I understand that. I enjoy seeing self-important characters like Zorglub being forced into mundane situations, so this scratches that itch for me, but it's definitely not anything special. I liked it enough, but it's one of the lesser titles that I listed this time, with only Dark Souls not being worse and Sangre and Hell being on a similar level.

A couple of books this time: another issue of Detectives, the third and final part of Cognac and Lemuria: Citadel.

Detectives #2: Apparently this is a spin-off of a series I haven't read, "7 Detectives". Issue 2 is called "Richard Monroe - Who Killed the Fantastic Mister Leeds?". Issue 1 was a reminiscent of an Agatha Christie mystery, this is more a crime noir a la Raymond Chandler. Richard Monroe is a detective, hired as a bodyguard to a movie starlet. The story is told mostly in flashbacks as Monroe is interrogated by the police about the events leading to him falling through the window of the 37rd floor of an hotel. The story is set shortly before WWII and Nazi spies and German refugees are a big part of it. I like the art style a little less than part 1, but it's still decent. It's not the kind of detective where you will be working out the mystery for yourself, as Monroe keeps some information to himself during the interrogation. Overall a decent title if you are interested in reading a standalone detective story in comics form.

Cognac #3: I liked the first issue a lot, but three issues were too much for this short series in my opinion. By the third part, protagonist has figured out who the killlers are and most of it is the villains bungling around in a desperate attempt to save something. The sidestory about the protagonist doing interviews with famous Cognac Brands about the history of Cognac is nearly forgotten. Disappointing after a decent start.

Lemuria: Citadel #1; Lemuria is/was a love letter to Don Lawrence, combining elements of his Storm and Trigan Empire series to create a series about a highly advanced prehistoric society on Earth in an art style that is almost directly copied of Lawrence. Like the Trigan Empire had the story framework of all the books being history books discovered by 20th century human scientists in a crashed spaceship, in Lemuria the backstory is 21st century human explorers finding an underground base of ancient Lemuria. In Trigan Empire this story framework is only used for a small intro, Lemuria they decided to turn it into a spin-off series (a spin-off series after 3 issues of the main series came out... and as far as I know, the main series isn't a great success). All current political powers are immediately trying to get control over the Lemurian caches of technology, turning it into a game of spies and assassins. Frankly, I thought this issue was terrible; the artwork is lifeless, none of the characters are memorabble and the story is by the numbers. A spin-off of a series that was doing nothing new itself and doesn't have the art the original had. Go read Storm if you want something good, go read Trigan Empire if you like to look at pretty pictures. Go read Lemuria proper if you are feeling nostalgic for the first 2 series and really want something more in that artstyle.

Manu Larcenet is an amazing creator dealing with depression... He expresses this daily battle in the charming, humoristic series Le retour à la terre, in the more realistic Le combat ordinaire and in the powerfully bleak Blast.

I am surprised that Le combat ordinaire would be translated before the other two series. They are truly masterpieces of the comic book genre. (I thought Le combat ordinaire was O.K., but not as remarkable as the other two. Perhaps it was thought it would be more accessible).

I don't know' on some of his stuff, yes; but, on things like Invisible Frontier, and The Great Walls of Samaris, or his spot illustrations, no.  The colors are just so beautiful and add to the dreamlike quality of the work.  A Fever in Urbicand works best in pure black& white and Brussel would be perfectly fine in just that.

I actually LOVED le combat ordinaire when I first read it, but I can easily understand people finding it unoriginal. Le Retour à la terre is also a great series. Haven't read Blast yet. I bought the first volume recently but I was waiting to find the other used before reading it.

Larcenet just announced that Le Retour à la Terre volume 6 should come out in 2019.

Adele Blanc-Sec is one of my favorite comic heroines of all time. You're in for a treat.