So I've not been here in a while so a long, long list of new European comics I've read lately:

New Largo Winch "Morning Star": Van Hamme has left this title as well, so I don't think he's doing any of his main titles anymore. The new writer picks up with as little fanfare as possible and continues where Van Hamme left the title. Our subject this time: algorithmic trading. A character is killed off off-screen, which left a bad taste in my mouth, but for the rest if you were into Largo Winch before, it is pretty much the same title. As always stories are two-parters so let's see if they can stick the landing.

Wika volume 1 and 2: LeDroit has quit Requiem Vampire Knight and Pat Mills and taken up Wika Faerie Knight and Thomas Day (probably not the Thomas Day I know, cause he died over 200 years ago). Wika Grimm is the daughter of Count Grimm and Titania, but her parents are killed by the faerie prince Oberon. The baby Wika is saved by a servant (at the cost of her wings) and later discovers her true heritage. It's LeDroit, so expect glorious designs, explicit violence and nudity and dark humour. Upside compared to Requiem, it's not taking place in Hell so not every character needs to be a horrible person. Downside: Oberon's children are based on the Seven Sins and they are pretty on the nose (except for their leader Rage, who seems rather nice and in control so far.)

Storm #30: I had hoped that last issue change in status quo would give this series some energy, but this issue was still a by-the-numbers game. The art is style nice, though Molenaar is moving more and more away from Lawrence's style. (Note if you call your fictional city Torkien, be prepared for any booksellers website to autocorrect that to Tolkien).

The Adventures of Hel #2: #1 was written by Henk Kuijpers, but he went back to Franka, so somebody else picked up the writing here. Hel gets a sidekick, her new roommate. Bit early to be replacing the supporting cast I'd think. The inspiration by Kuijpers is still obvious (a bit too much even, on several pages I was playing "spot the landmark" whenever a part of the story was stated to be in a specific city.)

Cognac #1: Recommended, a story that combines the production of Cognac with a murder case. Part 2 just came out in hardcover.

Spirou by Marc Legendre: Very disappointing, Legendre is a big name: I liked his Biebel and Sam, but he's done a lot of more serious works. His most recent and possible most reknown work was reinventing Willy Vandersteen's Suske&Wiske, now aimed at young adults, but there is not a lot of reinventing in his Spirou (of course Spirou already went through several reimages over the years, Tome&Janry twice, Emil Bravo, Yann... so the bar is a lot higher here) and what we are left with is a by-the-numbers Belgian comicbook that is not very funny or clever. I'm looking forward to this month's Spirou though, the first Spirou by a dutchman (Hanco Kolk). I love Kolk's Gilles de Geus (co-created by him and Peter de Wit) and he has international reknown (did illustrations for the New Yorker and his Meccano won basically all the awards).

I'm in the train, so that's pretty much all I remember I bought in the past couple of weeks.

When I did a little review of the Someday Funnies elsewhere on the boards, I didn't mention there are some brilliant pages by several European cartoonists. One of them, a cheesecakey sci-fi adventure called Orion, hasn't been translated into English but looked intriguing.

So two big titles this week:

The new Asterix: This time it's all about Italy. Asterix and Obelix take part in a grand chariot race throughout Italy, set up by a corrupt Senator who wants to prove how great Roman roads are (after embazzling all the funds given to him to maintain said roads). We get the usual stereotypes of all nations (though the portrayal of Africans in that classic 1940s style should not be a thing of our time.) and some of the expected jokes about Italians. They are a too on the nose though: we have references to Pavarotti (with a bit of singing just in case we didn't get it), a Mona Lisa (with comments about her smile, just in case we don't get it). Jokes about their flat cakes that taste very dry and could do with a little sauce (with comment that till the introduction of the tomato several centuries later, pizza's would remain unpopular, just in case we didn't get it). I'm stil applauding the creative team to follow in the footsteps of Goscinny and Uderzo and their issues are remarkably better than Uderzo efforts without Goscinny, but this one just asks for comparisons to Le Tour de Gaule (The Grand Banquet) and that one is just better, even if it isn't close to the better Asterix issues (still an early one that is finding its way). Also you don't need to explain every joke (example: Obelix, drunk on heavy Italian wine, commenting that a tower in the distance is leaning over is obvious, but works, because it's not further explained and I think everybody will get the reference.)

Une Aventure de Spirou par....

(well this is a tough one, usually I use the french title, cause it's the original title for Spirou. But this one was by a dutch writer/artist (Hanco Kolk) en came out first in dutch. In fact it hasn't appeared yet in France AFAIK. This is also gives us an interesting issue with numbering. On Spirou's website this is Issue #13, but issue #12 will come out next week according to all planning... and the cover has a number 14 in bold letters at the center of the cover. Back on topic)

Tulpen uit Istanboel (Tulips from Istanbul): Starting out in Rotterdam in the 1960s (and a bit of explanation about the jokes there. A lot of jokes are about the incredible speed buildings are build in the city. Rotterdam currently has a lot of large building projects going on that are going quite quickly, but the joke has a more bitter backstory. Rotterdam's center was flattened during World War II. Only 3 buildings in the center of the city remained standing, 900 people were killed, 85.000 people were homeless. In the 1960s most of the city was restored. This is also the reason the Rotterdam is the only dutch city with a large and functioning underground subway system; they had the opportunity cause the city had to be rebuilt from scratch.)
The story quickly moves from there. It's the 1960s so it's the Cold War. Spirou and Fantasio have to help one of the Count's friends, a Russian professor, to escape to the West. All intelligence agencies of the world are interested in the Professor's knowledge. As a cover they use a stagecoach trip that reenacts the introduction of the first tulip to the Netherlands by a stagecoach trip.
On the road they are followed and attacked by various spies, first and foremost a Russian Superspy who uses various contact lenzes to mentally affect the people who look into his eyes.
In short: I love it. I love it with all my heart. It's not the best Une Aventure de Spirou par.. and it has its flaws (like Emile Bravo's Spirou had the bits with Spip.. though I think that was a larger flaw), but it's a lot of fun, the art is vibrant and the jokes click with me (Nationalism, Ho!).

Has anyone been reading the Smolderen/Bertail series Ghost Money? I keep seeing the English version on the shelves with the new comics and it looks interesting. Very nice artwork, from what I saw.

It's a translation, but not in english. Haven't seen the translation listed yet on Titan's website, so it may take some months.
edit: it was released in France late september 2017 and translation in dutch came out in January 2018. Don't know how long it would take Titan to release it. The introduction was written by Neil Gaiman, so I'd expect a translation sooner or later.

Work has been crazy lately, so I have not been posting a lot, but I've been reading a lot. So short impressions of a bunch of titles (there were more, but I don't have them lying around here):

Zorglub #1: Munuera returns to Spirou. I was not a fan of his previous run on the main title, though I've liked some of his other work. This time it's a spin-off starring Spirou's megalomanic,but still sympathetic adversary, the great Zorglub. This title works for me though: we see Zorglub in a new role: the overprotective father who has to deal with his teenage daughter discovering boys. There are some hints of Despicable Me here with a super-villain having to deal with a family, but it's different enough for me to enjoy. The twist I saw coming, but overall it's a nice enough comic and I will be buying #2.

Hel #2: Franka's artist/writer Henk Kuijpers after about 40 years, finally created another title (only writing this time), the adventures of Hel (short for Helen), but he has left the title as fast as he came and the new writer, Frank Jonker takes over in issue #2. Immediately there are some changes noticeable, Hel's friend, roommate (and perhaps potential love interest?) Angelo, leaves the title for a temp job far, far away and is replaced by his cousin Julia. For a title that promised a lot of travelling (premise of the series is Hel, a young thief finds a suitcase from an old professor filled with answers to the world's greatest mysteries and treasures), Hel and Julia stay the whole issue within the Netherlands. Julia is a good addition to the series, complementing Hel in many ways. The art-style is inspired by Kuijpers, though I do think that Kuijpers is far better. Overall a resounding, well, it's all right I guess. I'll keep following the series, but I don't anticipate it like I do new issues of Franka.

Dark Souls: the Breath of Andolus: Not really an European comic, but it was published by Titan and the UK is still in Europe for now. I really enjoy the games, but I appreciate that the comic is not adapting the stories of the games, but creates a new story.
For those not into videogames, Dark Souls are video games developed by Japanese developer From Software. All games take place in a medieval fantasy world that is in decline; the Age of Fire that brought prosperity is slowly fading and the Age of Dark begins. The main characters are cursed with Undead: every time they die they come back alive, but less than they were before, doomed to slowly decay until they remember nothing. A few undead keep their humanity by focussing on a goal or quest and they do better for a time. The things that make Dark Souls interesting are threefold in my mind: 1. the gameplay is a large part and a comic book will not be able to capture that. 2. There is only very limited exposition, many players will move through the worlds of the games, not knowing what is going on and will need to piece the scraps of information gained from conversations and items together themselves. 3. Despite what the name implies, the Age of Dark might not be worse than the Age of Fire. The characters each have to decide whether they want to extend the Age of Fire (an unnatural interference in the natural order that has caused for many problems) or welcome the Age of Dark. It's implied that there is a neverending cycle of Ages of Fire and Darkness.
Back to the book: The story in the book follows Fira, an Undead knight who has lost her family and hopes that by reigniting the flame she can reclaim all that she has lost. She is assisted by the seer Aldrich, who may have his own agenda and is manipulating Fira, using her ailing memory against her. The end result is bad though, maybe it's the difference in medium, but the story as presented on page does not work. There are also various references to the stories in the game, but they are all handled in a weird way: Aldrich for isntance, is a character from the third game, but as he's portrayed he's little in common with that character (both looks and personality) and the references to the games for these characters just end up more confusing. The artwork also is really uneven. All in all: not recommended, play the games instead.

Aldo: A oneshot by Yannick Pelegrin. Aldo is a regular person. Aldo is also immortal. Aldo is also very very lonely. His immortality has isolated him from the world around him. Unlike many other immortals in stories, Aldo is not a great warrior battling other immortals, a wise wizard preparing humanity against a great evil or anything, he's just a regular guy (not very bright even). The story is Aldo going through his days in a melancholic state. Not a story for everybody, but I quite enjoyed it.

Lord of Burger: Arleston (of Lanfeust of Troy fame) creates a story about a brother and sister taking over their father's expensive restaurant after his death. Their father was one of the greatest chefs of France, but also a very controlling and a perfectionist so he pushed both of his children away from his path. Daughter Ambre still works for her father as a waitress, but her passion lies with swords and knives, creating ice sculptures with great skill. Son Arthur is also a very talented cook, but his act of rebellion is to work for a cheap fastfood chain. Their father has left his mark on them though: Arthur creates burgers with great skill and is as much a perfectionist as his father (much to the annoyance of his boss, because he's not following the instructions given). He has a small dedicated clientele though, who appreciate his burgers. There is also a mystery subplot: the death of their father was not an accident, but little is done with it in the first issue. The focus mostly is on Ambre and Arthur trying to keep the restaurant running despite the massive debt and most of the staff resigning. I really enjoyed the mixture of cartoony art and events with a basis of realistic situations. Highly recommended.

Tango: the Gringo lives in a small town in the middle of the Andes. Nobody knows his name and it's clear that he's laying low. He helps the people around him with odd jobs, has a relationship with the young widow who runs the local bar and seems to be satisfied with his lot in life. This ends when a couple of criminals attack Anselmo, a local man and his son Diego. The Gringo interferes and disarms the three criminals, but Anselmo kills them. The news reports that Anselmo has taken out the criminals by himself, but in other parts of the world, people have their doubts and an investigative team is sent. The story reminds me a lot of History of Violence, though the main character in this story is obviously hiding from something. The interesting twist I like is that all other main characters also have their own secrets. The artwork is well researched and looks great (think style XIII or Largo Winch.. which fits cause artist/co-writer Xavier has worked on XII as well). Recommended.

Sangre: Another Arleston, set in the usual tech-fantasy worlds that Arleston usually creates (Lord of Burger above excepted), Sangre is a young girl, the sole survivor of an attack by sky bandits on her family's airship. Sangre swears revenge, but is too young to take action yet. The monastery that takes her in, is far more than a religious facility it pretends to be though and Sangre discovers that she has special abilities, but using those abilities turns her temporarily blind. There were 8 bandits and Sangre takes revenge on the first one this issue, so the series will probably be 8 issues long, but Arleston does tend to get sidetracked from time to time with his other series, so who knows.

La Petite souriante: A dark comedy/drama/maybe even horror story? by Zidrou and Benoit Springer. Pepino, an ostrich farmer, kills his wife to be with his mistress, but as he returns home, his wife is alive and well and remembers nothing. It feels a bit like Tales of the Unexpected or the Twilight Zone. It's a oneshot story and the scenes of murder and plotting are interspersed with scenes about ostrich farming. The artwork is great, I especially love the cover. Recommended.