcMLAhlOPN-1Ap6X17R16HGLa0Xiu5KxjvnvaatR_g8_BkOObyJENv8FEM9pmm7bMDS_AD8vyWfRGyeM0LQcyvMOEOrbkSDzeSmMY59Huvm/s400/JZJ+04+DNY.jpg" width="286" /></a><i>Destination New York</i> is the second part of the saga and follows the children as they get list in the world and seek to fly the plane back to France then avoid further sabotage so that they can make the main flight before the will's provision expires and the money goes to Mr. Pump's nephews. It's a tale that ranges from desert islands to the Arctic, from beach resorts to New York.<br />
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<i>The Valley of the Cobras</i> is a standalone album, focusing upon the Maharaja of Gopal who commissions the children's father to build a bridge across the names valley, but others in the country fear the loss of their control of the trade routes so the children must handle a succession of saboteurs.<br />
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This series was created on request from Hergé's French publishers and it shows. The family are French, not Belgian, and there's a degree of compromised independence for the title characters by the anchor of the parents. By the time of <i>The Valley of the Cobras</i> Hergé seems heavily disinterested in the characters and the series, to the point that the Maharaja dominates the story. It doesn't help that the family isn't too well developed with the children somewhat generic characters, the mother a cipher and the father an engineer who seems to work in whatever field the story needs. Only the monkey Jocko has much of a distinct character but frequently he just provides humorous asides as he causes chaos, though in <i>The Valley of the Cobras</i> he proves observant enough to help at several key moments. There are no other recurring characters.<br />
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The stories demonstrate Hergé's eye for detail and technology, with the two <i>The Stratoship H.22</i> albums concentrating on the launch of a new super-fast plane to cross the Atlantic. Although now slower than Concorde was, the Stratoship zooms out of an age of great aviation advancement and is careful to show how realistic thought has gone into how to find the best level for speed and then what such a plane will need. <i>The Valley of the Cobras</i> similarly roots its bridge building technology in realism with even the fraudulent fakir shown to be operating a concealed reservoir to maintain the illusion of angry gods. Nor is time spared with all the adventures taking place over many months, allowing for the drawing up of plans, the obtaining of materials and the steady construction to take place. Meanwhile the foes are shown as persistent, waiting for each key stage that will allow them to take action.<br />
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Also familiar from Hergé's other work is the presence of rich eccentrics who at times behave almost like children because their money allows it. Before his death Mr. Pump is shown to be so obsessed with speed that servants must wear roller skates, food is served on a conveyer belt and a system of raised chairs and slides allows speedy movement throughout the house. It is at the same highly efficient but also gives the home the atmosphere of a child's private adventure playground. Even more childish is the petulant Maharaja of Gopal who cannot take any personal setback at all, initially demanding that his manservant experience the same and the children be heavily punished. After a beating by the children's father the Maharaja has something of an epiphany and takes to them, but he continues to act like a child repeatedly, playing all over the place. It is easy to see why his subjects enjoy him going on holiday so much and dread his return.<br />
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Although this series began in the 1930s at a time when the Tintin adventures were focused on political satire, these tales feel very different from Hergé's better known series. As often happens with stories focused on such young children the pitch is distinctly young and as a result these albums aren't the most interesting for adults. It seems that Hergé himself agreed with this, primarily only producing the stories because of concerns raised about the Tintin adventures by one of his publishers and even within them he wasn't terribly invested in the characters, hence they come across as such bland ciphers. It's unsurprising that there are so few of these stories (although releasing translations of the other two albums in regular editions may not be the best move given the controversies and the low profile of the series). For what they are, straightforward children's adventures, they're not bad but they lack the sophistication to work on multiple levels and thus do not grow well with the audience.
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Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97965962619396229.post-59166804647003351662017-06-15T10:00:00.000+01:002017-06-15T13:04:10.087+01:00Explorers on the Moon - The Adventures of Tintin 17 by Hergé<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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"<i>This is it! I've walked a few steps! For the first time in the history of mankind there is an EXPLORER ON THE MOON!</i>"<br />
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When Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon he received many messages from all over the world. One that baffled him the most, so the story goes, was an illustration of him standing by the lunar module being greeted by three men and a dog in orange spacesuits, with a red and white rocket in the background. He soon learned that another had already visited the Moon in fiction.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Tintin reached it some fifteen years earlier but it's amazing how measured and accurate a portrayal this is. There are no monsters or lost civilisations, nor is the Moon an untouched hidden paradise. Instead it's a barren dead rock in space. That's not to say it's all safe, with danger from meteorites, crevasses, caves, limited oxygen supplies, crew stupidity and more. But in avoiding the sensational in favour of the scientific reality, Hergé has succeeded in producing a tale that hasn't aged badly and holds up well today.<br />
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This album concludes the story begun in <i>Destination Moon</i> and sticks rigidly to the format of a scientific expedition with problems from both bunglers and spies. With much of the story having been set up in the first album, <i>Explorers on the Moon</i> is able to get straight into the action. There's a sense of optimism in showing mankind beginning the steps outwards into the universe, but at the same time a sense of fear that space will become the new frontier of international conflict with an unnamed rival power trying to seize the rocket and make use of space for their own ends. It thus neatly encapsulates the mixed mindset of the world at the time as it stepped beyond the Second World War in a spirit of hope for the future only to find itself enmeshed in the Cold War, with uneasy tensions dominating and old rivalries being realigned to the new order. In this go our heroes.<br />
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The cast is especially tight with only two non-regular characters aboard the rocket and just a handful of scenes set on Earth, mostly involving the director Baxter at the mission control. We thus get a strong exploration of the regulars as they chart this new frontier, ranging from the excitement of Calculus as he takes risks in boldly going where no one has gone before without caring about the possibility of death to the tetchiness of Captain Haddock as he seeks to make the journey more bearable to the silliness of Thompson and Thomson as they accidentally stow away on the voyage and proceed to cause continued problems. The Thom(p)sons are still suffering the effects of ingesting Formula 14 back in <i>Land of Gold</i>, a surprisingly long lasting problem given that it's been at least many months since then but it makes for the main fantastical element of the tale, and their only substantial contribution to the tale is to be utterly useless guards. Amidst all this Tintin takes a lead in holding them all together whilst Snowy makes occasional comments on the situation and suffers in a demonstration of the villain's nastiness.<br />
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One of the best realised characters in the whole series is Wolff. A well-meaning scientist with a weakness for gambling, he has done his best to escape from his troubles only to find they keep following him. Unlike many villains in the series he is shown to have a real conscience and is horrified when he learns the true nature of his puppet masters' plans. Despite his nervousness and own vulnerability, he ultimately makes a stand against Jorgen, saving the others' lives. Then when it seems there is insufficient oxygen for the crew to reach Earth alive, Wolff throws himself out of the rocket in the hope that this will allow the others to live. That they only just make it suggests that Wolff was ultimately right. It's one of the most shocking deaths in the whole series and it's easy to see why the suicide note tries to downplay it slightly by offering the possibility that, "Perhaps by some miracle I shall escape too", although any such salvation is likely to be of a spiritual nature rather than a physical one. This was an addition made by Hergé against his better judgement because of Catholic attitudes to suicide, but doesn't detract from the impact, especially for Haddock as he realises how much he has misjudged Wolff. A more clear cut foe is Jorgen, previously known as Colonel Boris from <i>King Ottokar's Sceptre</i>, who has stowed away on board the rocket as part of the conspiracy to capture the rocket for a rival country. He is one of the hardest edge villains yet seen with no humorous side to him, making him an especially dangerous foe.<br />
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The voyage to the Moon and the subsequent exploration are both depicted well in a strong, serious style with humour derived from the misadventures of the characters, especially Haddock as he takes to the smuggled drink, and problems from both the presence of extra passengers and the plotting by Jorgen. The Moon itself is incredibly well drawn with a high amount of detail put into the crater filled landscape, evoking a real sense of isolation. Time and again Hergé shows a strong amount of scientific detail and it never detracts from excitement, such as Haddock's impromptu walk outside the rocket when he gets caught in the gravitational pull of the mysterious asteroid Adonis. The return to Earth offers further desperate moments as the rocket veers off course and the oxygen is running out, whilst Jorgen and Wolff are being guarded by the Thom(p)sons. It all makes for a strong, tense adventure.<br />
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This is probably the second best known landing on the Moon and the best known of all <i>The Adventures of Tintin</i>. It's a story that roots itself in what was then known scientific fact and thus hasn't been dated by going in for wild speculation or fantasies about aliens. Instead it is a strong piece of hard science fiction driven by characters and the wonders of space that holds up well all these years later and after the real-life Moon expeditions. This is easily the best of the Adventures so far.</div>
Tim Roll-Pickeringhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12589024696145675963noreply@blogger.com0