Author: Greg, illustrated by Franquin and Jidéhem
Age: 8 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 64 colour pages
£11.99 incl VAT
ISBN: 9781800441354
Publication: May 2024
Spirou and Fantasio, paying the Count of Champignac a visit, discover that he is hiding an imposing visitor: a towering Russian genius who has created an anti-gravity ray. Unfortunately, the KGB is already hunting him, because he’s decided he wants to keep his invention secret. And to make things worse, his former associate, who knows almost as much as he about the ray, has been captured by Chinese authorities. Spirou decides it is vital to free the prisoner …
ISBN: 9781800441354
Regarding frequency of this title 18 came out in August 2021 and 19 in January 2023 and 20 was in September 2023 and I mention this for a specific reason; with this series (apart from where they refer to a past event or villain) the delay does not matter as each comic album has its own self contained story.
We have our more-than-hapless adventurers (and Marsupilami) getting into all kinds of situations and all wonderfully drawn. The visual gags abound and the colour work is as nice as you could wish for. What I am still amazed at is the amount of detail in each panel with 7-8 panels on some pages the backgrounds can be as busy as the foreground. Last page was a quirky bit of fun.
What is still a wonder is that we have had 20 Spirou and Fantasio adventures in comic albums -Running Scared, Virus, Wrong Head, Who Will Stop Cyanide? The Clockmaker and the Comet, Shadow of the Z, Z Rises Again, The Visitor from the Mesozoic to name a few and all just waiting to be purchased and read and chuckled over! Twenty years ago people in the UK hardly knew what a comic album was and now Cinebook has deluged us with them!
To think my generation looks back on Buster, Valiant, Dandy and Vulcan but in future adults will recall growing up with Cinebook albums!
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