3 out of 5

It’s hard to suss it out exactly from one volume (and from the middle of a storyline), but this entry in Jacobs’ ‘Adventures of Blake & Mortimer’ is a nice alternative to Tintin for European adventure comics; it shares the same Ligne claire style (and appeared, initially, in Tintin Magazine), but leans toward a drier sense of adventure vs. the occasional fantastics of Tintin.  Which isn’t to say it’s unexciting, just revolving more around traditional spycraft or political intrigue – akin to the war or adventure comics of the 50s and 60s, taking reality and painting it with an expressive brush.  To keep things unqiue, Jacobs sets his story in an alternative timeline, and, as with Tintin, makes sure to keep a varied and interesting cast of characters in tow.

But I’ll have more to offer on the series overall once I’ve digested more.  For now, let’s look at this specific reprint.

In terms of quality, I can’t compare to how these were originally published, but Cinebook has chosen an oversized magazine-dimension softcover book, squarebound with light but durable pages that wonderfully show off the popping color schemes of the European comic palette.  There’s a brief Jacobs bio and book checklist in the back, plus a couple of preview pages of other B & M tales, otherwise you’re looking at about 60 pages of reading (dense reading, though)for a $16 cover price.  If you enjoy this style, I’d say it’s worth the price, but a casual reader might feel miffed at the lack of overt theatrics contained within.  I found no flubs in the translation, and again, though I can’t compare to the original, the redone lettering (by ‘Design Amorandi’) looks perfect and legit; you’d believe the book originally appeared in English.  So let only the content vs. the price be your consideration – the printing and binding look and feel great, perfect for a casual peruse but sophisticated enough to prove that yer not some JLA-readin’ jerko with tiny feet.

Still, this is part 2 of part 3, and being smackdab in the middle is felt here.  The ‘Secret of the Swordfish’ is apparently a set of plans for an ultimate war weapon with which Blake & Mortimer have absconded – presumably a tale told in part 1 – and half of this volume details their escape from pursuer Count Olrik (the series constant antagonist) and then the duo’s separation and losing/recovery of the plans.  Thus because most of this story is one character imprisoned, there are some interesting exchanges of secret messages, but we’re mostly just waiting around the the plans to get re-discovered so some major last scramble can occur – presumably in part 3.  But I had a good time here.  The many talking heads are intimidating, but there’s almost always value to the words in terms of story, and eventually you accept the blabber as part of the style.  Jacobs breaks from traditional panel structure in some interesting spots, but it’s still early for this kind of experimentation, meaning reading order is a little cluttered at points.  Same goes for balloon positioning, to which the ‘rules’ of how to trigger left to right reading hadn’t yet, I’m guessing, really been established.

You’ll probably be smarter than me and read part 1 first, in which cases the bridging of these story pieces will become a dash more exciting.  However, I got a full read out of Part 2.  I enjoyed the stalwart antics of our leads, and Jacobs pushes the limit of realism in this European style, making it easier to associate, right away, attributes and emotions to every character.  I’ll definitely be checking out more of the series.