Babylon

by Laurent Galandon (writer), Frank Giroud (writer), Philippe Nicloux (artist)

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, Max Ferlane is your a good man with skills a bad past has left him. Now he's trying to leave that bad life behind, put those skills to good use. He's in the Congo rescuing a young girl from an arranged marriage when an old employer turns the Babylon Agency, specializing in high-profile political exfiltrations. Max is forced into a different, far more dangerous mission that will take him deep into warring jungles and his own past mistakes. For Max's PTSD hallucinations are only getting worse...

66 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 26, 2020

About the author

Né le 16 mars 1970 à Issy-les-Moulineaux, Laurent Galandon grandit dans la banlieue parisienne. A l’adolescence, il s’enferme dans des greniers et joue des nuits entières de longues aventures où il combat Trolls et autres créatures Cthulhiennes. Ses premières histoires, il les écrit donc pour ses camarades de Jeux de Rôle. Adultes, il rejoint Paris pour se consacrer à son autre passion : la photographie. En 1996, il quitte la capitale et prend la direction d’un cinéma d’Art et Essai à Trappes (ville d'un célèbre comique !). Là, il rencontre des comédiens, des réalisateurs et des scénaristes qui raniment son goût pour raconter des histoires.


Il ne serait pas indu de dire de Laurent Galandon qu'il est le scénariste des opprimés. En quelques années, cet auteur a signé nombre d'albums dont le trait commun semble être une certaine volonté d'ouvrir les yeux du public sur le sort réservé à certaines populations ou individus. Des enfants déportés de L'Envolée sauvage, aux gitans de Quand souffle le vent, en passant par les gamins des colonies agricoles pénitentiaires des Innocents coupables ou les ouvriers en lutte de Lip, des héros ordinaires, Galandon aime dépeindre le sort des damnés de la terre. Exercice périlleux auquel il se livre toujours avec une grande sensibilité, multipliant les collaborations – autour de one-shots ou diptyques, la plupart du temps. Ses dialogues minimalistes et la grande part laissée aux silences et aux émotions ont conquis le cœur du public.

Laurent Galandon vit maintenant en Ardèche. Il continue à écrire des histoires empreintes d’humanité où ses personnages s’inscrivent dans des périodes sombres ou tourmentées de l’Histoire.

http://workinprogresslg.blogspot.fr/2...

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

NOTE: I received a free preliminary, and likely unedited copy of this book from Netgalley for the purposes of providing an honest, unbiased review of the material. Thank you to all involved.

Another day, another book by one of my new “companies to look out for”, Europe Comics. Babylon is another French comic, translated into English. I’ve recently come across a handful of their comics, and have really enjoyed them. Comics from western Europe have an entirely different feel to them than either the United States or Japan, focusing more on mature stories vs superheroes and the like, and for that I love them.

“If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him, Max Ferlane is your man: a good man with skills a bad past has left him. Now he’s trying to leave that bad life behind, put those skills to good use. He’s in the Congo rescuing a young girl from an arranged marriage when an old employer turns up: the Babylon Agency, specializing in high-profile political exfiltrations. Max is forced into a different, far more dangerous mission that will take him deep into warring jungles and his own past mistakes. For Max’s PTSD hallucinations are only getting worse…” -- book description

At first glance, and in the initial few pages, I figured this was going to be a bog-standard run-of-the-mill mercenary for hire story, but was surprisingly wrong when things took a weird turn. There are times in the book, where you are led to believe that things have suddenly gone VERY science fiction VERY fast, but its not what you think. Having the book take place somewhere in Eastern Africa, was also interesting, and gave the setting a bit of a political edge that I really enjoy in European Comics. That said, In many ways, Max Ferlane is somewhat of a cliché character in comics, one part Snake Pliskin, another Max Payne (if anyone else remembers that game), but this doesn’t detract from the story in any way.

This is the first part of a multi-part story, and I will eagerly be waiting for the next chapter. With my quibbles aside regarding some clichés, The setting, plot, and characters are cool enough to keep me reading. Yeah, it’s basically “Escape from Congo”, but that’s honestly better than most of the actual sequels to that franchise.

[G. Salter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story presents an interesting conundrum: what do you do with a hero who will be there to do what no one else can... but he may not be able to trust himself? The result is a snarky, somewhat foul-mouthed but exciting action story in the black ops/international spy tradition, a bit like Luc Besson's early action films (Nikita, The Professional).

[Danni · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for giving me this eARC to review.

The art isn't bad but the story didn't keep me engaged even though it should have considering it is was packed full of adventure. I ended up DNF'ing this at around 50% and I wasn't too sure on how the mental health was handled.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Max Ferlane is a problem solver, except he's starting to hallucinate in this ok thriller.