By Bryan Talbot
Publisher: Jonathon Cape
ISBN: 978-0-224-08488-8
I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting from Grandville. Bryan Talbot is a flexible and innovative creative individual (Alice in Sunderland probably shows this off best) so would I be getting social commentary, science fiction, a gritty action piece or a throwback to the more creative days of British comics. Well, it's sort of all of that.
There's no escaping the parallels with Rupert the Bear (they say as much themselves in the cover blurb) but it's Nutwood on a much grander, dirtier, bloodier scale, where the French won the Napoleonic Wars, Britain is now part of their empire and English is spoken by less people than currently speak Cornish.
It does take a while to get to grips with the talking animal angle because it's something you have to buy into, but once the story begins to roll it takes on a life of its own. The artwork is, as to be expected) wonderful, with great colouring and all beautifully presented and designed. I think as far as talking animals and crime go, I prefer Blacksad, but I couldn't deny that after a few pages the idea felt it wouldn't work quite the same with humans.
On a final note, Talbot's inspiration for all this comes from a French Illustrator who used the name JJ Grandville. It's worth a few minutes on Wikipedia reading about him, and looking at the associated images.
And if you liked that: Take a look at the Blacksad books
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