In Review: Lady S - Game Of Fools

Suzan Fitzroy, writer Jean Van Hamme and artist Philippe Aymond's reluctant spy who is codenamed Lady S, returns in Game Of Fools, the third of her books from Cinebook, originally published in the French weekly comic Spirou before being complied into the album Jeu De Dupes in 2007.

Suzan and her adoptive father James Fitzroy, who is an American ambassador without portfolio, are on holiday at his villa in France. Unknown to them the CIA have discovered that Suzan is linked to the mysterious European counter-terrorist organisation that, despite sharing the same objectives, the CIA has little information on and is therefore suspicious of. In an attempt to learn more about this organisation, the CIA stage her father's abduction by 'Islamic terrorists' in an attempt to force Suzan's handlers into the open.

Believing her father kidnapped, Suzan's handler Orion, who has been injured by the CIA, puts her on the run to apparent safety at a retirement home in a remote mountain pass. With the CIA's operatives hot on her trail, Suzan soon discovers that there is more to this retirement home than meets the eye while the French police begin to suspect that the on-the-run daughter of the kidnapped American ambassador is somehow involved with a notorious cat-burglar.

In Game Of Fools Suzan/Shania/Lady S is presented with a situation that has the potential to expose not just her spy life but also her criminal past as she attempts to find the retirement home where Orion told her to find a new contact known as Betelgeuse. Otherwise the book as a relatively linear plot of a girl on the run being passed from handler to handler until she reaches her destination followed by the big reveal of what that destination is hiding.

Whether this revelation is actually good for the series is debatable although there are another three French albums waiting to be translated. One of the strengths of the previous Lady S books was the fact that writer Jean Van Hamme left Orion's organisation mysterious and that Suzan did not really work for them as much as being blackmailed into doing things by them. Indeed the organisation is not even named in the previous books yet in this one its name appears in the very first panel of the book. So in Game Of Fools everything is revealed and Suzan asked to formally work for the uninspiringly acronymed CATRIG (Centre For Anti-Terrorism Research and Intelligence Gathering) which somehow sounds so much more interesting in the original French book as CIRCAT (Centralised Information And Research Centre Against Terrorism).

Philippe Aymond's artwork remains as grounded in reality as in the previous books. His clear artwork, as ever, portrays Suzan as a pretty young woman living in a real world of trains, truckers and motorcyclists rather than portraying her with a distorted body image and capable of physical feats that would put any real person in hospital.

Game Of Fools is not the strongest of the Lady S books translated to date but it does open up the series so that the reader has a better idea of the background to Orion and the organisation that he, and by default Suzan, works for. Whether this is a good thing for the plotlines of future books remains to be seen.

• There are more details of the Lady S books on the Cinebook website.

• There are more details of the French Lady S books on the Dupuis website (in English).

• There are more Lady S images, as well as preparatory sketches for the books, on Philippe Aymond's blog at http://philippeaymond.blogspot.com

Cinebook Release Their Summer/Autumn 2011 Catalogue

The Canterbury based graphic novel publisher Cinebook have just released their catalogue for the second half of 2011 and it shows their continued dedication to bringing previously untranslated Franco-Belgian bandes dessinees albums to the English speaking world with an impressive selection of titles.

The twin backbones of Cinebook's releases continue to be the bimonthly releases of both the humorous Lucky Luke titles, written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Morris, and the XIII adventure titles, by writer Jean Van Hamme and artist William Vance. By the end of 2011, Cinebook will have published 10 of the by then 20 XIII albums and 32 of the 76 Lucky Luke albums - taking both series far beyond any previously published English language translations by other companies.

In addition they will continue publishing the new series Long John Silver and Crusade as well as returning to older favourites like Lady S and Thorgal. The Recounts aviation documentary series continues with Cinebook Recounts The Wright Brothers, a title previously scheduled in January 2009 as Biggles Recounts The Wright Brothers but which got cancelled due to events between the estate of WE Johns and the original French publisher that were beyond Cinebook's control.

Science fiction titles are also coming to the fore again with more Orbital and Valerian books as well as a return to the Worlds of Aldebaran series by Leo. Having published all five of the Aldebaran cycle from this series followed by all five of the Betelgeuse cycle, October will see the beginning of the Antares cycle.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the new titles will be Darwin's Diaries, the first book of which will be published in September and which has the police asking the famous naturalist to investigate a crime that may involve a legendary creature.

• Cinebook will be attending the Bristol International Comic Expo next weekend, 14/15 May 2011, and their latest catalogue is available as a PDF download from their website.

• Lucky Luke Books on amazon.co.uk

• XIII Books on amazon.co.uk

• Lady S Graphic Novels on amazon.co.uk

• Thorgal Books on amazon.co.uk

• Long John Silver Graphic Novels on amazon.co.uk

In Review: Lady S - Latitude 59 Degrees North

Born as Shania in Estonia, now a naturalised American as Suzan, while blackmailed into espionage activities as Lady S, the leading lady of writer Jean Van Hamme and artist Philippe Aymond's Lady S series has such a complicated back story that it took two full French albums to tell it. Fortunately when Cinebook translated them into English, the company published them as one book, Here's To Suzie! Despite the complexity of what has gone before Van Hamme provides everything that the new reader would need to know in a scene setting single page catch-up before launching into the main story of Latitude 59 Degrees North.

Suzan is in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, which is located 59 degrees north of the equator, with her diplomat father who is due to be attending the annual Nobel Prizes presentation, a night when when the eyes of the world turn to Sweden. Whilst enjoying the attentions of a Russian journalist, Suzan is told by her spy handler that she must acquire documents from the hotel room of a Pakistani businessman who is already under surveillance. The documents give the details of a plot to kidnap and hold the Nobel laureates for a ransom. However it all seems a little too easy and the authorities become suspicious that they may have been feed a red herring somewhere along the line.

Van Hamme's plotting takes the reader through several loops in the story that all tie up neatly in the end while Aymond's detailed artwork sets off the Swedish scenes, be they the historic buildings of Stockholm or the frozen shack on the front cover. The story intertwines the Americans, the Swedes, the Russian journalist and the Pakistani businessman into an tale of international intrigue and apparently political kidnapping. It even offers a little more detail on Suzan's handler Orion who, while effectively blackmailing her into working for him, is actually on the side of law and order. It is perhaps as close to a modern day Modesty Blaise as you can get.





I described the previous Lady S book as "simply one of the best bandes dessinees that I have read" so I approached this one with a little trepidation, wondering if it could stand up to my anticipation of it. I'm very glad to say that Latitude 59 Degrees North is an excellent continuation of the life of the woman who prefers to be known as Suzan Fitzroy.

• There are more details of the British Lady S books on the Cinebook website.

• There are more details of the six French Lady S books on the Dupuis website (in French).

• Jean Van Hamme, the writer of Lady S and many other bandes dessinees such as Largo Winch, Thorgal and XIII, will be in London on 5 May 2010. He will be signed copies of his books at the French Bookshop, 28 Bute Street, South Kensington (close to the South Kensington underground station) beginning at 5:30 pm. This will be followed by a question and answer session plus a screening of the Largo Winch film at the Institut Francais Cine Lumiere at 17 Queensberry Place, South Kensington beginning at 8:30 pm. The evening concludes with a launch party for Cinebook's XIII series at London's Movida club.

In Review: Lady S - Here's To Suzie!

If you are looking at the cover and thinking that Lady S could to be a story along the lines of Modesty Blaise then you are not far off the mark. Like Modesty, Suzan Fitzroy has a complicated, and not entirely legal, back story which has brought her into contact with shadowy authorities who, in a contemporary setting, use her talents when the law needs to be bent.

When the parents of twelve year old Estonian Shania Rivkas are detained by the KGB, Shania’s mother gives her life to allow her daughter to escape. She finds sanctuary with a local thief, Anton Grivenko, who teaches her his trade and they eventually try to escape the dangers of the new Russia with Shania using the stolen passport of New Zealander Suzan McKenzie. In the West, some years later, she eventually meets an American diplomat, James Fitzroy, whom her father knew and who, in a nicely plotted section which completes the initially puzzling back-story, adopts her as his American daughter Suzan Fitzroy. The main plot however concerns the diplomatic and espionage concerns over a document stolen from the Turkish embassy in Brussels as the Turks attempt to cover up something that would impede their membership of the EU.

The Lady S series of bande dessinee albums written by Jean Van Hamme and illustrated by Philippe Aymond began in 2004 and have reached number 5 in France where they are published by Dupuis. In the UK, Cinebook have translated the first two albums, Na Zdorovié, Shaniouchka! and A Ta Santé, Suzie!, into English and published them as one book under the second album's cover and translated title of Here's To Suzie!, although the first album's Russian title means much the same with her Estonian name. Since the first album’s cover shows a KGB agent executing Suzan’s mother it has to be said that the second album’s cover, which shows her as a cat burglar, is a better representation of the contents and considerably more shop friendly for a UK and US market.

Van Hamme's plotting is fast and complex and the twists build as the story continues. While these were originally published in France as two separate albums the story runs seamlessly from the first to the second and, as with the Cinebook publication of Aldebaran, Lady S works better for having the two original albums published as one British book. Aymond's artwork is detailed and dynamic when it needs to be, with his colour palates differing between the contemporary western settings and the Russian flash-backs.

Considering that most European creators are not well known in the UK it would be nice to see Cinebook adding some basic information on both Jean Van Hamme and Philippe Aymond in the book, even if it was only the minimal amount that Rebellion put into their 2000AD reprint books. Van Hamme has many bande dessinee series to his credit including the newer Blake and Mortimer stories and XIII as well as two other series that Cinebook publish, Largo Winch and Thorgal, so it seems surprising that there isn’t some sort of bio which would point readers at these other Cinebook releases.

My only complaint would be a minor one. The book spells its female lead’s first name in the same way the original French script does, as Suzan. Since that name comes from a New Zealand passport one would expect that the name should have been translated to Susan in the English adaptation as it does look odd with a “z”.

However it does not detract from a well plotted and well drawn book. Lady S – Here’s To Suzie! is simply one of the best bande dessinees that I have read.


• Buy Lady S Volume 1: Here's to Suzie! from amazon.co.uk

• More details of Lady S can be found on the Cinebook website.

• More details of the original French books can be found on the Dupuis website

• More details of foreign language albums that have been published in English can be found on the Euro Comics translations website.