In Review: Long John Silver - The Emerald Maze

Cinebook have reached the third in writer Xavier Dorison and artist Mathieu Lauffray's Long John Silver series, The Emerald Maze, set some 20 years after the events of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

Lady Vivian Hastings' husband has found the fabled treasure city of Guiana-Capac in South America and sent the native Moxtechica to England with a request for her to hire a ship and crew and come to him. Vivian hires John Silver and his pirates so that she can take control of the Neptune from its rightful captain when she needs to and, during an immense storm, Silver has lead a bloody mutiny.

In the quiet aftermath of the storm, Silver takes the captaincy of the Neptune and navigates the ship from the ocean, between the sea cliffs and into the rivers of the continent. As the Neptune sails upriver through the rainforest to find the lost city and the Nimrod, Lord Hastings' ship, and its crew, the Neptune's crew have to face the challenges of this new and unknown continent.

Quite how a ocean-going sailing ship can sail against the flow of the river when surrounded by towering rainforest trees is not something to dwell on here as the fast moving action of the previous book turns into a relatively relaxed quest through the emerald maze of the rainforest in search of the Nimrod which, considering it is on the front cover, we already know that they will find. Yet despite this the story maintains its grip on the reader as this part of the ongoing story becomes an exercise in characterisation and scheming.

Writer Dorison brings Lady Vivian back to the fore after sidelining her somewhat in the previous book as she reasserts some authority amongst the pirates and impresses even Silver. It is she who boards the hulk of the Nimrod to find her husband's journal that tells of the final days of the ship while the Neptune's crew investigate the buildings on the shore. Artist Lauffray delivers a quite beautiful painted cover while his internal art maintains the quality of the previous two books with striking two page spreads to indicate the vastness of the ocean and, once through the dangerous sea cliffs, the vastness of the interior of the South American continent with its rainforest.

Unusually for Cinebook the next album in the continuing Long John Silver series has not yet been published in French. Indeed at the time of writing it is not even listed as a pre-order on Amazon.fr, although Amazon.de gives a German release date of March 2012, and it is therefore not scheduled by Cinebook in the first six months of 2012. That seems a long time to wait for the next book but it is, of course, typical of the gap between the French albums.

Long John Silver - The Emerald Maze maintains the quality of the previous two books in the series while setting the scene for the fourth book that, based on this one, will be highly anticipated.

• There are more details of the Long John Silver series, along with preview pages of each book, on the Cinebook website.

• There are more details of the original French language versions of Long John Silver on the Dargaud website (in French).

• There are more details of Mathieu Lauffray's artwork on his website and many Long John Silver illustrations on his blog including this step-by-step image of his excellent Emerald Maze cover.

In Review: Long John Silver - Neptune

Literature's best known pirate returns in Neptune, the second book of the ongoing story of Long John Silver written by Xavier Dorison and illustrated by Mathieu Lauffray. In the first book Lady Vivian Hastings employed Silver and his men to work for her aboard her brother-in-law's ship which is taking them to South America and the lost treasure city of Guiana-Capac.

While Silver beguiles the crew with his stories, Lady Vivian's maid is killed in what appears to have been an accident below decks. As the tension on the Neptune increases, young Jack O'Kief is blamed for the death and sentenced to the lash. Refusing to admit to something that he knows was not his fault, O'Keif passes out after 10 lashes and is taken below to recover before another 10 lashes the following day. That night as Neptune sails into an enormous storm and, threatened by Doctor Livesey that he will expose him, Silver makes his move to take control of the ship.

The previous book had both time and geography to play with in the setting up of the story and the locales it took the reader through before boarding the ship. Writer Xavier Dorison used them well to set up both the story and its vast array of characters and their various motives. By contrast the events in Neptune take place in both the confines of the ship itself and in over little more than a 24 hour period, yet in no way does this detract from the story. Indeed if anything this adds to the powder keg atmosphere on board the ship as certain characters jockey for power and the body count rises.

Dorison's script is well served by Mathieu Lauffray's moody artwork. From one night, through the next day and into the stormy night beyond within the confines of a sailing ship, Lauffray's work is never once repetitive and never less than exciting. As the wind rises the visual angles within his panels take on a life of their own as the ship sways to both the external and internal storms taking place.

Long John Silver - Neptune continues to build to the foundations laid in the first book and raises this series from the great to the excellent. For readers who enjoyed The Chimpanzee Complex for its complex and mature scripting along with fine artwork in a limited run series, then Long John Silver really should be you next port of call.

There are more details of the Long John Silver series on the Cinebook website.

There are more details of the original French language versions of Long John Silver on the Dargaud website (in French).

In Review: Long John Silver - Lady Vivian Hastings

Long John Silver is yet another new bandes dessinee series to be translated into English for the first time by Cinebook. Written by Xavier Dorison and illustrated by Mathieu Lauffray, it is described not as a sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island but as an homage to it set some 20 years after the return of the Hispaniola to England at the end of the novel.

Lord Byron Hastings has been so fascinated by the legend of the El Dorado-like lost city of Guiana-Capac that he has spent the last three years in the Americas attempting to find it. Meanwhile back in England his wife, Lady Vivian, has been enjoying herself so much that she is now penniless, pregnant and attempting to lure one of her rich lovers into marrying her after she has had her husband declared dead. Before she can succeed in this her brother-in-law, Captain Edward Hastings, arrives with word from her husband that he has found the lost city and for Edward to sell his entire assets and finance an expedition to come and get him. Edward's intention is to send Lady Vivian, whom he does not approve of, to a convent while he sails to the Americas but she out manoeuvres him to join the expedition and, knowing that she needs allies on board ship, hires John Silver and his crew to work for her.

Treasure Island was one of those books that, for me, was a school reading text, the over analysis of which was normally more than enough to put me off any of those books for life. However I also had a copy of the early 1970s Collins storybook of the novel with gorgeous painted illustrations by Ron Embleton which helped me retain a love of the book despite having to discuss the story in class every week. (My English teacher must be chuckling in his grave that I freely choose to do now what I hated to do back then.)

This first book in the series, as the title would suggest, is very much Lady Vivian's story establishing her as a head strong but wily character. Rather than dropping us headlong into the story Dorison builds his plot nicely, establishing each character and their motivations before moving on to the next and finally leading us to Long John himself. The suggestion here is that few of the characters in the book are going to be straightforwardly good or bad with virtually everyone having their own secret agenda as their ship, the Neptune, sets sail for the New World.

In contrast to the smoothness of Ron Embleton's art in that Collins storybook, Lauffrey's style is more sketchy but this is to the benefit of the story as it quickly moves from the classy surroundings of the Hastings' grand home to the darkness and danger of Silver's inn. Indeed his take on Silver could be described as a peg legged Wolverine, without the claws but just as dangerous, as the body count once he is introduced would suggest. While the cover painting is perhaps a little too moody to be striking, the fact that the book is published full BD size rather than the US size that Cinebook use for some of their other more mature adventure titles allows you to appreciate Lauffrey's art better.

Long John Silver - Lady Vivian Hastings sets the scene well for the ongoing adventures of literature's best known pirate and I look forward to seeing more of the books in the series translated soon.

There are more details of the Long John Silver series on the Cinebook website and the second book Neptune is due to be published in March 2011.

There are more details of the original French language versions of Long John Silver on the Dargaud website (in French).