XIII: The Trial

A word of warning from the off. This is not a ‘New readers start here’ volume!
The Trial follows on almost immediately from the previous book, Three Silver Watches, but not quite in the direction I was expecting. Yes, I figured from the title, cover and from what had gone on before that there would be a trial and that the President of the USA would be involved in it somewhere. And I was right on all counts, but also very wrong.
This being XIII, it takes a preposterous idea and runs with it in such a way that the reader is happy to come along, even though they know just how insane it is! And this one more so that other volumes. Obviously I’ll not tell you what happens here, but trust me – it’s crazy.
And it’s not only the high concept idea, but the returning guest stars that will surprise the reader. Add to that a completely unexpected outcome for one character and you’ve got yourself some classic XIII action going on.
If you’ve been following the series, then this will be a treat. If you haven’t, chances are you’ll be struggling to keep up with what’s happening for a lot of it. And as always, I can’t wait to get to the next volume!
XIII The Trial is available from Cinebook.

XIII Three Silver Watches review

For many volumes now, Jean Van Hamme has been drip feeding us information about the mysterious past of his amnesiac spy XIII.
Well, thanks to a character we have recently met, this book goes a long way towards filling us in on a lot of information. Only… it doesn’t really.
Yes, there is an enormous amount of information imparted here, however it is not about XIII, but rather about his grandparents.
Because of this, there is a real danger that this book could just be two men sitting about talking to each other for the duration, and for the first few pages I thought that this would be the case and that the dynamic cover image was going to turn out to be a big fat lie. I need not have worried though. For while a lot of the book is indeed two men talking, they are talking on the way to foil an invasion or between fights, as Van Hamme breaks his backstory up with an action filled main narrative. A narrative that does indeed include fighter jets doing what fighter jets do best: blowing things up.
And it’s one of these scenes that gives us our most ludicrous and over the top set piece yet. It’s insane and brilliant all at the same time, and wouldn’t look out of place at the climax of a James Bond movie.
This is not the best XIII book, and it is certainly not one for a new reader to start with – they would be lost from the first page. And while it is text heavy and at times heavy going, if you are a fan of the series, it is utterly essential.
Oh, and that’s before I even get to the ending, which left me thankful that I have the next volume sitting on the too-be-read pile already!

Thorgal The Invisible Fortress review

This volume starts immediately where the previous one, The Sun Sword, left off, with out titular hero and his companion journeying across lands and, as is always the way with these things, quickly getting into scrapes and adventures.
As I said in the previous review, I was unfamiliar with this series, and maybe because of that, I find myself yet again amazed by the storyline in here.
Obviously I’ll not go down the spoiler route here and tell you what happens, but I will say that it is a storyline and theme that is as opposite from the story in The Sun Sword as could possibly be.
Yet again, Jean Van Hamme proves himself to be the absolute master of storytelling. I found myself reading this book and thinking that it shouldn’t work. That combining the events in The Sun Sword and what goes on here should make for a crazy and nonsensical mish-mash of elements, but it works. It works brilliantly, in fact.
Van Hamme’s superlative writing is complemented perfectly by the incredible art by Grzegorz Rosinski.
There are some amazing scenes in here, and he transforms what I suspect were some very complex panel descriptions in the script into easily understandable images. The contrast between scenes of extreme detail and others where he uses blank white space is jarring and powerful.
Yes, yet again it’s another Cinebook volume that I loved. One day I’ll read a bad one… one day, but not today.

Darwin's Diaries 2: Death of a Beast review

You may recall that we reviewed the first volume of this Cinebook series here.
Part 2 picks off almost immediately where the first one ended, dropping the reader right into the aftermath of the incredible events that were the climax of Part 1.
We follow Darwin as he continues to investigate the mysterious beast that is hunting in the Yorkshire countryside.
And in that investigation you will get shocks aplenty in Sylvain Runberg's script. There is a lot of blood shed during the course of this volume, including one particularly powerful and memorable scene with a couple of unfortunate fellows on horseback.
I should mention the art by Eduardo Ocana here. It is, if anything, even better than it was in volume one. There are a few sections in there that are silent which really help the reader slow down and drink in the enormous detail and subtle colour in the book.
Ocana also excels in one particular scene, but one which I cannot talk about too much for fear of spoilers. But I will say that his creature design is genuinely the stuff of nightmares.
You’ll also remember me hinting at some surprising behaviour from Charles Darwin in the first book. Well, he’s at it again here, but this time we get more of a hint as to why he’s doing it, and along the way get one of the best cliff-hanger endings I have encountered in a long time.

XIII El Cascador review

This is the second half of a story began in, For Maria, the previous volume, which you can read a review of here.

We’re pretty far into this Cinebook series, and we’ve reviewed enough of them for you to know the score by now. 

Van Hamme’s plotting is brilliant. In turn tense and claustrophobic and over the top widescreen, James Bond style action sequences.

Vance’s art is detailed and kinetic.

Even XIII’s sidekick, Major Jones gets more to do here than just moon about over him.

And yet again, Van Hamme proves himself the absolute master of drip feeding information to the reader, as we simultaneously uncover more truths about XIII’s past while finding even more unanswered questions.

This is a fine line to walk, and I’m not sure how long the series can go on doing this before credulity is stretched too far. But then again, it could be argued that in a spy story and world spanning and over the top as this one, credulity was never going to be something the reader should be brining to the table.

Whatever that case, this is a cracking read.

Antares episode 1 review

This series is, I think it is safe to say, the very definition of Epic.
Antares follows on from writer/artist Leo’s previous two trilogies: Betelgeuse and Aldebaran.
Now, I should admit here that I have not read any of the volumes of the above mentioned books, which may just put me in the perfect position to review this one unencumbered by expectation… or at least that’s the line I’m using here!
It appears to pick up very soon after the events in the previous story, and the threads are deftly explained so I was not left with any ‘I don’t know what’s happening’ moments – at least not because of the exposition.
Because there are quite a few ‘I don’t know what’s happening’ moments in the narrative, in fact it ends on an incredible cliffhanger that had me shouting at the book for daring to leave me hanging like that!

This is a complex book. There are a number of storylines running at the same time, and each of them in densely plotted, but not to the expense of storytelling which is deceptively fluid and easy. An awful lot of work has gone into making this book a smooth read. And I think it’s a mark of how well each strand is written that when each one finished and we returned to another, I wanted to stay there and see what happened next.
There are also some very bold storytelling moves that really should leave the reader feeling short changed, but don’t. For example, one character has a major life changing revelation, and while the reader is absorbing this, we turn the page to a caption saying ‘Two years later’.
As for the art, it is superb. Sometimes the figure work leans on the stiff side, but each character is wonderfully realised, and facial expression are rendered with extraordinary precision.
The flora and fauna on Antares are another treat. Leo has obviously thought long and hard about the ecosystem on the planet, and without spelling it out through dialogue or captions, he leaves the reader with a perfectly clear idea of the way this world has evolved.
So, in summary then… Cinebook have done it again and you need to buy this.

Darwin's Diaries Vol1-The Eye of the Celts review

Well, I think we can safely say with no fear of contradiction that this book was almost totally the opposite of what I was expecting it to be.
It’s about Darwin, I figured, so Cinebook will give us an entertaining and informative biography of the great man. Maybe show us him travelling the world and looking at finches and tortoises and the like.
Boy was I ever wrong!
This is (I assume!) an alternate history of Darwin.
We join him a short time after the publication of ‘On the Origin of Species…’ just as he is met by a mysterious chap who asks for his scientific help on something extraordinary.
It seems that a strange creature is killing of the men who are building the railroad lines in XX, and would Darwin, with all his expertise on evolution, investigate?
This book is an eye opener on almost every level.
First off is the story, which is visceral and violent and full of intrigue.
I was thinking while reading that this was not going to be a monster tale, and that Darwin was going to figure out some kind of ‘real life’ explanation of what is happening, but this doesn't come. In fact no explanation does, as the book ends on an infuriating (in a good way) cliff-hanger.

Another eye popping plot element is the behaviour of Darwin himself. If you have read this book, then you’ll know what I mean here, if not, well… hold onto you hat! This is not the old man with the big white beard we always see him depicted as.
I have mentioned the story already, and it is great stuff. The plot and script, by Sylvian Runberg unfolds nicely as mystery is laid on mystery, leaving the reader gagging for more.
Eduardo Ocana on art duties is also at the top of his game, providing as he does magnificently atmospheric colours and manages to pull of a remarkable trick of depicting some very violent scenes without the reader seeing what is causing them.

All in all, this is straight out of left field and all the better for it. I can’t wait for volume two!

Thorgal vol 10 review

I had never read any of the previous volumes in this series, so was coming to this cold. I wasn’t not sure what to expect. From the beautifully painted cover, it was to be the story of a prehistoric fellow fighting bears and such.

And while it is true that he does briefly encounter a bear, as depicted in the cover, there is a hell of a lot more to it than that.

Of course if you have read any of these books this will not be news to you, but for those of you who have not let me expand on this a bit.

Thorgal is a wandering adventurer type. A bit like Conan. A bit like Slainé. Only not at all like those two characters at all.

The story here is just your standard capture/escape/repeat format, but as you would expect from a writer like Hamme (who also created that other Cinebook series, the sublimely convoluted XIII) there is much more going on here.

A lot is lost on me as a first time reader. Thorgal’s meeting up with a character from his past, for example, no doubt will have a greater impact on the long term reader, although it is communicated well enough that it is a Surprise and a Big Deal, so knowing the details of their past encounter is not required.

There is also an element of (apparent) magic going on in here, which is also something that I found surprising, although in hindsight I don’t know why. Perhaps it was the very authentic and real world art by Grzrgorz Rosinski that did so?

Whatever the reason, this element worked well too, and the explanation for it was doubly surprising and made me want to read the previous volumes just to find out more about the mysterious world that Thorgal inhabits.

Thorgal is published by Cinebook.

XIII Vol 9 For Maria review

The previous book in the XIII series, Thirteen to One, provided a neat epilogue to what had gone before and set up a series of further adventures.

It ended with a stonking final page that promised much, but of course, this being from the unpredictable pen of Jean Van Hamme, none of what was set up in the finale of the last book is addressed here!

Instead, we find our not-so-amnesiac-anymore-or-is-he? hero in South America with the bafflingly loyal Major Jones. I say bafflingly because despite being a feisty independent woman who can look after herself, she does tag along after XIII quite a bit. And during this particular volume she accepts a pretty major revelation about his past with barely a ‘meh’.

Anyway, that aside, this is very much business as usual for XIII as he goes up against yet another sinister group of bad guys.

And when I say ‘business as usual’, you’ll know that this is not a bad thing. Because business as usual for XIII always involves plenty of action, convoluted and surprising plotting and lots of good old fashioned adventuring.

As always, the art is brilliant, but Hamme’s plotting really stands out here.

He really is a great writer and the way he effortlessly weaves in plot elements for volumes near the beginning of the series and at the same time lays the groundwork for further ones is a joy to behold.

This is the first volume in a new cycle for XIII, and has one of those ending that leaves you not just wanting the next episode, but needing it.

XIII: For Maria is published by Cinebook.

XIII Vol 8: Thirteen to One review

The previous volume of XIII from Cinebook, Night of August Third, rounded of that particular story arc for our now not so amnesiac (but not yet fully memoried up) agent XIII.

At the beginning of this volume things have moved on somewhat, with agent Jones off doing her own thing (again!) and XIII receiving both an invitation one really cannot refuse and an interesting job offer…

And so, as is the way with this series, intrigue and double-cross are not far behind as XIII delves deeper into his past, perhaps putting more pieces together while an old foe is on his tail.

This volume, while having some great action set pieces (XIII’s infiltration of an enemy island is a particular highlight), there do seem to be a lot of talking heads senses in here which slow the pace somewhat, especially in the first third of the book.

Having said that, Hamme’s skill at dripfeeding the reader with titbits of information at a pace that could almost be described as torture. And the art by William Vance is, as usual, all but perfect.

This volume seems to be setting us up for some highly explosive shenanigans in the future with the aforementioned old foe and the new one XIII makes during the course of this tale.

Ah yes… that final scene. It had me laughing and almost punching the air. XIII is the sort of maverick spy hero that American writers only dream of creating.

Orbital 4: Ravages review

If you recall my review of Vol 3, I bemoaned the fact that it ended at the point it did.

So it was with this in mind that I opened this volume, fully expecting it to pick up exactly where the last had left off. I should have known better.

There was a moment’s confusion for me as I had to pick up the threads of the story as it did not start where I assumed it was, and the book is all the better for it.

Reading through the book again I find myself being amazed at both the pace of the story and how that pace is maintained the entire length of the 56 pages.

Plot threads and hints that have been sown in the preceding books come together here and are woven together expertly by writer Sylvain Runberg.

Art and design by Serge Pellé is extraordinary, but I have already spoke about this in the previous review, so go there to find out what I thought of the art.

No, the big thing here is the story itself. It is strong and exciting and when the big villain is revealed it is a great moment. The reader is treated to some astonishing panels of art that leave the reader feeling disorientated and not knowing exactly what the hell is going on. It is one of those scenes that is just beggin to be recreated up there on the big screen.

 And as if that is not enough, the story contains at least one hefty gut punch for the reader who will, if they respond the same way I did, not quite believe what they are reading.

The Empire of a Thousand Planets review

This one is interesting.

It is a bit of an oddity in many ways, but it is a good one.

First published in 1971, this sees space adventurers Valerian and Laureline land on the planet Syrte – capital of the titular Empire, and through an innocent transaction in a local market, become embroiled in a tale of political intrigue that may just spell the end of an empire…

So, why do I say this is odd?

It is a tale very much of its time. The art, while very good and full of incredible imagination and dynamism, is somewhat old fashioned. Design and general aesthetic wise, it is generally in the pre-Star Wars camp (more of this later).

The story too is somewhat dated. Or in particular, the story telling. It suffers, again to the modern eye, from too many speech bubbles with too many words, and too much of the tale is told as exposition in caption boxes.

I don’t want to read that, “'X', through some daring do, managed to escape to the ship” – I want to see it happen!

Having said that though, the story is not a bad one, and while the twist may be not too shocking to the 21^st Century audience, it may have been revelatory back in the day!

And back to the Star Wars reference.

While it is true some of the look is old fashioned, there is a decidedly modern feel to the story. The main characters in particular are not the usual staid or cynical spacer farers one would expect in Sci-fi of this era, they are a couple of attractive looking young adventurers. And as the editors point out at the back of the book, there are a number of occasions throughout this series of books where creators Mezieres and Christin were ahead of the curve with character and ship designs, as some of them seem to bear a resemblance to some aspects of Lucas’s behemoth.

So is this worth reading?

Of course it is, it is from Cinebook, after all. I don’t think it will be for everyone, for the reasons given above. I would like to think that this would be ideal for younger readers, but I fear that the large amounts of text may put some of them off.

So, one for the die hard sci-fi buff instead!

Orbital 3: Nomads review

Space Opera. I think that every writer may dream of creating one of their own, but few have a vision powerful enough to carry it off successfully.

In his series Orbital, I think that Sylvain Runberg has managed to pull it off.

He manages this by mixing the familiar with the exotic in perfect quantities. So here we have a story set on Earth with our main protagonists a pair of mismatched cops.

Then the waters get nice and muddied.

I was particularly taken by the human lead-Caleb. His actions and motivations in the book are… complicated. Likewise, his partner, Mezoke, who is a member of an alien race called the Sandjarr (the war between then and earth having recently ended) has some of her background revealed in this volume, which also serves to complicate her actions.

All the political wheeling and dealing is balanced out by some nice action sequences and scenes of achingly cool ships zooming across the mountains and seas.

Ah yes, the design. It always come back to the art in these Cinebook volumes, doesn’t it? The art is very good, with the slightly cartoony take on characters working very well. But it is in the design work that it really delivers. Cities and aliens and ships all battle for top spot in the wow factor as the reader turns each page to find another new wonder to drool over. It is too easy to throw about comparisons to Blade Runner (as is always done when anything approaching a tall building features in sci-fi) or to artists like Moebius. But I’m going to do it anyway.

I have a complaint though. This volume really is too short. The story does not end at what I feel is a natural volume break- in that it is not strictly a cliffhanger- although it does leave the reader desperate to read the next volume. It does read like it ended there because the page count demanded it. Thankfully, I have the next volume sitting right now on the to-be-read pile!

Western review

Now, you may or may not know this, but here at HiEx! We are big fans of the western genre- so this book would have to drop the ball in a pretty major way to be received badly!

So we can ponder how possible this is before plunging further into the review- It is published by Cinebook, written by Jean Van Hamme – who also wrote XIII, Largo Winch and Thorgal with art by Grzegorz Rosinski – who illustrated Thorgal. You just know this is going to  be good already, don’t you?

And of course you would be right. It is quite brilliant.

The art is equisite. It is painted in warm sepia tones and cool blues, giving the whole book a lovely ‘old world’ feel. The only strong, sold colour in the book is the bright red blood that accompanies any acts of violence and serves to add to their impact. And these pages are broken up by the occasional magnificent fully painted double page spread, which serves as a chapter break and sets the scene nicely for what is about to follow.

The story itself is self contained- this book is a one shot- so you have no need to worry about picking up further volumes after this one. That’s not to say you will not want any, of course!

The narrative is as twisty as you would expect from Van Hamme, and has a pitch black streak running through it. The Old West was tough, so don’t expect this to have one of those endings where they all go off into the sunset together!

So yet again, Cinebook have delivered the good with yet another classic slice of comics. It’s almost getting tedious..!

Pandora's Box vol 5: Envy review

This, the fifth book in this series of self contained stories based around the seven deadly sins is, as you can see, riffing on the sin of envy.

Things start of fairly normally, as we watch Tibor and Eva go about their day and see them heading to work in a factory. This narrative is broken up by scenes of apparently unconnected storylines featuring a preacher and a firefighter.

While at work that day… and it is there that I will have to leave this description, because to tell any more will be close to spoilering the tale, and I do not want to do that.

There is a pretty big twist a short way into the book, and it’s a good one because I really should have seen it coming. Like all good twists, it is there for all to see from the off. But like all good writers, Alcante, along with the help of some stunning work for artist Alain Henriet, slips it past the reader.

What follows is a story that is in turn high octane adventure, spy thriller, romance and a good old fashioned heart breaker.

There is so much plot crammed into this book, and so may ideas, I found it amazing that they all fitted into the relatively short length of the volume.

For my sins (see what I did there?) I have not read the previous volumes in this series- but this was enough to make we want to hunt them down. And I know you’ll feel the same.

As mentioned briefly above, the art is great (as is always the case with Cinebook), but the colouring here, by Usagi, lifts things to an even higher level- and I have just, while typing this sentence, figured out why it has a predominately green palette!

So, once more I say- forget your superhero books for a moment, stop worrying about the DC reboot and treat yourself to something truly special.

XII Vol 7: The Night of August Third review

You may remember that in the previous volume, The Jason Fly Case, we left our titular hero XIII in a bit of a sticky situation.

Well, this volume does not give the reader much time to gather their wits- after a brief recap page, we’re thrown straight into the thick of things. And what a lot of things there are too!

At the risk of sounding like I’m trying to be cleverer than you (well, I am, but never mind!), as a writer I can really appreciate the incredible job that Jean Van Hamme does with this series. He is juggling a hell of a lot of balls between the long story and character arcs and the shorter, but no less ambitious or complex, arcs of this particular adventure. It is a masterful display of how to write comics.

And talking of this adventure. Van Hamme set a lot of wheels rolling in the previous volume, and they (mostly) come to a neat halt at the end of this book, with the bittersweet  conclusion of the story where the reader comes away knowing a lot more about the identity of XIII, and yet somehow has even more mysteries to contemplate.

And the art. Well, you don’t need me to tell you, do you? I was going to say something clichéd like "William Vance brings his ‘A’ game to this book," but I suspect that ‘A’ is the only game he has. There are many artistic highlights to this volume, but the standout sections are the flashback sequences- these are presented as plain black and white line art, so there is a wonderful chance to wallow in the utter beauty of the artist’s exquisite penmanship.

I’m beginning to sound like a broken record when it comes to these Cinebook releases, but you really need to buy this.

Long John Silver Vol 2 Cinebook review

As I’m sure you remember, we reviewed the first volume of Cinebook’s Long John Silver a while back, and it was good.

So it was with eager hands that I opened volume two, ready to experience something as good as the first volume. But, it is not as good. It is, if anything, even better than volume one.

The main reason for this is the title character. In volume one, Silver doesn’t get much to do, the main character is the delightfully odious Lady Vivian Hastings. Lady H is in here too, but she takes somewhat of a backseat to Silver this time around.

As I said before, previous attempts to write a sequel/spin-off/further adventure of the Treasure Island characters, and in particular John Silver, have failed by trying to make him into an heroic or likeable lead.

Xavier Dorison, the writer here, does not fall into that trap. His Silver is not a nice man. Witness here just how ruthless he is- how far he is prepared to go to silence any rumors of piracy or just what he is prepared to sacrifice to carry out his plan.

And the art by Mathieu Lauffray is… look, I’m running out of superlatives to describe the quality of art in these Cinebook volumes- okay? 

I absolutely love the version of Silver in these books- he’s massive and muscle bound with a dark cruelty behind his eyes, and his character is brilliantly realised- he moves through this book like a shark through water.

As is now the norm with Cinebook, this ends at a surprising point in the story. Not unexpected- what happens in inevitable, I was just not expecting to see it happen when it did!

This really is beyond good.

Crusade Vol2 review

Not having read the first volume of this series, I approached this one with some trepidation. I should not have worried though. Being only the second volume in the series, it does not have the vast backstory that the Largo Winch book did. And things are explained very well in a couple of introductory pages that fill the reader in on both the story so far and some of the inspiration behind the book from author Jean Dufaux.

The story is not what I expected, which is of course a Good Thing. I was assuming that this was going to be a straight forward adventure tale set in and around the Crusades- I suppose I had Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven in mind. So when the supernatural elements of the tale were introduced, I was a bit taken aback at first. This was my own preconception, of course.

Really, I should have learned by now not to approach any Cinebook release with any sort of preconceived notion about what I was about to read!

And what did I read here?

Well, it is a densely plotted book. There is a hell of a lot going on in this volume. There is a large cast of characters, most of which are in some sort of conflict with another set of characters- and this could easily become confusing. Thankfully though, it is not, and characters are explained and motivations made clear without it ever sounding like exposition or info dumping.

The art is, no surprise here, astounding. Highlights include a jaw dropping double page spread which stops the reader in their tracks and some glorious character design. Chief among them is The Master of Machines, who I am assuming is a character introduced in this volume. He’s like something that’s walked out of a Mad Max movie by way of the inside of Clive Barker’s head.

The plot builds nicely and ends… well, it ends on a great moment. But- and you know what’s coming- not the moment I expected it to.

When will I ever learn? Cinebook do not play by the rules of your everyday comic. In fact, the more of these I read, the more I begin to wonder why people read mainstream superhero books at all…

 

Largo Winch Vol 8: Shadow review

I’d never read any of this series previous to this volume, so I did not know what to expect from this. Well, I did expect, going by the covers, to read some sort of rip roaring adventure series or something, which isn’t quite what it turned out to be.

Largo Winch is an international playboy millionaire character who gets into scrapes. And if this book is anything to go by, there scrapes are pretty dark and serious affairs and a million miles away from the romp I thought I was getting.

This volume starts with a pretty dense page of catch-up which I had to read a couple of times and then refer back to once or twice while reading the volume.

The story picks up with Winch is jail for the rape of an underage prostitute (you see- I told you it was serious stuff!) as another (I’m assuming here) major character has gone missing- presumed kidnapped.

I don’t want to get into the plot because I don’t do spoilers, but it is a complex and dense story that needs the reader to pay attention to it. My main problem was the character of Winch himself. As mentioned at the beginning of this review, he is a millionaire playboy, and as such, I did find it hard to empathise with him (hard to believe, I know!) or even particularly care about his woes. 

There is an air of smugness about him and his pals that is rather grating- but this may be deliberate, and there is always his prim and proper secretary to bring him down a peg or two.

And if that all sounds a bit negative, I would counter it by saying that the books is excellently written, as you would expect from XIII creator Jen Van Hamme. 

Philippe Francq's art is sublime. The action scenes are fiercely kinetic- there is a car chase in there that is mind blowing in execution and panels are loaded with glorious detail.

I did enjoy this book (despite what it sounded like earlier in the review!), but I suspect my preconceived notions of what I was going to read set me off on the wrong foot somewhat.

The story here seems to be the end of an arc, so I'll be interested to see where the story is going in the subsequent volumes.

The Bellybuttons Vol3 review

Now, ordinarily this would be the very last type of book I’d think of reading.

In fact, the review copy from Cinebook sat on the table for a few weeks before I picked up the courage to read it- already framing the polite ‘it’s nice but it’s not for me’ type review I was going to write for it.

I was quite wrong.

While it is true that this book does display all the tropes that I imagine exist in comics for girls of a certain age- talk of clothes and boyfriends and such- there are many other things going on too.

So, the series revolves around three friends, Vicky, Karine and Jenny. They are the clichéd trio of the sensible one, the selfish one and the stupid (and selfish) one. There is also a nice cast of secondary characters, my favourite among them being John John, the stud boyfriend Vicky and Jenny constantly fight over. John’s USP is that he never takes his motorcycle helmet off- something I found very funny until it became a plot point, and ends up being not funny at all, but something that is actually quite moving it an odd way.

The story is basically told in single page stories that come together into an over arching narrative- so the story of John John’s helmet or Karine’s trip to Africa grow as the book progresses.

And it is all very frothy and genuinely funny and the reader is happy in the warm glow of the light comedy when all of a sudden there is a moment of pitch blackness right in the middle of it. A moment that is made all the more surprising and powerful by the character’s reaction- or lack of reaction- to it.

So, all in all, this book was quite a surprise to me- and a very nice one at that.