Cinebook the 9th Art: STORY WITHOUT A HERO /TWENTY YEARS LATER

I am in a bit of a quandary with one of these new books as I will explain further on.

Authors: Dany & Van Hamme

Age: 12 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 56 colour pages
Publication: February 2019

ISBN: 9781849184144 
 £7.99 inc. VAT
https://www.cinebook.co.uk/story-without-a-hero-p-4360.html

A plane from a South American company crashes in the jungle. Only half of the passengers and crew survive. Some businessmen, a university professor, a steward, an aging movie star, a banana republic general, a young boy and his nanny... All these varied personalities will have to find a way to unite and work together to survive.

 But who should they listen to? 

Who should they follow? 

Who can they trust? 

And is relief even on its way?

The name on the cover is Jean Van Hamme.  That in and of itself tells you that the writingf is going to be good.  But I get jaded.  Really? A crashed plane in a jungle with a few survivors?

Yaaaaawn.

Also I was unsure about the art style involved but I review EVERYTHING sent in so I had to do my job and read both books. How wrong can you be -I will admit that the casual look and story premiss mislead me!

Dany's art style works well in telling the story and Van Hamme does not work with anything but the best so...I was a dumb ass. The layout and scene settings  work very well and  there were elements in the  art that reminded me of Valerian and Laureline artist Jean Claude Mezieres and then Michael Ploog.

The story itself could have gone several ways but it chose a rather novel route. With Van Hamme the one thing you can guarantee is that there will be twists and there are right up until the final scene.  However, I cannot reveal too much or the whole story is ruined and that includes who survives.

It is Van Hamme so, yes, I am going to recommend it.

Authors: Dany & Van Hamme
Age: 12 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 64 colour pages
Publication: March 2019

ISBN: 9781849184151

£8.99 inc. VAT

Twenty years have passed since the survivors of the Corsair crash emerged from the jungle. But suddenly they begin dropping like flies. Rafalowski, the cowardly pianist, vanishes. Miss Taylor, the nanny, drowns. Draillac, who was 12 at the time of the accident, is kidnapped and believed dead... His abductors are actually members of an intelligence service and staged his death ... to save his life – someone is trying to eliminate all the survivors...

And  the above story blurb from this follow-up story is all I can really tell you.  There are twists and turns, betrayals, redemption and...a lot more and this is a 64 pages comic album. I would highly recommend it because it is Van Hamme and Dany (don't panic this is a two book series so no long, lingering wait for parts 3, 4 and 5!).

The problem is that, according to Cinebook's site, this is currently unavailable but it is expected to be in stock soon so you can advance order.  Obviously I am not going to write anything that might spoil a reader's enjoyment and I do recommend these two books.

It is good to see Cinebook publishing shorter series and, man,(blushy fan boy stuff) do I need to get Van Hamme's autograph at some point!

https://www.cinebook.co.uk/twenty-years-later-p-4363.html