The Bluecoats No 1: Robertsonville Prison
The Bluecoats No 2: The Navy Blues
By Raoul Cauvin and Willy Lambil
Published by Cinebooks.
Cinebooks is a UK publisher currently releasing a line that re-prints classic European comic albums. These are all-ages comics like Lucky Luke and Yakari. My favorite of these series is The Bluecoats; the on-going mis-adventures of two Union soldiers during the American Civil War. Two volumes have been released in English with more to come.
Sergeant Chesterfield and Corporal Blutch are very much of the Laurel & Hardy model of classic comedy duos. Blutch the dimmer of the two and often the one who gets the pair in trouble. Chesterfield is the more experienced solder of the duo and the perpetual straight man who is tasked with getting into trouble with Blutch only to get him out of it. The stories move fast with rising calamities for the boys to face. There’s plenty of battle action to provide a background for the slapstick set pieces. While it may be a bit off-putting to see the War Between the States used as a backdrop for silliness, I think we can excuse the Europeans if our bloodiest war seems rather distant to them. Think of this more along the lines of Buster Keaton’s silent classic The General.
In the first volume the hapless pair find themselves behind Confederate lines and sent to the notorious Robertsonville Prison. Their various attempts to escape do little more than frustrate their captors until the boys hatch a foolproof (even for them) plan to free themselves.
In the second outing, Chesterfield and Blutch’s antics find them fighting in the Union navy. The landlubbers create havoc for both sides but, as always, come out heroes in the finish.
Willy Lambil’s drawings are highly detailed and done in the big-foot humor style perfected in Belgium. Think of Tintin or Asterix and you get the idea. Lambil provides expertly rendered weapons of war and panoramic battle scenes that provide a fully-realized world for the action to take place in.
The stories, by Raoul Cauvin, are briskly paced and filled with sight gags. These are expertly structured farces loaded with twists and surprises and plenty of suspense. Cauvin writes the equivalent of a feature film in terms of plot, characterization and resolution.
The books in this series are appropriate for readers of all ages. While it deals with a dark chapter in American history the images don’t really move past cartoon violence. Highly recommended for the kids. They might even learn a little history without realizing it.
G.I. JOE WEEKEND IS COMING!
