Le piège

Tramp #1

by Jean-Charles Kraehn, Patrick Jusseaume

Rouen 1949. L'armateur Julien de Trichère achète un vieux cargo américain, l'Olav II, qu'il rebaptise la Belle Hélène - sa fille s'appelle Hélène et il l'adore. Yann Calec, jeune commandant sans bateau ni équipage, fait des pieds et des mains auprès d'Ester, la secrétaire de l'armateur, pour se faire engager. Non seulement il y arrive un peu trop facilement, mais on lui donne pour second un certain René Floss, qui traîne derrière lui un passé extrêmement louche. Décidément, Calec se méfie : quelque chose se trame sur ce rafiot pourri dont on refait à neuf les cabines et sanitaires, sans s'intéresser le moins du monde à l'état calamiteux de ses chaudières. Amour dévorant d'un père condamné pour sa fille infirme, escroquerie à l'assurance, complicité d'un nazi parti cultiver sa nostalgie au Vénézuéla - Calec est effectivement tombé dans un piège, dont la première victime est Ester, qu'il aimait et qu'il a, sans le vouloir, envoyée à l'abattoir. Et c'est l'âme en peine qu'un jour de brouillard, il quitte Rouen sur la Belle Hélène. Sortira-t-il vivant du piège ? Vous le saurez dans le prochain épisode, le Bateau assassiné. Poésie des ports, grisaille des docks et froideur des âmes, personnages attachants ou inquiétants - Kraehn et Jussaume font passer, à travers l'élégance du dessin et la solidité discrète du scénario, un parfum de roman noir grand cru.

Genres: Comics, Bande Dessinée, Graphic Novels, Comics Bd, Fiction, Comic Book, Historical Fiction

56 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Algernon · Rating 3 out of 5]

[7/10]



This is a review for the whole series [albums 01 to 11] by Belgian artist Jean-Charles Kraehn, illustrated by Patrick Jusseaume.

new word for today: barratry : intentionally scuttling a ship for insurance money

It is November 1949 in Rouen, industrial port on the Atlantic coast, and many ship owners are struggling to keep their businesses afloat in the lean times that followed World War II. One of them, monsieur de Trichere, faced with a terminal illness diagnostic and a daughter handicapped after an air raid, decides to take drastic measures in order to save his company and to leave something for his daughter to inherit.
De Trichere buys an old Liberty ship, a mass produced American cargo ship meant to supply Allied forces with materials during the war, intending to officially repair it and transform it into a tramp steamer.
A tramp steamer is a freighter without fixed schedule or itinerary, going wherever cargo requires. They are a sort of vagabonds of the high seas, and as such I encountered several in my last year’s favourite novel [ The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll]
The soon to be renamed ‘Belle Helene’, after de Trichere daughter, is a cursed ship even before she leaves the dry dock where she went for re-fitting: a night watchman is found brutally murdered and sadistically mutilated in her engine room, a workers strike threatens to put the enterprise in bankruptcy, the crew is threatened for being foreigners, and more, cargo is lost due to delays.
All of this because, unofficially, de Trichere plans to sink the steamer and collect the massive insurance he took on it. For this, the ship owner has to deal with a lot of shady characters with greasy palms and violent tempers. But he also needs a ‘dummy’ – a naive captain to lead the ship to its doom.
He finds his man in the person of young Yann Calec, a former Navy officer serving on minesweepers, who is desperate to get a job, even one that smells bad from the start.

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I’ll stop here with the set-up in order to avoid spoiling the plot developments.
I’ve always likes adventures at sea, either biographical or thrillers in the vein of Alistair MacLean or Douglass Reeman. Kraehn spins a good tale, at least in the first four albums that focus on the ‘Belle Helene’ and on the treachery of de Trychere [sic!].
The content is adult oriented and sometimes explicit, both in violence and in bedroom activities, but these are more like added spice than the main focus of the story, which is realistic, well researched and very well drawn – something I have come to expect from the Franco-Belgian school of bands dessinee



The adventure / criminal investigation part of the story makes me for some reason think of Hugo Pratt and his ‘Corto Maltese’ fumetti, which I also read recently. Captain Calec gets into similar troubles as the Italian adventurer of an earlier period: political, sentimental, criminal.
Calec often has to use both his fists and his wits in order to survive, something than cannot always be said of the supporting cast.

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My initial enthusiasm was somewhat tempered once I got to the second and third story arcs: first in Vietnam, where Yann Calec tries to reconnect with his father, a soldier of fortune and a colonial administrator during the first Indochine war.
Calec’s visit coincides with the American sequel of that war games and with a treasure hunt in the company of a fresh batch of criminals.
It is, as the first story arc, well written and with excellent graphics, but I could not ignore the racist and vicious depiction of the North Vietnamese side here, in particular in the comments of Calec’s father.

Albums 09 and 10 take Yann Calec to Equatorial Africa, where he has similar adventures with previous albums, while no. 11 visits the Red Sea where our intrepid captain deals with arms smugglers, pirates and kidnappings.

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In the end, I enjoyed the series and I will keep my eyes out for new material from Kraehn and Jusseaume.

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

A dying ship magnate buys a decrepit ship with the intentions of sinking her and committing insurance fraud. This book is just about getting the ship prepared. This story is a clunker. The only women in this book are mistreated at the very least and one gets much worse. Trigger warnings certainly apply.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 1 out of 5]

'Tramp: 1. The Trap' by Jean-Charles Kraehn with art by Patrick Jusseaume is a graphic novel about treachery.

A man dying of cancer with a seemingly unhealthy relationship towards his own daughter buys an old liberty ship. His plan is to file a big insurance claim and pay some former nazis to help him sink it. He hires an inexperienced captain, but the captain may be a bit smarter than he lets on.

This is only the first part of the story and by the end, the ship hasn't sailed yet. I didn't like how the dying ship owner's relationship with his daughter was described. The only other woman in the book suffers a bad death. The art is fine, but I didn't like this title.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really want more Bande Dessinees in my repertoire. When I first found this on Comixology and the recommendations, I wanted to get a taste of the adventure series that permeates France. The artwork by Jusseaume certainly doesn't disappoint for setting the mood, muted color really displays the melancholy. Unfortunately, I also see how much this piece has aged from its original publishing. There is just so much exposition on what the characters are feeling and doing. I guess this is a piece of BD's silver age.

The characters themselves aren't too bad. A few of them have flaws that make them believable including a man trying to assist his daughter by doing any dirty handed thing; as long as he doesn't get his hands dirty. At the same time though, that need for redemption for that same daughter who can never forgive him. The captain meanwhile has some pretty decent development for the titular focus. He wants to be a better man and he's trying all that he can. It's because of that he finds his employer's suspicious behavior. As for the woman herself, I feel like her death is the same as getting thrown in a fridge for later work.

Some of the editing could be better, it would be great to show not tell things about a person like the violent first mate. Not a bad series from what I can tell but the beginning feels like it can skipped.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

A compelling graphic novel thriller, although I can see people disliking the heavy-handed voice-over. The biggest sin for me is that this is so open-ended, but I was all set to lambast the publishers for giving us half a story when I found there were no less than eleven (if not more) parts in the original French. Europe Comics have got up to seven of them in English, and on this evidence they're enjoyable, if that's not too bright and breezy a word. This volume, for instance, brings us a businessman who is dying and in need of a legacy to leave his crippled daughter, and so wrangles an insurance scam involving an old wreck he can only part repair, and a naive young sap eager for work and keen on the idea of becoming a captain. We don't like this guy at first, but he's the main character of the whole saga, so as dark as things get (and you can already see this opening book isn't exactly droll fun for anyone) we do have a hunch he'll survive. I'd just wish for the chance to find out the machinations of the plot, for even if the creators have a heavy touch at times they do have a great way with forming a fine thriller set-up. The historical detail looks fine, the shipping industry background is fresh, and away from having to introduce everything and everyone, these books could really engage.

[Raquel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tramp follows the unexpected investigation of Yann Calec, the young captain of the Bela Helena, involved in a fraud prepared by his shipowner. A throbbing thriller set against the backdrop of commercial fraud.

The narrative begins in November 1949, in Rouen, a city located in the region of Normandy, in northwestern France. Julian De Trichère is a shipowner whose company faces a catastrophic financial situation. With an illness that threatens his life and a daughter confined to a wheelchair, De Trichère has "to make a terrible decision". He purchases an old Liberty Ship, a freighter built in series by the USA, to supply material to allied forces, during World War II. Meanwhile, the shipowner certifies that Bontemps, the armaments captain, circulates the rumour of the unlucky ship and that Boissin, an official from the inspection department, grants the now Bela Helena the maximum trust quota. In Cumana, in a traditional Venezuelan fishing port, hides a former Kriegsmarine submarine officer, whose restaurant is just the front of his smuggler activities. Unaware of what's going on, Yann Calec, a captain with an excellent service record, stumbles upon Ester Mallot, De Trichère's beautiful secretary, and is eventually hired.

Will Calec discover the truth and avoid the trap? Maybe we will discover it in the next episode.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair start for this noir drama. I think the set up has potential. A dying shipping magnate finds his business in a shambles after the war. His daughter is his only living family and only real emotional connection tot he world. She is wheel chair bound after a bombing that resulted in the loss of her mother and was somehow made worse by her fathers cowardice or inaction. He determines to leave her a legacy rather than a pile of debt and sets in motion an overly complex insurance scam.

The dialogue is very good for a translation and the art fits the mood and the story. The characters have lots of potential and I'm going to read volume 2 soon.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo de Ponent Mon y el cómic franco-belga empieza a ser para ponerles un piso.

[José Nebreda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mola :D

[Gerard de Bruin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een door mij ten onrechte verwaarloosde serie. Geweldig! Cadeau gekregen voor mijn verjaardag en dus een inhaalslag kunnen maken.

[Jen (Remembered Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Trap is the first volume of Tramp, an 11 part maritime noir series. This volume was originally published in 1993, although the translation is quite new - from 2017. The story sets up the rest of the series, introducing us to the main characters (whose personalities range from mildly unlikeable to loathsome), and the core drama of a cargo ship and an insurance scheme.

Set in 1950, the art (by the late Patrick Jusseaume) captures the post-war setting with evenly gritty detail. The dialogue (by Jean-Charles Kraehn, and translated by Edward Gauvin) suffers somewhat in translation due to a combination of the intentionally dated language and slang, but remains compelling. As an introduction, it successfully builds a base for what's to come, sets up the intrigue well, and does a solid job of setting up the character motivations. The book won't be for everyone (the unpleasantness of the two main characters is not going to appeal to some readers), but what it tries to do, it does well.

[Kristina · Rating 1 out of 5]

The main character's love for his daughter is described as "almost incestuous" passion, and that's where I stopped reading. There was not enough intrigue or interest in this plot for me to continue on with the story.

[Peter Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very involving, if a little more adult than I had expected. Duplicity, intrigue...virtually every character is flawed in some way, which makes it more realistic. I want to read volume 2 now, but I have just discovered there are loads of them!