Comic review - Tintin # 18 - "The Calculus Affair" by Herge

The Moon series launched (if you'll excuse the pun) Herge to a whole new level of artistic excellence, which he maintained towards the end of his career. The art work in this is stunning, crossing Marlinspike to Switzerland to mysterious European countries (loosely based on Yugoslavia and Hungary).

The plot is less strong - it's basically Calculus gets kidnapped and they chase after him, just like the last act of The Seven Crystal Balls, so the adventures do have something of a mechanical ring about them. There are moments of genius, though - such as the tankc rashing through the building at the end, the re-appearance of Bianca Castafiore, and most of all the marvellous Jolyon Wagg, the perennially cheerful insurance salesman - a wonderful creation.

Book review - "It's Good to be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks" by James Parish

Decent enough bio from Mel Brooks suffers from being too short - 200-odd pages, but Brook's career is so wide that one feels always as though you're skimming the surface. Also the quality of people interviewed isn't that high (people down the cast list on his later movies, that sort of thing). Still readable, though and will do until a more thorough book somes along. (The best writing on Brooks remains KenTynan's profile in "Show People".)

Brooks has had one of those incredible careers, with major highs and lows - he's shown an ability to pull a rabbit out of the hat like few others: struggling comic then bang Your Show of Shows, then struggling again then bang The 200 Year Old Man, then struggling again then as (seemingly a side trip), bang anOscar for a short the Critic, then bang Get Smart then bang The Producers and an Oscar - only the film flopped, so did The Twelve Chairs then struggling, then bang Blazing Saddles, followed by a relative hot streak... slowly tapering off... but then bang he creates Brooksfilms which was a production company with some really good non-star films toits credit (Frances, The Elephant Man, My Favourite Year, The Fly... any studio would be proud of those), then that and his career tapers off...then biggest bang of them all with the Producers.

Art Linson, in his second book of memoirs, writes of meeting Brooks in the late 90s at Fox and made him sound pathetic and over the hill, which a lot of people would have thought him - but then he made The Producers, so Linson now seems a little foolish.

What other surprises does he have? I'm guessing a one man stage show, but who knows? Like a lot of successful low brow comedians, Brooks is very smart. A great interview guest and very talented - but his career is more a tribute to tenacity and energy as anything else.

Comic review - Asterix #13 - "Asterix and the Cauldron"

Some major stakes for Asterix - he is given a cauldron of money to look after and when it goes missing he is banished from the tribe until he can raise the money. This is quite said and moving. The resulting adventures are episodic - he tries acting, gladitorial combat (one would think he could make easy money here), bank robbing (which works against Roman tax collectors but not Gauls). Funniest bit is the Roman tax collector who talks in terms of forms. The pirates actually get a happy ending. According to wikipedia, apparently Goscinny and Uderzo themselves appear in the story: when Asterix and Obelix appears in stage, Uderzo is shown talking to the Prefect, while Goscinny, is making his neighbours laugh.

Comic review - Asterix #12 - "Asterix and the Olympic Games"

The Gauls hear about the Olympics and decide to compete - which to be frank is annoying because they want to cheat with their magic potion.This leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Half way through they find out they can't use the potion and the story gets better - although they still win by cheating in a way (they take the sting out of it by having the Romans want to cheat more and tripping themselves up - a genuinely clever way to get out of the dilemma with the coloured tongues). The look at the games is fun as are the predominance of Greek characters(I'm surprised there's not a major Greek character we focus on though.) This book saw the first time Geriatrix and Fulliautomatix were named, though we have seen them in previous stories.

Comic review - Asterix #11 - "Asterix and the Chieftan's Shield"

Have a strong attachment to this because I've owned a copy since I was little and have read it numerous times. The story actually doesn't kick in until a fair way into the story - there's quite a few pages devotedt o Vitalstatistix being sick and deciding to take the cure first, before the stuff about looking for the Chieftan's Shield starts. It really feels like it is taking place in a different part of Gaul (all that wine and charcoal) and the digs at the refusal of the French to remember Alesia is fun. There is a bit of Gaulish history in this one, with the battles of Gregovia and Alesia - Asterix mightn't have been Tacitus but they weren't bad when it came to illustrating history.

Comic review - Asterix #10 - "Asterix the Legionary"

Obelix shows he isn't gay by developing a crush on an impossibly good looking girl who has returned to the village - only she's engaged. Whenher fiancee is drafted into the Roman army, Obeliex nobly volunteers to find him - which is sweet and works surprisingly well as a story launch point. So he and Asterix enlist, and take over their section of the Roman army (with various people from other parts of the empire). Thelast act takes place in Africa where Caesar is fighting a Civil War, which gives a fresh take on things and ensures an already strong story finishes on a stronger note. The male and female love interest look like they've stepped out of a different comic (Asterix specialised in fat and skinny types). The Belgian character has Tintin like hair and I loved how the Egyptian speaks in hieroglyphics.

Comic review - Asterix #9 - "Asterix and the Normans"

Something of a One That Got Away for the Asterix series - the Normans(Vikings) would seem to be a wonderful people for Asterix to come across and the drawings of their homeland - icy, harsh waters, rebellious children - rank with the finest art work the series ever produced. Butwe only get that for a few pages, as the Normans visit Gaul instead - specifically the village. Also, they have a naff reason for going - to find the reason for fear, which may sound cute but after a while gets tiring, mainly because the stakes are so low and our heroes don't power the story. They beef up the running time by having another major plotwhere the chief's bratty nephew from Paris comes to stay and introduce sthem to rock music and loves Cacofonix. There are funny bits and the Normans are good fun but you can't help think its an opportunity missed not sending Asterix up north.