Running Scared by Tome
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This series of ‘Spirou and Fantasio’ spans decades. I’ve read only a handful. The few have been brilliant in plot, story and illustration. The closest anything has gotten close to this is the work of Will Eisner with his ‘Spirit’ series and his ‘Contract with God’, though the latter lacks the depth of just this volume of the two adventurers.. That’s an odd thing to write in that Eisner’s entire reason for producing his first of a series of graphic novels was a depth of faith and life.

The tale starts one way and then unfolds with more and more involved. The involvement has the characters further defined. The supporting characters are as good or better. Human and non-human. Each has a role,though all could just be on for the ride. Nothing is involved that doesn’t hook into the overall story. Just brilliant in writing and detail.

Part of the brilliance is in the details drawn. For instance, at one point the guide spirits a gun from some bad guys. This isn’t known until after the encounter illustrated pages before. Going back to look for the theft, the actual theft is not shown, but the panels of bad guy with gun, a spurious hug by the guide and then the tiniest detail of the bad guy with an open open holster flap two panels later. The details are illustrated with he simplest care. Sometimes not being shown at all. While traveling to seek their goal, the group traverses mountainous area. the beauty is in the simplicity that tells what otherwise would have been pages of description. The area the good guy’s vehicle is in, the expanse beyond in layers of mere line indicating mountain peaks at various distances, some village of few lines. Quite a task to pull off in one panel.

This is technique is repeated later involving an exchange with still another group of guys, the rebels, as the good guys are herded off revealing distance of where the bad guys are, the good guys had been, a distance of travel and where the group could look backwards to the distance. Seeing the illustrated version tells all. Brilliant work.

The largest draw back is that this is a two part tale. Though, considering this result, I have no doubt the entire tale gets even better.

Bottom line: i recommend this book: 10 out of 10 points.

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