By Goscinny & Tabary
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 978-1-84918-092-4
It's a real shame that Iznogoud has taken so long to find its English audience as it is a genuine triumph of cartooning and solid comic writing. Unlike Asterix, Goscinny's much more famous creation, these tales are just a few pages long, so each Iznogoud volume features several punchy, witty stories where brevity adds to the success by not dragging out the gag too long.
If you've not come across Iznogoud before, he's the Grand Vizier of Baghdad who desperately wants to be the Caliph instead of the Caliph, and he'll employ any and every method to realise this. It's a world of magic carpets, magicians, djinn and lots of comic absurdity – perfect comic fodder.
The volume takes it's title from the first story where a Baghdad citizen, Astroh Nautikhal, has built a rocket to travel to the stars (which are, of course, nailed to a sheet of velvet). It will be a one-way trip, with the idea that the rocket will pierce the velvet and stick there – an ideal way, Iznogoud realises, of dispensing with the Caliph. Naturally, things don't go to plan, and the true nature of the stars is going to end up as a shock to somebody.
There's a tale of Iznogoud becoming the teacher to the Sultan Pullmankar's son B'oufayhkar (he also owns a genie called Djinn Rummhi), another about a talisman that makes dreams come true, and one with a magic hat that drives its wearer insane. The final story in the book, Dark Designs, has Iznogoud coming in to possession of a magic pencil. If he draws somebody with it onto paper and then tears that paper in half, the subject of the drawing is transported to a far off desert island – the perfect way to despatch a Caliph. The only problem is that Iznogoud is a hopeless artist, so he seeks out lessons from a local master, Tahbari Al Tardi, who looks uncannily like the artist of these here pages.
This is an excellent series, largely due to the excellent Goscinny scripts, but also because Goscinny is again paired with a fantastic cartoonist. Sadly, at around the same time his cartoon self was appearing for the first time in English, Jean Tabary passed away. He was 81. A superb cartooning talent who will be sadly missed.
And if you liked that: Volume 9 out soon
No comments yet.