Review by Frank Plowright
Since 21st century creators began producing new Blake & Mortimer adventures the gold standard has been the writing of Yves Sente, who embodies the spirit of the old adventures within complex period plots. That’s what writing collaborators José-Louis Bocquet and Jean-Luc Fromental also do, but theirs is a far more exact homage to the work of Edgar P. Jacobs, as are the layouts of Antoine Aubin. The writers import the distinctively wordy writing style Jacobs had, while Aubin uses Jacobs’ equally fussy artistic methods, breaking the story down into multiple small panels, rarely fewer than a dozen per page, and each inordinately detailed.
As the cover illustration and title suggest, this is prime Cold War territory, set in 1963 with Berlin a city divided into zones of influence and the tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western democracies escalating. The Berlin Wall is a relatively new construction preventing East German citizens escaping to the American, English or French-controlled areas of the city, which the US President is about to visit. Francis Blake is investigating the final words of a highly placed German agent in East Berlin, while Phillip Mortimer is invited to an archaeological dig in the Urals by an old colleague as a disturbing discovery has been made. Bocquet and Fromental show readers how the two situations are likely to be connected via the inevitable machinations of super spy Olrik, and they even manage to reference the dubious CIA experiments with LSD, albeit obliquely.
A few minor inconsistencies can be spotted, such as assassination attempts that add thrills, but have no greater purpose, but this is otherwise a tightly plotted thriller making good use of the period and its opportunities. The specialities of both Blake and Mortimer are essential, and Aubin’s art is monumentally well drawn with attention to staging and period trappings. The only slightly wrong note in what’s otherwise such a fine homage is the content being a little gruesome on a couple of occasions, something Jacobs would never have sanctioned, but Cinebook’s age rating has been adjusted to 12 + to reflect this.
