Review by Frank Plowright

Starting with an American diplomat’s son being kidnapped in Palombia’s capital, Yann weaved a long chase scene with plenty of problems all the way through The Gold of Boavista. It was nevertheless disappointing for Yann concentrating too much on the slapstick of the chases to include much of the Marsupilami. Thankfully, that’s rectified in this continuation. There’s more than enough room to follow up on almost everyone from the previous volume, enough space in fact to introduce some new characters to the madness, and there’s plenty of Marsupilami.

Actually, not only is there plenty of Marsupilami, there are several really joyous pages of the Marsupilami just larking about, doing what the Marsupilami can, and Batem’s cartooning is the usual delight otherwise. The Boavista temple is in the middle of the jungle, and Batem supplies a distressed and overgrown Incan wonder, and for a couple of panels a great selection of friezes. Colour plays a large part, with a glowing effect important, and that’s well conveyed by colourist Cerise.

There’s a greater injection of plot to The Treasure of Boavista, although it has the spliff-influenced sniff of something conceived on the fly almost page by page as Yann swerves all over the shop. While he’s still around in the early sequences, Noah the clown has a far smaller role as what develops is essentially a long in coming resolution of an old business dispute, taking place in the Palombian jungle. Donald and Solario are the glue that joins most of the characters, with the Marsupilami still looking out for them to some degree as they have a tendency to wander. Elements are introduced and then dropped, with the frogs seen laughing on the cover promising so much and delivering so little, as Yann seems to have forgotten about them.

This is still one long shaggy dog story, but a better one than the opening half. Yann’s only around for one more volume, titled The Butterfly and the Treetop Squid. Stoned again?