What do you think?
Rate this book
Blueberry #7
Το σιδερένιο άλογο (Μπλούμπερι #7)
Den första volymen i den svenska utgivningen av Blueberry.
48 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
2 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Jean-Michel Charlier
637 books53 followersJean-Michel Charlier was a Belgian script writer best known as a writer of realistic European comics. He was a co-founder of the famed European comics magazine Pilote.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 12, 2018
Despite my inherent predilection for all things Sci-Fi, I never ended up watching Alien (1979 represent!) until a few years ago during my first tour of duty in Hong Kong. Words can’t begin to describe my delight with the first (and arguably best) of the series; a perfect fusion of horror and science fiction kept me jolted to by bed and my mind in a sphere approaching the circumferences of imaginative ecstasy. Needless to say, I mined the Wiki article shortly thereafter and imbibed with great interest all the actors and, more importantly, artists who brought this incredible vision forth (still highly relevant) some 40 years later.
Of all the personnel’s names who stuck with me from Ridley Scott’s phenomenal feature the most following my perusal was, to yours truly until unknown up to that point, that of the French artist Moebius. I was all the more surprised to find out that this talented fellow was also the progenitor of a vast panoply of comics (ostensibly, a great match for moi). In dutiful fashion, I nabbed a copy of his AirTight Garage at my local library and well… was quite disappointed. Making little sense and overloaded with bombast and something akin to visual masturbation, I tossed the comic to the ground and cursed his name. Vowing never to visit any of his works again, I moved onto something else.
Years later, having sifted through my digital collection of sequential art, the title of BlueBerry stood out during a random fit of Western’s I was going through lately. The name Mobius popped up again and my eyes (third included) winced at the damnable nom de art spelt, M-O-B-I-U-S. I heaved a sigh, exhaled carefully, and decided (in a state of mindful forgiveness) to give him a second chance.
And for the most part, I was quite pleased with this offering. Favoring the realm of the real, a relatively well crafted tale, bathed in the forces of history, splashed across my eyes first and then mind with svelte delight. Strongly moored in the facts of yore, a superbly illustrated and written tale effectively saved his face from my thoroughly critical faculties. Tickling all the right intellectual interstices, Blueberry (at least this for right now) well deserves its seminal accolades, a half a century down the road!
Strong usage of details its well mirrored with expertly applied utilizations of contrasts. Strongly saturated with stellar writing which is only matched by an incredibly evocative color scheme that is firmly real but subtly taps on the realm(s) of the psychedelic, all faculties will be alerted to the beauty within.
What starts as a goo’ ol’ in media res affair, swiftly builds up unto a screen of internal resonance(s) that are as much tethered to the facts of reality as they are to the creative interpretations of the late Moebius. Well reasoned with a great plot, multiple forces, all vying for the American frontier as all superbly illustrated with the complexity befitting of the enormous width of cultures and ethnicities present. While happily dabbling in the stereotypes of yore (ex. The Irishman is an alcoholic buffoon) many characters are germinated into multi-faceted and deservingly enjoyable characters that break their walls of the prejudicial and simplistic.
When the forces of competing railroad corporations begin to collide for their share of the zero-summed Government investment, far more than bullets and arrows are burst across the intricate environs within. From the plains to canyons, from the barstool to the barracks, Moebius’ tale of a re-imagined Wild West has the sweetness and the tartness befitting of the titular character.
*Claps.
Of all the personnel’s names who stuck with me from Ridley Scott’s phenomenal feature the most following my perusal was, to yours truly until unknown up to that point, that of the French artist Moebius. I was all the more surprised to find out that this talented fellow was also the progenitor of a vast panoply of comics (ostensibly, a great match for moi). In dutiful fashion, I nabbed a copy of his AirTight Garage at my local library and well… was quite disappointed. Making little sense and overloaded with bombast and something akin to visual masturbation, I tossed the comic to the ground and cursed his name. Vowing never to visit any of his works again, I moved onto something else.
Years later, having sifted through my digital collection of sequential art, the title of BlueBerry stood out during a random fit of Western’s I was going through lately. The name Mobius popped up again and my eyes (third included) winced at the damnable nom de art spelt, M-O-B-I-U-S. I heaved a sigh, exhaled carefully, and decided (in a state of mindful forgiveness) to give him a second chance.
And for the most part, I was quite pleased with this offering. Favoring the realm of the real, a relatively well crafted tale, bathed in the forces of history, splashed across my eyes first and then mind with svelte delight. Strongly moored in the facts of yore, a superbly illustrated and written tale effectively saved his face from my thoroughly critical faculties. Tickling all the right intellectual interstices, Blueberry (at least this for right now) well deserves its seminal accolades, a half a century down the road!
Strong usage of details its well mirrored with expertly applied utilizations of contrasts. Strongly saturated with stellar writing which is only matched by an incredibly evocative color scheme that is firmly real but subtly taps on the realm(s) of the psychedelic, all faculties will be alerted to the beauty within.
What starts as a goo’ ol’ in media res affair, swiftly builds up unto a screen of internal resonance(s) that are as much tethered to the facts of reality as they are to the creative interpretations of the late Moebius. Well reasoned with a great plot, multiple forces, all vying for the American frontier as all superbly illustrated with the complexity befitting of the enormous width of cultures and ethnicities present. While happily dabbling in the stereotypes of yore (ex. The Irishman is an alcoholic buffoon) many characters are germinated into multi-faceted and deservingly enjoyable characters that break their walls of the prejudicial and simplistic.
When the forces of competing railroad corporations begin to collide for their share of the zero-summed Government investment, far more than bullets and arrows are burst across the intricate environs within. From the plains to canyons, from the barstool to the barracks, Moebius’ tale of a re-imagined Wild West has the sweetness and the tartness befitting of the titular character.
*Claps.
January 28, 2021
Sebbene il canovaccio della storia che inizia in questo albo sia lo stesso della prima storia, solo ambientato nelle praterie del Nebraska e Colorado e con gli Cheyennes e Sioux al posto di Apaches e Navajos, lo svolgimento è sicuramente migliore, più incisivo sia sul protagonista, Blueberry, sia sui comprimari. Anche i disegni di Giraud migliorano rispetto agli albi precedenti.
Certo, rimane troppo verboso, ma questo è un difetto comune a tutti i fumetti di quegli anni in qualsiasi parte del mondo (anche in Tex, anche nei manga dell'epoca) e comunque, anche se rallenta il ritmo della lettura, la storia tiene bene. Ottima la caratterizzazione dell'avversario di turno, Steelfingers.
Certo, rimane troppo verboso, ma questo è un difetto comune a tutti i fumetti di quegli anni in qualsiasi parte del mondo (anche in Tex, anche nei manga dell'epoca) e comunque, anche se rallenta il ritmo della lettura, la storia tiene bene. Ottima la caratterizzazione dell'avversario di turno, Steelfingers.
March 22, 2021
Um Cowboy com os valores de hoje mas que permite imaginar a força que precisamos para estar à frente do nosso tempo.
June 18, 2021
Intricately plotted and well paced by Charlier with some superb line work by Moebius this is an exciting and fun read.
November 11, 2022
Post civil war, capitalism and the railroad further intrudes into the American west and blueberry must solve the conflict between the American rail interest and local tribes.
December 17, 2018
I have to admit, I am not much of a graphic novel man. I don't know why I would make my first review on GoodReads about a graphic novel, other than I have found myself flipping through Lieutenant Blueberry: The Iron Horse repeatedly for the last few months. It occupied that part of a voracious reader's bookcase that you know is there but you rarely revisit.
I remember buying it on a trip to a used bookstore. The bookstore was closed but there was a comics book store nearby. What drew me in was the busy first frame, which struck me as something Bruegel the Elder might come up with. The wide expanse of prairie in the background, a tent city of railroad workers, an iron horse on the tracks billowing smoke as it impatiently waits for a crew to set a section of track, a man trying to control a team of horses hooked up to a wagon, the railroad construction engineer in his top hat with a group of men pouring over plans on a table, a group of workers squatting by a campfire waiting for a pot of coffee to come to a boil, even a man hanging off a nearby telephone pole with a loop of wire.
It is an opening fit for a movie.
There is that movie director's artistic eye all through the graphic novel. A director heavily influenced by Sergio Leone. There is a feel to the entire novel that it was created in the 1960's, there is that iconic Western stand-in character with a red shirt, white Stetson wearing a dappled white and black cowhide vest. I think that if you yanked 20 Western comics from 1960's-1970's off a shelf you would probably find a version of him in half of them.
Lieutenant Blueberry: The Iron Horse is stylish and Jean "Mœbius" Giraud's work is a treat. It reads like an overdone art board for a movie producer.
The story itself is a little cliché' and simplistic, which is due in part to the abbreviated format. It is missing beat to build tension - throwing some action in for distance between plotline events. Characters are stock and little is done to give them complexity.
The narrative centers around two railroad companies battling for control as they build their empires. Indians are used as the stoogies, an ever-present menace who is drawn into the fray by the killing of a herd of the chief's horses. They are unwittingly setup by the stranger hired by one of the dueling railroad companies to be the agent provocateur. Lieutenant Blueberry comes into conflict with him like a protagonist magnet.
Personally, I like this graphic novel for the artwork and direction it takes the audience. It asks you to open your imagination and write your own story or fill-in the missing pieces in the one Jean-Michel Charlier wrote. That isn't a bad thing. Reading back through some of the Blueberry graphic novels, I wonder how many screenwriters and producers over the last 50 years thought the same thing?
I remember buying it on a trip to a used bookstore. The bookstore was closed but there was a comics book store nearby. What drew me in was the busy first frame, which struck me as something Bruegel the Elder might come up with. The wide expanse of prairie in the background, a tent city of railroad workers, an iron horse on the tracks billowing smoke as it impatiently waits for a crew to set a section of track, a man trying to control a team of horses hooked up to a wagon, the railroad construction engineer in his top hat with a group of men pouring over plans on a table, a group of workers squatting by a campfire waiting for a pot of coffee to come to a boil, even a man hanging off a nearby telephone pole with a loop of wire.
It is an opening fit for a movie.
There is that movie director's artistic eye all through the graphic novel. A director heavily influenced by Sergio Leone. There is a feel to the entire novel that it was created in the 1960's, there is that iconic Western stand-in character with a red shirt, white Stetson wearing a dappled white and black cowhide vest. I think that if you yanked 20 Western comics from 1960's-1970's off a shelf you would probably find a version of him in half of them.
Lieutenant Blueberry: The Iron Horse is stylish and Jean "Mœbius" Giraud's work is a treat. It reads like an overdone art board for a movie producer.
The story itself is a little cliché' and simplistic, which is due in part to the abbreviated format. It is missing beat to build tension - throwing some action in for distance between plotline events. Characters are stock and little is done to give them complexity.
The narrative centers around two railroad companies battling for control as they build their empires. Indians are used as the stoogies, an ever-present menace who is drawn into the fray by the killing of a herd of the chief's horses. They are unwittingly setup by the stranger hired by one of the dueling railroad companies to be the agent provocateur. Lieutenant Blueberry comes into conflict with him like a protagonist magnet.
Personally, I like this graphic novel for the artwork and direction it takes the audience. It asks you to open your imagination and write your own story or fill-in the missing pieces in the one Jean-Michel Charlier wrote. That isn't a bad thing. Reading back through some of the Blueberry graphic novels, I wonder how many screenwriters and producers over the last 50 years thought the same thing?
February 1, 2023
E comincia un nuovo ciclo per Blueberry. Ammetto che della costruzione della prima ferrovia transcontinentale non sapevo nulla. E invece ho scoperto un sacco di cose interessanti, come il disprezzo degli uomini bianchi per il bisonte e del significato che invece aveva per gli indiani.
Urca, mi ero accorta anch'io che Blueberry non assomigliava più a Jean-Paul Belmondo...
Urca, mi ero accorta anch'io che Blueberry non assomigliava più a Jean-Paul Belmondo...
October 14, 2017
A brilliant work by Jean-Michel Charlier
set in the 1800 years of the cowboy reign.
Lieutenant Blueberry's adventures are mindblowing
set in the 1800 years of the cowboy reign.
Lieutenant Blueberry's adventures are mindblowing
April 6, 2019
On nämä jänniä. Simppeleitä, mutta jänniä.
July 29, 2011
Nouveau cycle qui débute et qui a pour thème la construction du chemin de fer d'est en ouest du pays (et vice et versa).
Blueberry est appelé par le général Dodge (qu'il a connu durant la guerre) pour enquêter sur des massacres de bisons qui enveniment la situation du chantier vis-à-vis des Cheyennes et des Sioux.
Dodge soupçonne en effet une manoeuvre de la part de la deuxième compagnie ferroviaire en course. C'est la première apparition de Red Neck qui, comme Mac Clure, devient un des "sparing partners" de Blueberry.
L'ambiance de ce nouveau cycle emprunte beaucoup au film "La conquête de l'Ouest"
Blueberry est appelé par le général Dodge (qu'il a connu durant la guerre) pour enquêter sur des massacres de bisons qui enveniment la situation du chantier vis-à-vis des Cheyennes et des Sioux.
Dodge soupçonne en effet une manoeuvre de la part de la deuxième compagnie ferroviaire en course. C'est la première apparition de Red Neck qui, comme Mac Clure, devient un des "sparing partners" de Blueberry.
L'ambiance de ce nouveau cycle emprunte beaucoup au film "La conquête de l'Ouest"
August 10, 2013
Re-reading the "Iron horse saga" of Blueberry in english.
The translation effort is humongous. Upon confirmation with a friend in France, it is clear that the french versions only had simple french dialogs. These guys have modified it a bit to resemble cowboy talk and quite expertly so. The feel of wild west is perfect. Great job by Jean Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier.
The translation effort is humongous. Upon confirmation with a friend in France, it is clear that the french versions only had simple french dialogs. These guys have modified it a bit to resemble cowboy talk and quite expertly so. The feel of wild west is perfect. Great job by Jean Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier.
January 5, 2016
A bit bland for such a cultural footprint—but by no means bad—Moebius/Giraud's art is stellar, standout—it's the coloring that takes the cake—the translation is better yet, thanks to Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier—god, I miss great BD translations like this.
July 15, 2016
Nice self contained cowboy story, it had all a classic western villain, Indians defending their territory and the dueling railroad companies.
As the other volumes In the collection the order of the books is messy.
As the other volumes In the collection the order of the books is messy.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews