Over the Rainbow   (20.07.12)
  

  And so our dreadful Summer rolls on. And as you may know, The
  Hound has been attempting to escape the rainy day blues via
  his books, DVDs and blu-rays, and he's already made a particularly
  diverting armchair trip to Haythornsthwaite with Sam and his Magic
  Ball. Well, now, he's gone further. All the way to the Hindu Kush,
  in fact, with Julius Chancer and the rest of the magnificent cast
  in Garen Ewing's extraordinarily immersive, finally completed,
  three-part British Bande Dessine, "The Adventures of Julius
  Chancer: The Rainbow Orchid".

  

  If you're a regular Toonhound reader you'll know that The Hound
  has been following the progress of Garen's rip-roaring comic strip
  story for quite some time. But we'd better refresh things before
  we start, so we'll remind you that this dashing period adventure
  is presented in three parts, published separately at the moment,
  (here's part one, part two, part three if you're Amazon-bound) but
  soon to be amalgamated into one standalone volume. Julius
  Chancer follows in the footsteps of such classic European titans
  as Tintin and Yuko Tsuno. But, although he is fashioned in that
  same ligne claire style, Julius' adventure is completely, indefatigably
  British. It's packed full of beautifully observed period trappings,
  there's a colourful assortment of Poirot-esque toffs and colonials,
  a delicious femme fatale, a dash of old Hollywood glamour, and a
  stiff spoonful of Rider-Haggard fantasy. And as you can probably 
  tell, this reader has lapped up every panel. What's more, he's also
  bought all three parts of this magnificent adventure direct from the
  author, with additional sketches on the preface pages. And they
  really are books to treasure.

   

  The wait between the three publications has been hugely
  frustrating, but it's excusable, because this kind of intense,
  refined storytelling takes a serious amount of time to put together.
  Just how many hours has it taken Garen to get this far?

  Suffice it to say, being able to read the tale in one sitting has been
  a joy, and it gets this reader thinking that the story will work even
  better as one straight volume, where you can keep track of the
  myriad characters more easily. The cliffhangers between the three
  parts aren't that "cliffy" or "hanging" anyway, if truth be told.
  Even so, in one volume, or three parts, Julius Chancer holds his own
  throughout, dogged and determined even when everyone around
  him is double-crossing, or dirty dealing, or just plain bereft of hope.
  And the fantasy is so skillfully restrained - it's never too fantastic, as
  our heroes search for a legendary lost realm in the Himalayas.
  Garen's thought through all the language and the codices.
  It really is high adventure, of the very best kind.

  Where will Garen and Julius be taking us next? - The Hound can
  not wait to find out!...
  
                                                      More: The Rainbow Orchid

 
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