By Yoann & Vehlmann
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 9781800441620
A common problem with any long-running character is trying to avoid repeating what’s already gone before. Of course, there’s still the need to keep the tale within the familiar boundaries that make it all appealing in the first place. Stray too far from the source and it just doesn’t feel right. It’s a tricky conundrum, but this latest Spirou and Fantasio adventure achieves this by using a modern storytelling contrivance to power it – everything gets a little meta.
Self-referential stories are increasingly common-place, but usually use easter eggs and knowing nods. In The Clutches Of The Viper is able to take a whole other step. This is because the original strip appears in Spirou magazine, and through the contrivance of the telling, Fantasio and Spirou are seen working for that title. But a vicious lawsuit puts the magazine in grave danger of folding, and it’s only through a wealthy investor that they are saved. Spirou himself, because the magazine bears his name, is joint signatory of the contract, and suddenly the recipient of a staggering pay packet. Everything, it seems, has come up roses.
The truth is far more sinister. The duo have signed away not just their control, but the very rights of Spirou being Spirou. He’s now an asset, owned by a conglomerate, and facing all the restrictions that brings. This is all made plain to him after he’s delivered to the Marmalade Island HQ of the Viper Corporation and he runs into two of the many such characters that have been swallowed up by this machine. Batguy, a fabulous homage to a certain cowled hero (swallowed by Warner Bros and soon to be gulped down by Universal), lays out the situation to Spirou whilst pointing out Indie Croft (two tomb-raiders in one, one of which is now the property of Disney).
Effectively a prisoner, devoid of his own image and personality, there seems little hope of righting this predicament and ever living free again.
Vehlmann is an excellent writer, and the evidence is all here to enjoy. Coupled with Yoann’s slick and detailed pages and panels, there’s so much to please from cover to cover. It is a shame that Spirou and Fantasio are not more widely known in the English-speaking world, but it’s not as if we’ve not been given the chance to get to know them. This book is a good place to start.
And if you liked that: Cinebook’s clever release schedule means there’s a mix of classic older stories with more contemporary ones, all available at cinebook.com
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