Jean Dufaux

This could easily be entitled Indiana Jones and the Curse of the 30 Pieces of Silver: it's that kind of adventure! There's also a twist of The Maltese Falcon in this cocktail, and why not?

Ploughing a similar furrow to other Blake and Mortimer adventures (Blake and Mortimer separate to get involved in seemingly disparate plots, but you know that they're going to be connected; shadowy figures tailing the heroes; journeys to far off places; OLRIK!), if you've read the series this far you're show more probably going to love this story.

The story involves the discovery of part of a mysterious treasure which seems to carry the curse of the Lord Almighty Himself, and which a cabal of Nazi survivors from the fall of the Third Reich intends to use to gain global dominion. The race is on for Mortimer and his comrades to recovery the rest of the treasure, and the power it represents, before the forces of evil beat them to it and secure a devastating occult weapon. Olrik's in on the plot, having been busted out of a federal penitentiary at the beginning of the story. Given he's the heroes' perpetual nemesis, he spends a lot of time playing second fiddle to more powerful figures, which is an interesting character trait.

Most of the story follows Mortimer's adventures, with Blake offstage for the majority of the narrative. As this is the first of a two-part story, I expect Blake to show up in the next installment just the nick of time (and probably in disguise!) to pull Mortimer's fat out of the fire.

Definitely one of the best entries in the series so far (reading in order of the English language editions). show less

Despite the faux-Disney character designs, this is a pitch-black story about a young woman who murders her mother in self defense only to realize that she enjoys the power that comes with royalty.

Otra secuela de La marca amarilla. El original me parece una gran historia pero creo que el abuso de secuelas no lleva a ninguna parte. Además, la trama me parece innecesariamente complicada y el tebeo se me hace algo pesado. Le dan un giro interesante al personaje de Olrik pero no me compensa el resto.

This is one of many graphic novels that I’ve checked out from Hoopla because they’re free and available. Hoopla seems to have a lot of French or Belgian comics, so I’m reading a lot of those, especially when I can work my way through an entire series. This one is about political machinations in Roman times. It’s a fictionalized retelling of actual events, with real historical figures in the cast. This series is interesting enough that I’ve read a few volumes, but I definitely had show more trouble keeping track of all the characters, several of whom look almost identical. I could never remember who was the son of the emperor and who was the son of his mistress and why some poor bastard was just murdered. show less