Chaland Anthology No 1 - Freddy Lombard

'Chaland Anthology No. 1 - Freddy Lombard'

Humanoids Publishing, 2003, 142 pages

Written and Illustrated by Yves Chaland

Contains the following stories: The Will of Godfrey of Bouillon, The Elephant Graveyard, The Comet of Carthage.

Freddy Lombard and friends go on four adventures spanning Belgian castles and African jungles from this Eisner Award-nominated creator! These classic stories exhibit the elegant design that made Chaland a legend among cartoonists and animators worldwide. First volume of the acclaimed series by European "ligne claire" legend Yves Chaland.

French writer-artist Chaland (1957-90) is comics' Shelley or James Dean - the exceptional talent who, at the height of his powers, died in an accident. Adept at humor and adventure, he set most of his stories in the early cold war period, roughly 1948-62, to cast a slightly less nostalgic aura around plots and characterizations reminiscent of 1930s screwball-comedy and romantic-thriller movies. The Freddy Lombard stories seem to blend elements of Lubitsch, Capra, and Hitchcock. Freddy, pal Sweep, and girl friend (though not necessarily girlfriend) Dina gad about Europe and Africa on Freddy's uncles money or, when they must, the wages of short-term jobs. They hunt treasure, rescue endangered youngsters, and must be heroic at all times. With modifications to accommodate Dina's gender, they're the three musketeers, or Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and David Niven in Gunga Din, all over again. In the later adventures, while the figures remain cartoonish, the settings become more detailed.