Review by Frank Plowright

There’s an irony reading this 2010 publication in English, as it promotes the variety of funding available through European Union grants. Since departing the European Union, they no longer apply in the UK.

Rudi Miel presents four stories of people given a second chance via a European Union grant or loan. Dutch Julie has alienated herself from her mother, and now struggles with a small child of her own; Hungarian Viktor is blind and completing a university thesis on Flaubert while playing violin in pubs at night; in Portugal Pedro has opened a restaurant and been estranged from his parents for decades, and Irish Fianne’s past affects her present when she’s blamed for someone else’s thefts.

Each character is allocated to a different artist. The weakest is Vandya (Savatier) on the opening story (sample spread left), yet she’s the only artist retained for the sequel and has worked on series since. Christian Durieux on Viktor’s story is actually simpler, yet more effective in inducing sympathy for the characters, but already had a career stretching back twenty years by 2010. Sylvain Savoia (sample right) is the strongest artist on the weakest story, conveying Pedro’s surly personality and his way of life with some delicacy. Gihef (Jean-François Baudot) is more expressionistic, but not great at making the pages look interesting, with bland, dark backgrounds.

These are decent little dramas, if in places a little too obvious, especially in the case of Pedro, whose attitude toward his parents isn’t well enough explained. Three of the four protagonists are able to find the support to reset their lives, while Viktor’s progress is eased via EU financing, although the inclusion of the opportunities is relatively subtle, and in a couple of cases wouldn’t be at all obvious without knowing the purpose of Take Two.

Any opportunity of EU funding has passed for UK readers, but it’s presumably still available to residents of countries within the EU, and Take Two prioritises reaching people via comics who might otherwise miss out. Only used copies are sold through mainstream online booksellers, but copies of Take Two are still available via the EU bookshop, or you can download the digital version for free, along with subsequent publication Jump Start looking at how the funding helps four others.