Review by Frank Plowright
The Gold of Boavista features stunningly expressive cartooning from Batem, and a decent comedy story about two young boys on the run with some passing comments about the ecological cost of mining from Yann. What it doesn’t feature, though, is much in the way of the Marsupilami, and the cute, smart creature with a tail as long as a football pitch is presumably what most buyers of a Marsupilami graphic novel want to see.
Donald is the son of an American diplomat to Palombia, abducted by a bunch of illegal gold prospectors working deep in the jungle. He witnesses their dangerous methods first hand, while having nothing of the street smarts of the kids alongside whom he’s been kidnapped. Fortunately for him, when disaster strikes a native kid named Solario spontaneously rescues Donald and grabs a bag of gold nuggets before they escape into the jungle.
Of course, the jungle is precarious for adults, never mind for relatively young boys, but fortunately they have the Marsupilami looking out for them. Yann and Batem show this subtly as he deals with hostile wildlife. The way Batem draws the surreptitious help is special, really selling the jokes well, and for the remainder he supplies first rate cartooning communicating the entire emotional spectrum. Every scene is dotted with assorted wild animals, and he revels in supplying river piranhas.
Beyond setting up the jokes there’s little more to Yann’s plot than a prolonged chase sequence. Toward the end Noah, the former clown introduced in Black Mars turns up with his menagerie in a boat for a timely rescue. Perhaps Yann based him on someone the French speaking audience would recognise, but to anyone reading in English he’s just a bizarrely eccentric convenience, and claiming he’s always been a bit mad doesn’t explain enough.
This is an adventure than can be read an enjoyed on its own with the children rescued, but they still have to escape the jungle, and the way out is revealed in The Temple of Boavista, thankfully with considerably more actual Marsupilami on view.
