Cinebook Ltd: MICHEL VAILLANT - LEGENDARY RACES 1: IN THE HELL OF INDIANAPOLIS

 

PAPERBACK
Authors: Denis Lapière & Vincent Dutreuil
Age: 12 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 48 colour pages
£11.99 inc. VAT

ISBN: 9781800441149

https://www.cinebook.co.uk/michel-vaillant-legendary-races-1-in-the-hell-of-indianapolis-p-4526.html

Indianapolis, 1966. The Vaillant team is there to prepare for the legendary Indianapolis 500-Mile Race. The competition promises to be fierce, but the two drivers, Michel Vaillant and Steve Warson, are confident. Soon they meet Rhona, a charming young woman who’s being harassed by sleazy individuals. The two men don’t know it yet, but they, too, will become the targets of underhanded manoeuvres … in a race that is about to go down in history as one of the most dramatic ever!

Okay, my first introduction to this series was in Zack comic in Germany in the 1970s and racing was still a big sport full of glamour before all the accusations of rigging and so on. I looked at this book and had to ask myself whether this would still be an interesting read because I was quite sure I was going to say "Damn, I used to think this was good!"

It is good. There is, of course, the race and everything that takes place around it. There is the beautiful woman with a suspect past and knows about corruption and the mob. You can tell this counts as "historical" when Rhona notes that the FBI denies the existence of the mob and organised crime and is more interested in "commies". That is quite true and why J Edgard Hoover flatly denied there was organised crime...well, let's not get into conspiracy theory here.

Oh...Graham Hill has a cameo and if you have no idea who he is Google him. One of the last of the "Grit your teeth and take the bend at dangerous speeds"! This was a big dose of nostalgia and besides the race and beautiful mysterious woman there are fist fights -back in the day drivers were tough sods and a lot of the fist fights were covered up but this is, remembering that it is fiction, a good portrayal of the times -rather like the movie Le Mans (1971).

We used to have comic strips about rally drivers and the odd racing strip (they seem to take over from the decades of motorbike racing strips.  Yes, I would recommend this because of nostaklgia and the fact that it is still a good read.