Wilfrid Lupano

It's all out class warfare as the factory-owning squirrel has the Wolf in Underpants locked up in jail for stealing -- because he has money when he doesn't have a job he must have stolen it! -- and general laziness. Having locked up the wolf in prison, the Anti-Wolf Brigade then proceeds to actually investigate the charges, revealing what the wolf does with his time.

As with the first book book in the series, the twist ending gives the book a clever and dark boost. It also continues the show more anti-capitalism present in the previous volumes, a theme that I don't often see in children's books. show less

The jacket copy of this omnibus edition of the five bandes dessinées volumes of Azimut commends it to fans of Terry Gilliam and Lewis Carroll. I can't say that I see the connections; beyond an anthropomorphic white rabbit there is little to suggest Carroll, and Azimut is not a portal fantasy. I felt like its particular surrealism had more in common with the sort of metaphysically-inclined whimsy in Jodorowsky's fantasies than Gilliam's.

Jean-Baptiste Andreae's art is the main pleasure of the show more book, with vivid character and creature designs and grand scenery. The convoluted plot by Wilfrid Lupano involves "chronopteres," a sort of magical aviary with consequences for the passage of time. Most of the key characters are defined by their relationships to the pulchritudinous Manzie Ganza, whose quest for eternal life has doomed her series of suitors and perhaps all of humanity. There are frequent sight gags that come off effectively, and Lupano also supplies some over-the-top dialogue, such as the mystic bonze's invocatory declaration: "By the power of not thinking, I catalyze within myself the quintessential dontgiveadamn of the cosmos, and I turn it back on itself!" (V.28)

I borrowed this book on impulse when I spotted it at the public library, and I did enjoy it. It seemed to be playing at a profundity that it never quite achieved. But I still found it to be a rewardingly dream-like entertainment. show less

In the 1950s and '60s, Frenchmen Antoine, Emile and Pierrot were anarchists, activists, antifascists, and labor organizers. Now in their seventies, they are still pretty rowdy and anti-capitalist. In these two humorous adventures, Antoine and Pierrot separately receive letters that lead to revelations and regrets about past romantic relationships and send them reeling on paths to rather incompetent violence. Caught up in the chaos is Antoine's granddaughter, Sophie, a young single mother show more with a similar rebellious streak but a lot more sensibility than the geezers.

Very French and very farcical -- the sort of thing I usually dislike -- but I found myself having a good time reading the antics of these grumpy old men. And I see they have more tomes to check out in the future. I'm tempted to try the recent movie adaptation, but my history with French cinema is even worse than my history with bandes dessinées. show less

The creators of Valerian and Laureline, Mézière and Christin, ended the series in 2013 with the twenty-second volume, Memories from the Futures. Then there was Luc Besson’s disappointing film adaptation. But now we apparently have the pair’s – that’s Valerian and Laureline, of course – further licensed adventures, which makes a point of attempting to be as much like the original as possible. And they pretty much succeed. Except, like the Edgar P Jacobs Studio picked up The show more Adventures of Blake & Mortimer from Jacobs himself, and actually starting to do a better job of it, with cleverly-plotted stories based on secret history instead of 1930s racist techno-fantasies, so this new Valerian and Laureline is much more twenty-first century than the later volumes by Mézière and Christin. For a start, the two are on a mission to apprehend a robot who is running multiple virtual tax havens in his main processor and so enabling rich people to break no end of Galaxity laws. But then the plot quickly complicates, with the Shingouz turning up having accidentally sold the Earth of three billion years ago to a voracious water pirate, Laureline having her likeness pirated and sold across the galaxy, and Valerian having to supply meat from an endangered species to a chef for a gangster’s banquet in order to… Lupano, the writer, manages to keep all his balls up in the air, and then deal neatly with them one by one. Lauffray’s art is a little more kinetic than Mézière’s but just as detailed. I like this a lot, and I hope it’s the first of a long series. show less