Review by Ian Keogh
By Balloon to the North Pole covers Freddy Milton’s work on Nuft from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, combining what was released as three separate books in Denmark. Minor continuity elements continue from The Great Technowhiz, when the family of small dragons first moved to the city. The subtitle only appears in the publication information, and is taken from the middle section, released in 1994.
Before we reach that, though, there’s the four episodes of ‘Animal Graffiti’. Nuft has been established as working for the local administration as a janitor, and they’re concerned about the amount of graffiti someone calling themselves Örva is producing. Nuft’s little brother Nicky decides the easiest way to prevent the constant work of cleaning it off is to prevent it appearing in the first place. When seen, in his white costume, Örva bears a great similarity to later character Bone, both very simply designed. Milton supplies a clever story very much of the type Carl Barks might have constructed for Donald Duck, constantly escalating Örva’s exploits, while also ensuring there’s sympathy. Each of the four episodes takes a different theme connected with the subject.
‘By Balloon to the North Pole’ begins with Nicky having to produce a family tree at school, but knowing the family history features many wrong ‘uns. However, maybe Nilbert Nuft did actually reach the North Pole by hot air balloon in 1907, which would be heroic. From that Milton spins out a story of Nuft retracing his ancestor’s flight and along the way discovering the truth about it. It’s a delicately plotted adventure, unpredictable and compelling, and a story of glorious redemption where Milton makes the most of the adverse conditions. It’ll give you a warm glow all over, not least because you’re not the one out in the ice and snow.
He may look like a child, and certainly is in dragon terms, but Nicky’s actually just about to turn a hundred years old. It’s a big event in a dragon’s life, but Nuft is unemployed and can’t afford to throw the type of party he feels Nicky should have. It’s all very stressful. This final story is even more tightly plotted, with the kindly Nuft so willing to help out, but only generating more bad luck before a surprising turn. Milton expands on an idea used before with Nuft adapting to suit his circumstances, and he returns several characters from the first volume in dealing with problems of running the city. The really impressive aspects are irrelevant to the actual story, but one is how Milton has Nuft becoming such a convincing equivalent of the classic comics version of Donald Duck, and the other is it being a smart twisting of It’s A Wonderful Life.
Milton uses the stories of Carl Barks as his template, but his homages are more complex than Barks’ works, so once again ranked very slightly above an all ages level, and in American terms mere mention of a red light district achieves the same. For the slightly more sophisticated young reader, though, this is two great stories and one very good one.
