Not sure if that's the one dupersuper referred to, but I thank you for that link. I just watched it, and was quite thoroughly entertained, informed and slightly inspired

-M

Halloween special!!

Halloween Blues by Mythic and Cas.



About the creative team: 
Writer Jean-Claude Smit Le Bénédicte (also known under the alias Mythic, which prompts me to consider a game for this board one day: "Rapper or Comic book writer?") was born in Belgium in 1947. He has written a comic of comic series and is mostly known for his cooperations with François Walthéry: writing some issues of Natacha (a long running, very popular series about a stewardess) , all of Rubine (a series about a female detective) and some issues of more .. adult material. Furthermore a few issues here and there of long-running Franco-Belgian comic Jess Long. Also interesting is the following series published under his real name, which translates as The Gorilla Chronicles



which I sadly never read, but couldn't resist posting an image of. Halloween Blues is one of the longer (though with 7 issues not that long) that is completely written by Mythic (only beaten by Rubine mentioned above).

Artist Zbigniew Kasprzak (I have no idea how to pronounce either of that), known under the alias Kas, was born in 1955 in Poland. He is mostly known for the post-apocalyptic sci-fi series Hans, which he took over from fellow-Polish comicbook artist Rosinski (best known for Thorgal and Les Grand Pouvoir du Chninkel), this series was written by comics veteran André-Paul Duchâteau. For fans of the series Jeremiah, Hans might be worth checking out.

He has done few comics work apart from that, Lambiek only lists 1 issue of non-fictional series "Rebels" and short lived series The Voyagers. He has his own site: www.kas-bd.be/

About the series:
Started in 2003 (which means it barely qualifies for classic under our board rules), Halloween Blues is a short series of 7 issues (though the last issue gives room leaves room for more). The opening quote of each issue from a (completely invented for this series as far as I can find) early 19th century lexicon on supernatural phenomenon tells us that a man or woman who dies a violent death, can take possession of a body for 1 day on Halloween to take vengeance on their killer, but the spirit has no choice which body it will enter and can enter a body too old, too young or even living too far away to practically take revenge. This quote actually is of no importance for many of the issues.

The story starts with police officer Forrester Hill being found innocent of the murder of his wife, movie-actress Dana Hill alias Dana Anderson. We quickly find out the problems surrounding the murder case: Forrester claims to be knocked out and woke up next to his dead wife and can't remember anything. He has motivation: Dana was making far more money (for those wondering why a movie star is married to a simple police officer: they married out of high school before either started their careers) and got a lot of attention from other suitors. The police of New Salem (the town both of them lived in), are all friends of Forrester and most of the inhabitants can't believe that Forrester, who was a WWII hero (the story takes place in the late 50s) could ever murder his wife. Their trust is countered by Dana's fans who blame Forrester for the death of their idol. Either side seems to have made their minds up before the trial even started, which bothers Forrester most of all. He can't believe that he murdered his wife, but he's not 100% sure, even when his colleagues assure him that they can't find no evidence of his guilt.

Arriving home, Forrester is greated by the ghost of his wife, who shows the hallway covered in blood, her body lying on the ground and the accusations written in blood on the walls. We quickly find out though that even Dana's ghost is not sure that Forrester killed her (she was killed from behind, never seeing her assailant). Despite her barbs and teasing of Dana, she holds back from really making Forrester's life a misery and during the first few issues, I wasn't sure whether Dana was really real or just a figment of Forrester's imagination/ a personification of his guilt. Later issues do show Dana witnessing and telling Forrester of events that he was not present for, so those seem to put that theory to bed. Dana's role in the first issue is very limited too; Forrester is approached by the widow of one of his former squadmates, who wants him to investigate her husband's death. Dana can't seem to leave New Salem, the further away she gets from home, the weaker she gets, so when Forrester leaves with his client she basically is out of the story. The first issues do seem to follow the formula of Forrester investigating crimes, while working on Dana's case at the start of each issue. Each of his clients are beautiful women, which annoys Dana's ghost to no end, but it's clear that Forrester still loves her (Dana can create illusions that only Forrester can see, but she can't touch or move anything, so Forrester puts on movies for her whenever he leaves home, so she isn't bored) and Dana, despite her barbs, her mocking of the various women that arrive at their house and her accusations, obviously still loves him.



Overall, the series is not horror. Dana's attempts to scare Forrester are mostly pranks rather than horror scenes. There are murders, but it's more a crime series with a supernatural elements (and many of the supernatural elements are proven to be frauds and tricks). The artwork is more dynamic than many realistic European artists I've seen (see my review of I.R.$. where I found the characters to be very stiff for instance), facial expressions show emotions, Dana is always beautiful in her red dress (despite her bloodred eyes), cars, clothes and buildings all look appropriate to their time. Forrester is mostly our standard hero, but he's not too proud to ask for help (a trait which annoys me in most fictional "heroes") and does more actual detective work in the first couple of issues than I've seen Batman do in the last 20 years.

So I've been thinking that Google Translate app should allow me to read some international comics that have yet to be translated. I think I'll experiment on a volume of Jeremiah since it doesn't look like Dark Horse is going to continue with the series and I've been trying to read it in it's entirety for nearly a decade now.

I've never read Corto Maltese, but maybe you could try XIII (by Vance and Van Hamme).
The President of the USA is assassinate by a man who has now lost his memory and he tries to find who he really his, and what part he played in this giant conspiracy.
The main story ends at #19, I haven't read the rest. Can be enjoyed without going to the end. It's complicated though, XIII has A LOT of different identities through the volumes.

Le Combat Ordinaire (Ordinary Victories) by Manu Larcenet.
One of my favourite. A young adult tries to cope with life's big changes (Work, having a kid, death, etc...) It's fantastic. 4 issues

The Revenge of Count Skarbek by Sente and Rosinski (2 issues)
--- I removed the description I took from mycomicshop...I think it my be a spoiler---- The story is about a painter who seeks revenge. I'll leave it to that.---

l would also higly recommend le Vol du Corbeau and le Sursis (2 issues each) by Gibrat, a "love story" of sort set in France during the occupation, but I'm not sure it's available in English (I based my suggestion assuming you don't speak French).

Also, the # of issues I wrote are for the French Hardcover. I'm not sure in what format they are available in in English, sorry!

I would also like to suggest Thorgal to map, who I think his a big fan of Conan/Sword and Sorcery. Thorgal is the "Son of the Stars", a young baby found by a clan of Viking who will travel the world in search of answers. It's also really good, a Franco-Belge classic. I love it all (almost!), but particularly the Qâ Cycle (issues 11-15 I believe), but you have to read a few issues before that to know a bit what it's about, in my opinion.

Thanks so much for this!

And you write English better than some of our English-only members here