A world of treachery and adventure (Largo Winch Vol.1: The Heir: Heir v. 1 - Jean van Hamme)

Member Name: Ailran

Product:	Largo Winch Vol.1: The Heir: Heir v. 1 - Jean van Hamme
Date:	08/05/09 (213 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great story and art, great promise for future stories

Disadvantages: None really

Largo Winch first came to my attention about 7 years ago when a friend of mine in Europe sent me some VHS copies of a TV series based on the character. I discovered that Largo was a Belgian comic character that is immensely popular in mainland Europe. I liked the premise of the character and, after discovering more about Largo, was disappointed to discover that there was no way to read the stories, until now.

As Europe has a completely different attitude to comics than we do the term comic is a slight misnomer. Largo Winch, like most European 'Bande Dessinee' (which means 'drawn strip') is released in regular one off issues (think Asterix and Tintin for example) that tell a whole story, even if it is part of an overall plotline each release can easily stand alone.
The popularity of Largo is shown by the fact that there has been the aforementioned TV series (that lasted for 1½ seasons), a computer game and film made in France and released in 2008.

Largo Winch is the creation of the writer Jean Van Hamme and his collaborator, the artist, Phillipe Franq. The first volume came out in 1990 and since then there has been 16 volumes released.
Finally in 2008 a company appeared with plans to release an extensive selection of the best of Europe's 'Bande Dessinee'. Cinebook is their name and one of their first choices was Largo Winch.

Largo Winch volume 1 introduces us to Largo Wincslav a 26 year old Yugoslavian who is the heir to a $10 billion dollar business empire known as the W Group. The W Group is owned by Nerio Winch, a man who secretly adopted Largo many years ago because he didn't want his empire to crumble when he died.
When Nerio is killed Largo finds himself in big trouble, without any clue at all. The presidents of the W Group are not happy about the appearance of an heir, as they expected to be given control of each of their own companies, and some of them have their own plans to keep hold of their power bases.

Meanwhile Largo is in Turkey, unaware of the change in his status from playboy adventurer and traveller to owner of the biggest group of companies in the world. He has more immediate problems, he has been arrested for murder and thrown into the deepest, darkest part of a Turkish jail.

Largo Winch is an action adventure story with elements of conspiracy and boardroom backstabbing.
The first story 'The Heir' introduces all the main characters and lets us get to know what kind of man Largo is.
The second story 'The W Group' throws him in at the deep end. He is now the head of the W Group of companies, something that some people are really not happy about.

European art has a very distinctive style that immediately separates it from its more illustrious, at least over here, American counterparts. For one it has a rougher, more realistic feel to it. The colours used are a lot less bright than American comics so giving a less brash look. They are more muted and complement the art rather than compete with it.
In my eyes the European way of doing comic art generally works better than the American way. In Europe, including the UK, you generally have one artist who does all the art, creating one seamless look. Americans go for a penciller and inker working together to create the art to go with the story. While this does work you can nearly always tell the difference between art that is the creation of one artist compared with two.
Because Franq draws everything it makes the art look a whole lot tighter. This European look has only recently hit American shores and it still isn't used that much. It is mainly employed by South American artists (100 Bullets Eduardo Risso being the number one exponent) who have a very similar style and look to their art as those from Europe.

Largo is very story and dialogue based. Some pages are ful of speech balloons because there is so much story to be told. Thisd isn't a problem because the art is tailored to this and, again, a very European way of doing comics.
This isn't the monthly 'pamphlet' style with an ongoing soap opera style basis to the story. It is a complete story that tells part of an overall one.
Largo also uses the classic panel layouts of comics to maximum effect. They don't go for big splash pages (pages that cover a whole page or two) but instead employ a set of images that pull your eyes across the page as you follow the story.
By ignoring the big overblown images that American love you again get a trend for promoting story first. Of course the art is very important, this would be a novel without it, but it seems toi me that telling the story is the priority and the art is there to complement and enhance that story.

The first volume of Largo Winch is certainly an enticing teaser for the series as a whole. It does tell two complete stories but it has enough sub plots and story potential to capture my interest sufficiently to go out and buy the second volume.



Largo Winch volume 1 contains the first two adventures that tell Largo's story, The Heir and The W Group. It is 96 pages long (two 48 page stories) and can cost anything from £5.99 to £9.99 depending on where you want to buy it from.
It has a 15 rating and that is to do with some of the storyline and illustrations, even though some of the art has been 'modified for sensitive readers with the authors consent'. This seems to mean the adding of a bra to a woman during one scene in both stories.

For more info on Cinebook, the publishers, and their entire catalogue go to their website WWW.cinebook.com.
Thanks to the Dooyoo member who introduced me to Cinebook by mentioning them as one of their Top Ten Websites a while back, without them I probably would have never discovered this treasure trove of European comics.

Summary: European comics explode into the English language