By Dorison & Lauffray
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 9781849181754
I read this final volume to the series the same evening I watched the movie Wrath Of The Titans. The film is a plethora of storytelling no-nos, lacking in the fundamental basics of character development, setting, and motivation to create an utterly uninvolving and detached experience for the viewer regardless of the millions spent on it. Every confused moment left you wondering why you were bothering.
And then I read Long John Silver. The comics medium certainly causes some people to get a little sniffy, but when a two-man creative team can pull you so deeply into an imagined world that the experience feels cinematic, that you care enough about what happens to the characters that you're finger's already sitting between the next two pages to hasten their turning before you realise it, well, then that's when you know you've got a good read on your hands.
There are some wonderful moments in here, orchestrated to set the tone and place the reader firmly within the action and the moment. The oppressing, dark and fetid rainforest feels close and dank and the danger very real, and all because Lauffray has taken the care to build that atmosphere into his art. The ominous double-page landscape of the temple towering above the jungle canopy against a cruel and foreboding sky does far more to place the reader in the moment than any frame from Wrath Of The Titans.
Dorison's script pulls the characters closer to their fate and, while few of them remain standing, still the draw of potential unimaginable treasure outweighs the fear for their own lives. Silver himself remains an enigma as to whether or not his heart his set on gold or the rescue of Lady Hastings, and the ultimate conclusion is a surprising one, albeit a fitting one that honours the character's literary history.
A first-class series from beginning to end, and one I'll certainly be enjoying all over again.
And if you liked that: In a slightly different vein, try The Manara Library: Volume One.
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