The Adventures Of Blake & Mortimer: The Mystery Of The Great Pyramid by Edgar P Jacobs
Publisher: Cinebook ISBN: 978-1-905460-37-3
When you open a Blake and Mortimer book you can't help but think that it's all bearing a rather uncanny resemblance to one Hergé's Tintin. And you'd be right too.
Edgar P Jacobs and Hergé are not only related but Jacobs leant a hand with more than one Tintin adventure. They really are strikingly similar in their style, and that's no bad thing, although I'd have to say that what I've read of Jacobs' work has dated faster. This particular book is part one of a two part tale and sees Professor Mortimer popping across to Cairo to take part in a spot of Egyptology. Ripping boys' adventure stuff duly follows, including car chases, break ins, secret tunnels and lost treasure.
There is one thing that winds me the wrong way about Jacobs' books, and that's that they are astoundingly wordy. On some pages it's more like prose with a spot illustration, and it's usually needless repetition. I'm perhaps being unfair, as I suspect these were originally serialised works and all he was trying to do was keep the reader up to speed, but nevertheless it is distracting.
That aside, these are beautifully put together with decent storytelling and pacing coupled with quality illustration of the first order.
And if you liked that: Try part two!
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