Cinebook The 9th Art: Valerian and Laureline -Memories From The Futures

Authors: Mézières & Christin

Age: 12 years and up

Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm

Number of pages: 56 colour pages

Publication: February 2018

ISBN: 9781849183383

Price: £7.99 inc. VAT

Even though Valerian and Laureline’s adventures have come to an end, there are still many chapters that haven’t been told yet. Simple episodes, post-scriptums to their main stories, moments of their lives seen through the eyes of their friends, their allies, or even their enemies. Here’s a collection of vignettes that will cast a new light – sometimes funny, sometimes touching – on the saga of our heroes.

Now, I think if you have visited CBO often enough you know that I am a big fan of Valerian and Laureline. Going back to when I first read the stories in the old Zack comic in Germany.  I even purchased the only three editions to have appeared in English.  And when Cinebook announced they were publishing the series I nearly flipped.

According to Europcomics:

"Memories From the Futures, 22nd volume of the series ‘Valerian and Laureline,’ is a superb homage to a saga that has turned upside-down both our vision of the future and the role of women in comics. The saga had come to a close in the previous volume with a temporal loop to which only the authors hold the key. In this new volume, authors Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières play the role of intergalactic tourists, revisiting some of their heroes’ most remarkable adventures. In addition to adding a few sublime pages to Alflolol, they return to Central Point, as well as taking us back to a time when Laureline, a wild young woman, had yet to be seduced by spatio-temporal agent Valerian. Back to the future in comics’ first space opera!"

I cannot believe that I am writing this but my whole reaction to the book was "meh". To me it seemed like one of those TV series filler episodes -flashbacks galore. I like the art but it really just did seem to be a filler. I've read it twice and feel the same and that frustrates me. Perhaps, in a future reading, I’ll feel different I have no idea but usually getting a book in this series gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.