Review by Frank Plowright

Either writer Yves Sente or his the French publishers of the original edition have come up with a peculiarly uninspired title for Blake and Mortimer’s latest period adventure. It refers to a letter sent by Olrik, the spy and terrorist who’s plagued our titular duo so often in the past. In fact, it’s a rare story when he’s not somehow connected with the threat Blake and Mortimer face.

Signed: Olrik begins with Olrik in jail allocated new cellmates associated with a proactive Cornish separatist movement causing the British authorities some concern as Prince Charles is shortly due to visit the most Southerly English county. As part of his intelligence service duties Commander Francis Blake is given an unreasonable five days to end their activities. Co-incidentally engineer Professor Philip Mortimer is to test his new compact manned drilling machine in the region.

As ever, Sente and artist André Juillard research the mid-1950s period impeccably, down to contemporary problems, uniforms and cars in the service of a complicated plot pulling together assorted elements in watertight fashion. In addition to the Free Cornwall Group, we’re treated to the historical theories of the region under King Arthur, a seemingly penitent Olrik wanting out of jail, and violence against then-recent immigrants to the UK from lands the UK once occupied.

Sente’s moving dedication opens the book, indicating this was Juillard’s final work. While he models his art on that of series creator Edgar Jacobs, he’s actually a finer artist, with a greater delicacy and a better instinct for pacing stories. Jacobs’ methods were work-intensive, using multiple small panels packed with dialogue, and he learned from his time on Tintin that new illustrations for each new panel are more desirable than variations on a single illustration. Juillard takes this to a logical conclusion, with each panel individually composed.

Blake and Mortimer themselves are well characterised as always, with Sente capturing the general reverence for authority in 1950s Britain along with their upstanding conviction of doing the right thing. However, as Juillard’s last work, it’s a shame Signed: Olrik isn’t among the best of the Sente/Juillard collaborations. By any standards it’s good, and it may be the closest Sente has come to channelling Jacobs’ individual form of storytelling, but as is sometimes the case with Sente on Blake & Mortimer, the workings are transparent. Seasoned mystery readers ought to guess the identity of Free Cornwall’s always obscured leader, too many conversations are seen to be overheard by lurkers, and the railing against immigrants transmits as bolted-on social conscience. It’s contemporary as a very narrow view of national identity resurfaces in 2020s England, but it’s only dealt with in passing.

As the series standards are so high, Signed: Olrik only falls short when compared with its peaks. By any other standards it’s a very capable period piece.