Dans La Tete De Sherlock Holmes!

My Accent UK buddy, Dave West actually spotted this great article on John Freeman's ever reliable Down The Tubes comics news site before I did and I thought it sounded familiar?

Checking out John's excellent article confirmed by thoughts, that this was one of the BD's I picked up when last in Brussels in summer 2019 - oh for the days of eazy, safe European travel to return!. 

I've long since fallen in love with the 9th Art since making our first trip to France many years ago and since then have steadily built up a sizeable collection of tomes, most of which have never been translated into English. 

My Francais sadly remains basic, but with strong art, a dictionary and a bit of perserverance, you can get the gist of a well told story and I've taken delight and inspiration from my BD souvenirs over the years in a way that a holiday T-shirt or trinket just can't match!.

In any case, The Sherlock Holmes book really caught my eye with it's distinctive art and cover, which like most BD's is hardback but with a unique die-cut so you can indeed see "Inside the Mind" of the great detective! 

The interiors follow this novel idea with intrically designed pages, panels and pictures which carry you carefully through the story, following the clues and making discoveries as you go - it's a real visual treat with lots of innovative tricks to enjoy along the way.    

The creators, Cyril Lieron and Benoit Dahan make a great team and have really come up with a fun and novel way of giving new life to the old detective.

We are lucky these days that more and more European works have now been translated into English so we can finally fully enjoy them and many of my recent favourite reads have come from Cinebook or IDW EuroComics impressive Corto Maltese or Magnetic Press's Sergi Toppi collection etc. In his article John hopes that someone too will pick up this Sherlock Holmes series so fingers-crossed, in the meantime I'd settle for being able to safely travel to Europe again and pick up the next installments in person! 

2017 Comic Highlights

As we approach the end of the year I sometimes cast an eye backwards at what I've particularly enjoyed in the world of comics away from the convention circuit and actually, although there's been lots of great stuff out there, I've generally failed to keep up with it or at least make a dent in my reading pile, such is the life when you're being a busy bee yourself.

Here though are a couple of enjoyable graphic novels which stood out for me this year.

The Marquis of Anon - Isle of Brac & The Black Virgin

 

Although a long time BD fan I'd not come across this series until the always reliable Zainab Akhtar mentioned it on her blog a couple of years ago ahead of its English language release through those fine folks at Cinebooks. Well I picked up the first couple at last year's Thought Bubble Festival and completed the 5 issue set (so far) at this year's event. I've only read the first two so far but they don't disappoint with their mystery, charm and real sense of peril to make for a thrilling read!

Delilah Dirk and The Turkish Lieutenant

I'd actually been looking for this for years without realising it had finally come out! There had been a really enjoyable Delilah Dirk one shot comic years ago by the talented Tony Cliff and his blog had teased the forthcoming release of a longer form graphic novel but last time i checked it had only come out in France. So I had a pleasant surprise when browsing the English language shelf at Fantask during our Copenhagen trip earlier this year to find not one but two graphic novel collections - yay!

The other is called Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling which I've not yet read but the first one - The Turkish Lieutenant is an enjoyable historical fiction romp with a little steampunk, humour and good ol' honest adventure making for a great read. Annoyingly on catching up with Tony Cliff's blog I discovered that he had made a very rare UK appearance the year before at Thought Bubble in a hall next to Accent UK but I totalled missed him! Ah well maybe next time!

Lady Mechanika 

I'd been aware of the Lady Mechanika comic series from writer & artist Joe Benitez for a little while but it was only this year that I picked up the first couple of collected volumes, recently finishing the first. This really follows our own recent 'discovery' of steampunk which is having quite an influence on our approach to not only comic events but comic making - more to come!

I was more than happy to immerse myself in the world of Lady Mechanika and enjoyable it was with good portions of mystery, action and suspense. The story in this first volume was perhaps more of a 'set-up' of her world and the players in it and for my tastes was a little unsubtle in places, lacking a little of the charm that we have experienced ourselves in the steampunk community and the art, while accomplished was a little too 'cheesecake' and stylish for me, but then I am British and blush easily!

There were a couple of others I enjoyed but the above are the ones that probably made the most impression this year and may influence or inspire my own comics storytelling!