Docteur Radar - Tome 1 : Tueur de savants

Docteur Radar #1

by Noël Simsolo (scénariste), Frédéric Bézian (illustrateur)

Paris, gare de l’Est, 1920. Gontran Saint-Clair, savant reconnu, est retrouvé mort empoisonné au curare dans un train de la ligne Paris-Berlin. Ce meurtre survient peu après le décès suspect de deux autres savants : Aristide Vernon et Bruno Vaillant. Plus tard, c’est le professeur Émile Lenoir qui succombe d’une piqûre de scorpion, en plein Paris… Or ces savants avaient un point commun : ils travaillaient tous sur la conquête spatiale ! Ferdinand Straub, ancien as de l’aviation française reconverti en détective, mène l’enquête et découvre que le responsable de ces crimes serait un certain docteur Radar, un mystérieux et dangereux individu passé maître dans l’art du déguisement. Entre le talent de son adversaire et l’incompétence de la police parisienne, Straub va devoir redoubler d’ingéniosité et de vigilance pour capturer le redoutable docteur Radar…

Docteur Radar nous replonge dans le surréalisme français de la première moitié du XXe siècle, où science, progrès et méchants machiavéliques rythmaient les grands feuilletons policiers de l’époque comme Fantômas. Après Ne touchez à rien, le dessin expressif et virtuose de Bézian s’associe une nouvelle fois, mais dans un tout autre registre, au talent narratif et au scénario millimétré de son complice Simsolo.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Bande Dessinée, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Historical

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 2014

Reviews

[Dakota Morgan]

Did you ever read Tintin and think, "I wish the art was impossible to decipher and the main character was a mysterious rich person?" If so, Doctor Radar is for you. Ferdinand Strauss ("the Gentleman Detective") chases after Doctor Radar, a villain who uses disguises a lot and is killing rocket scientists so he can steal their research and go to the Moon. Most of the mystery stuff is fine, if bland - it's basically a Tintin story without Tintin and with much, much, much worse art.

[Romain]

J’ai hésité longtemps à parler de ce livre, mais j’ai l’habitude de parler pour ne rien dire, alors je me lance. Plus sérieusement, les dessins – et la mise en couleur – justifient à eux seuls que l’on en parle. Leur auteur n’est pas n’importe qui, Bezian. Et ça se voit, ils sont très travaillés presque torturés et soulignés par une mise en couleur sans concession. Les couleurs très marquées agissent comme des éclairages qui distillent des ambiances sombres. On se retrouve avec quelque chose de surprenant, un noir et blanc en couleur en quelque sorte. Tout ceci ne plaira certainement pas à tout le monde, mais c’est la rançon du talent.

Pour le reste, nous sommes dans les années 20 et tout est fait pour coller au style des feuilletons de l’époque. On pense tout de suite à Fantômas, tout est là, le policier poltron et le héros devenu détective qui prend tous les risques pour arrêter le criminel – et autre chose dont je ne parlerai pas. Nous avons même droit à un guest très réussi, le peintre Pascin. Ai-je besoin d’en dire plus ?

C’est ce dernier point qui m’a fait hésiter à en parler. Je ne suis pas un fan du genre et / ou de l’époque et je n’apprécie pas à sa juste valeur le bel hommage rendu par cette BD. Mais c’est trop tard, j’aurais mieux fait de me taire.

Également publié sur mon blog.

[Sans]

For once, the hype on the cover is accurate. The artwork is what pulled me in the most. It's like looking at an adult nightmare version of Bemelmans' Madeline. It's smart and weird and extravagant. Love it.

[Krishna Subramani]

0.5/5. If you're looking for a dull mystery paired with subpar artwork, then look no further. Honestly, it wasn't worth the 0.99£ I paid for this book.

[Frédéric]

Excellente Bd dans la lignée de "La colère de Fantômas". Le rythme est enlevé, avec des rebondissements comme s'il en pleuvait. Il me semble que Sissoko s'est amusé comme un fou avec cette histoire. Quant à Bézian... Je crois qu'il est là au sommet de son art. C'est ultra-dynamique, la narration est impeccablement fluide et c'est magistralement illustré. Avec ce parti pris d'à-plats monochromes, il sublime son dessin et instaure une véritable ambiance qui colle au livre comme une seconde peau. Un très très grand plaisir de lecture.

[Lör K.]

Dreams don’t mean anything

In the first issue of Dr. Radar, we are in Paris, in the 1920s. A gentleman is playing a dangerous game with a criminal mastermind named Doctor Radar, whilst he tries to investigate a series of horrific deaths.

I happened upon Dr. Radar on ReadComics when looking for a new comic series to read, after just finishing off Assassin's Creed: Uprising #1 . The cover caught my eye, and I clicked on it to have a look at what it was about, and then, the description dragged me in. As a pulp noir fan, I just had to check this one out, and give it a fair chance. I was a little nervous, considering the last comic book I just happened across on ReadComics was Last Gang in Town #1 which I really didn’t like so much, and I was a little bit wary.

However, just on the first page, I was struck down in shock.

The artwork in this is just absolutely amazing. I adore it so much. Can I marry artwork in a comic book? Because I want to marry this one. This looks like walking corpses in the comic pages, and makes it seam surreal, and totally out of the ordinary. I’m willing to compare it to Tim Burton’s work, but frankly, it’s quite like Tim Burton on steroids, in their own weird way. Frédéric Bézian and Francesco Francavilla have done absolutely amazing work and I’m utterly amazed. I note that Francavilla has done many, many comic books in his time, and it might be something worth me looking at, considering how much I love the art work within this comic.

The story starts off pretty macabre, truly. A woman begging her husband not to do on a trip, she dreamed he die. A long train journey. Some criminals. At first, it was a little hard to understand what was going on, due to the changing of locations so quickly without much warning and not much clarification as to what happened in the opening scene, but you gather what’s going on pretty quickly. This is pretty much a Sherlock Holmes sort of deal, and it’s much appreciated. The story opens right up with an air of mystery and wrong doing and really makes you question what is going to happen. Now this is just a short 40 page comic – so for this to be the general feeling when you start reading it, is something just short of spectacular.

This was an absolutely brilliant comic. I have sat for hours reading this over twice now, studying every tiny detail, and being left in shock at it, two times around. I think I have a new favourite comic. With issue 2 coming out in December, this is likely a recurring comic you’re going to be seeing on my GoodReads. I am utterly amazed, I am in love, and I want more of this right now. I cannot wait for issue two and for a continuation of this series. It’s perfect.

[Priscilla]

A história do primeiro volume começa com um cientista, Gontran Saint-Clair, morto de uma maneira exótica: envenenado por Curare (um veneno indígena mato grossense) na linha ferroviária Paris-Berlin. Após isso, ocorrem várias outras mortes de cientistas renomados que parecem ser conectadas apenas por uma coisa: todos são ligados ao projeto da conquista espacial.

Ferdinand Straus, o heroi, já é uma referência mais direta ao estilo criado por Conan Doyle. O garboso detetive é mostrado como um personagem de poucos vícios e cujo único interesse é a emoção da caçada. Mais preocupado em desvendar a charada do que seguir a lei, já na primeira edição vemos o herói subornar cafetinas, entrar em uma briga de facas e contornar os trâmites legais.

O vilão Doctor Radar, personagem do título, é descrito como um mestre dos disfarces,
estrategista maquiavélico que tudo fara para alcançar seu objetivo. Ao seu lado, um grupo
fascinante de personagens como os capangas que realizam suas ordens e que são os
protagonistas das melhores cenas de ação.

A arte é de cair o queixo. Os traços rápidos de Bezian dão um dinamismo às cenas de ação que poucos artistas conseguem hoje em dia. A própria narrativa se apoia muito em sua capacidade de sequenciar a história.

Os personagens são feitos da mesma forma e as linhas ajudam a valorizar o colorido, esse próprio feito em dupla tonalidade, vai mudando conforme o ritmo da história. Cenas mais introspectivas parecem ser predominantemente azuis, enquanto momentos de tensão recebem cores mais vivas como vermelho e amarelo.

Simsolo e Bézian apresentam um bom trabalho nesse primeiro número, tanto no roteiro
quanto na arte – mas as referências e a inspiração pesada em antigos personagens podem
desequilibrar um leitor novato.

Um exemplo disso é o fato de que alguns momentos beiram a chacota e isso pode parecer
estranho a um leitor que já assimilou o ar predominantemente sério da obra. Isso também aconteceu com algumas versões teatrais das histórias de Sherlock Holmes e Hercules Poirot. O deboche é basicamente uma tradição nesse tipo de interpretação e os autores parecem tê-la migrado para os quadrinhos.

[Adrian]

My dear Eloi, your paper doesn't say any more than any of the others -- a shot of curare, signs of a struggle, no money taken, but a missing briefcase with documents on work in progress... No resemblance to the other two murdered scientists.

Three weeks ago, professor Aristide Vernon was found hanging in his basement. He had burned his papers before his suicide...

... Two months earlier, doctor Bruno Vaillant was pulled out of the Elbe, his face beaten to a pulp. The German police identified him through his I.D. They concluded it was a robbery.

I don't see the connection. Vernon was a famous scientist, but very depressed. No one was surprised by his suicide, and Bruno Vaillant was an inventor that no one took seriously.

Next up is a graphic novel picked up in the Forbidden Planet sale for a princely sum of 99 pence. When they are reduced that low I do tend to worry about what I am going to get, but the artwork and blurb were interesting enough for me to bring it home.

It is a classic noir mystery with a supervillain twist. A Private Detective must uncover the link between the deaths of a number of prominent scientists whilst also trying to reveal the identity of Doctor Radar!

A fast paced read which really draws you in. Unfortunately the concluding volume hasn't been translated into English meaning I either need to learn French or Italian to find out what happens next. 3 3/4 stars.

[Patrick]

Just not a great book unfortunately. Which is is a shame cause i’m a big fan of Tintin and Blake and Mortimer. So the idea to meld those belgian detectives stories with a more noir setting and surrealistic art akin to sin city is a great idea. It just never really comes together and to be fair that might in part come from poor translation. There is just something very off about the dialogue, like everything is slightly too blunt, which really doesn’t work in a noir atmosphere. But even beyond that its just not a good mystery it relies on revealing a lot of information in the third act which means you can’t solve it or pick up any clues. The characters aren’t compelling despire some of them having interesting ideas behind them. The art is really good but it really struggles to portray expressions which further you detaches you from the characters. The plot is irritatingly nonsensical.

Yeah its just not great. Which is genuinely a shame cause besides just the spin on the setting and the art there is a spark of something to this story. But it just gets smothered by the horrible plot. 3/10

[Norman Cook]

This story combines elements associated with the likes of Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Alfred Hitchcock into an exciting mystery noir thriller. The artwork is fluid and often dark, which although not usually to my tastes, works quite well here, complementing the dark nature of the story. This is a style that is not often seen in American comics. I look forward to reading the further adventures of Ferdinand Strauss, gentleman detective.

Note: I read this as individual comic book issues.

[Hugo]

Rapidly paced amalgamation of Christie and Doyle tropes with The Shadow-style pulp adventure; beautifully illustrated with loose expressionist artwork and magnificent coordinated colouring; possibly suffers with too many incidental characters and an unexpectedly abrupt and unresolved ending, though I'd look forward to Volume 2.

[Elizabeth (Miss Eliza)]

Don't let the beautiful Francesca Francavilla cover fool you into picking this up. The interior art is sloppy. They're aiming, I think, for impressionistic, but it comes out as a mess. I have no idea what ANY of the characters look like. Plus the story is kind of meh, astrophysicists being killed for no reason that I care to discover... Will not be reading further, and that's saying something.

[Comics Alternative]

http://comicsalternative.com/episode-...

[David the Ñoldo]

Reminiscent of Fantomas and a little bit of Arsene Lupin. Artwork is amazing.

[Laurian]

Meh. This whole thing was Meh. The sketchy drawings made it really difficult to tell the characters apart and the story was just blah.

[Michael]

So French and pulpy. It's excellent.

[Adrian Bloxham]

A quid from the forbidden planet sale. Well worth it, a decent comic

[StrictlySequential ArtNarrative]

24×32 ¦ A.I. 10/2014 ¦ D.L. 01/2014 ¦ 19,50€ = eo*
*does (new-to-me) ".../003" after ISBN mean 3rd tirage?

Bezian was the perfect choice for this type of story, how it's told, the characters assortment, and how they're used- which he executed ideally with stunning flair!