My NMB edition of Fever in Urbicande arrived. I am very happy I can now read this book, as I only own the French edition. BUT, I must say I am disappointed in the printing. It is printed on thinner paper than the Casterman book, and as a result the ink lines are thicker and not as sharp Whe I have time I will take a pic of them side by side to show the difference. Looks like I will read the NMB book while looking at the Casterman. Maybe I will get the new color edition anyway, if I catch a bargain.

So a bunch of comics:

I finally got a copy of Katanga #3 and things ended pretty much as I'd expected (as in not well.. but as it was based on historical events (the murder of Patrice Lumumba) it could only end in tragedy).

Back to Fred Duval:

Renaissance: Sadly only 3 issues published here, while the series itself is longer. I thought it was set in the far future or not on Earth, but reading it, not quite. It takes place about 100 years from now, Earth is ravaged by environmental disasters, disease and war when an alien fleet arrives. The aliens want to prevent the extinction of humanity. I like that the aliens in this are mostly good, but not completely. They want to help humanity, but when they are faced with armed and violent humans, they have no problem defending themselves. The aliens also have multiple factions within them and several of them are wondering if all this is worth it. I really like the covers and alien designs in this. I guess I have to check other languages to get the conclusion of this story though.

Wonderball: It has Duval, Jean-Pierre Pecau and Colin Wilson on the creative team, the same team that does Nevada, which is one of my favourite series. Wonderball is not quite there (I liked the setting and premise of Nevada more, Wonderball goes more into well-explored territory for me). Set (mostly) in the U.S., Detective Spadacinni, nicknamed Wonderball due to his addiction to the chocolate brand, investigates the rise of serial killers in the U.S. and finds a conspiracy behind it: a secret experiment to create a superior human leaves its subjects physical advanced, but mentally unstable. Artwise Wilson is great as usual, but I have never had much taste for conspiracy thrillers.

Seven Characters by Fred Duval and Florent Calvez: Part of the weird Seven series (a series of standalone comics which all have the number seven in common, but nothing else), this one was interesting. Set in France, 17th century, the playwright Molière has died and 7 persons (the whole story is kinda metaphysical, so it gets a bit muddled whether these are living people that Molière based his satirical plays on or characters born from his imagination turned to flesh) all main characters in one of Molière's plays, are thrown together to protect his legacy. The seven themselves are targetted as part of that legacy. I'm not a fan of the art though the panel in Hell is full Jeroen Bosch and great. The concept is so unique that I did like this comic despite its artstyle.

Not Duval:

Une aventure de Spirou Par... Jul&Libon are the creative team this time and they have create Spirou Chez Les Fous (Spirou and the Crazy Ones, or Spirou in the Madhouse would probably be a better translation). I was not familiar with the work of either and both seem to be mostly on short gag comics. Fantasio is missing and Spirou follows his tracks to Angouleme. In the town, many of the inhabitants are struck by madness and think they are comicbook characters. In the town's mental institution Spirou finds Fantasio who thinks he's Tin-Tin's Captain Haddock. All in all, I think this was my least favourite of the Spirou Par... series (though the other entries were all good-to-great, so it's not quite as bad). My issue is mostly that there is not much story here: a lot of the patients are just cameos to other comicbook characters, there is a bit where Fantasio hopes to find information about his parents (because both Spirou and he know that they are comicbook characters themselves... don't think about it too much), but he quickly realizes that there are no answers here.

Sirocco by Giulio Macaione: marketed for some reason as a Young Adult comic over here (and guess I can see it, the main character is a teenager, though just as much of the story is dedicated to her father and grandmother). Set in Venice and in Sicily, Mia is training to be a professional ballet dancer, she is raised by her single gay father and her grandmother. The story is told in only the colours white, black, blue and grey and it works very well for it. It's a slice of life comic and it's elevated by its art. Storywise, I don't think I was ever surprised by it, though it's fine at what it does (and it doesn't help that another slice of life comic below here does manage to do more interesting things storywise).

And ending on a high note:
Malgré tout by Jordi LaFebre, which has actually been translated into English under the title "Always Never" (though a more literal translation would have been Nevertheless). It's a romance told in reverse, Zeno, owner of a bookstore and Ana, a retired mayor have known each other and have been in love for decades, despite Ana being married. In reverse we move back from their first date after meeting each other again to their first meeting. I love LaFebre's artwork, especially the colouring and telling the story in reverse is an interesting touch that works really well. Like I said, it has been published in English, so check it out (though I can understand it not being everybody's cup of tea here).

Every Schuiten/Peeters book is stand alone. But every one is more than worth reading. (There is occasional reference to other stories)