By Rich Tommaso Publisher: Image Comics (January 30, 2018).
Softcover, 96 pages.
This is a fun book about a world with anthropomorphic
animals in a Cold War setting. As you can guess, the main character is s seal
who is inevitably drawn into a world of spies, codes, murder, and mayhem.
Malcom, the seal, is recruited into MI-6 after preventing one assassination and
accidentally causing the death of another agent. He is quickly trained and,
still somewhat naive, goes on a European tour to track down what seems to be a
collection of former spies selling secrets through art galleries.
The action is somewhat surreal, just one step removed from
reality, the said assassination happens during a dancer performance where the
agents are on stage and attempt the murder mid-way through their dance. The
charm of this book is how it is played absolutely straight. All the odd
elements, the art, the mid-air disasters are taken in stride by the characters
as if this was another day at the office. Rabbits blowing up art exhibits,
okay. Secret agent is a phoenix so he keeps coming back from the dead, no
problem. Fell out the back of a speeding train and down a ravine with only
scrape and bruises, well that happens.
It feels like a Tin Tin book. I suppose this was
deliberate, the layout, the clean line art, the coloring, even the size of the
book all match the Tin Tin style. If Herge decided to adapt a James Bond novel
in his own style this would be the result. The author, Rich Tommaso, always is doing something different with each work. If you remember he authored the cult hits Clover Honey and The Horror of Collier County, then moved on to the biographical piece Satchel Paige, then the touching story of Pete and Miriam. And here again we have a departure, a wonderful one.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.
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