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Blueberry #13

Blueberry Cilt 2 - Chihuahua İncisi

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The saga of Lieutenant Blueberry is undoubtedly one of the greatest western epics in comic book history. Written by Jean-Michel Charlier and illustrated by stylistic chameleon Moebius, the series follows the undisciplined but always resourceful anti hero through the Civil War, the settlement of the Wild West, and numerous conflicts along the Mexican border.

Chihuahua Pearl is the beginning of the third Blueberry saga, where he goes from soldier to outlaw and finds himself deep in dangerous Mexican territory with only a name and a story about a half million in confederate gold. The fate of the young nation of America is at stake, and it's all in the hands of our hard-headed hero.

But first, he'll have to outrun and outsmart bandits, bounty hunters, Confederate deserters, the Mexican army, and one very feisty saloon dancer.

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

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About the author

Jean-Michel Charlier

637 books53 followers
Jean-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.

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5 stars
190 (46%)
4 stars
158 (38%)
3 stars
43 (10%)
2 stars
11 (2%)
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5 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
Profile Image for Stewart Tame.
2,476 reviews121 followers
May 13, 2020
Okay, so even though there's a prominent “1” on the cover, this is actually the 13th volume in the Blueberry series. For whatever reason, Marvel/Epic opted to skip a large portion of the series for the run of their English translations. Since they were having some success with translations of Moebius’ SF and Fantasy work from the 70's and beyond, they may have opted to start with the run of Blueberry that most closely matched that style? I’ve not seen any of the series from the 60's, so I can't say for sure.

Anyway, it's a good starting point. Lieutenant Mike Blueberry is stationed in Arizona in the late 1860’s. Near the US-Mexican border, he spies a man on horseback fleeing a group of Mexican soldiers. He intervenes, ordering the group back across the border, and then rides after the man. What follows is a long and thrilling adventure with the prize being the location of a half a million dollars’ worth of Confederate gold …

Westerns aren't part of my regular literary diet, but I’ve read a few over the years. Blueberry is certainly one of the best and most memorable I’ve ever read. Great characters, authentic settings, gripping stories … I could wish that this series of translations had started from the beginning, but I’ll take what I can get. Fair warning: not all story threads are resolved in this volume, although it does end on a fairly logical chapter break. Highly recommended!
5 reviews2 followers
October 4, 2010
I am a Die hard western fan originally read this book in my teen in my mother tongue tamil published in B/W digest formats and later very much in my memories all the time and bought this around 2006 from Graphittidesigns as collected hard cover editions.

About the book its a classic in simple words, the artist Giraud aka Moebius once said many artist doing western comics would follow their style in their own ways like many followed original western photos but his inspiration was none other than the western master Sergio Leone.

Its starts with a mission for the hero to mexico and grab the confederate gold and one of the main things you should adapt is the ending, he is ugly, ruthless, orderless, fights his own ways and yet he is just an ordinary man to face the truth, this edition would have only 2 parts Chihuahua pearl and The Half-a-Million Dollar Man just get the next book which will have the touching part of the climax where Blueberry screams ""I am not guilty"" at the council when he returns with steel scraps instead of the gold.

Grab everything you could get from this series and you won't be disappointed its pure classic.
Profile Image for Sotofunkdamental.
683 reviews4 followers
May 18, 2022
"Chihuaha Pearl", "El hombre que valía 500.000 $" y "Balada por un ataúd" componen el siguiente ciclo de Blueberry (El Tesoro de los Confederados). Nivel altísimo tanto en guión como en dibujo. Lectura obligatoria y todo un Must-Have del género western.
Profile Image for Armin.
1,198 reviews35 followers
April 17, 2013
Bislang bester (mir bekannter) Band der Reihe, hier stimmt einfach alles, Handlung, Erzähltempo, optische Anreize.
Profile Image for G.
155 reviews18 followers
September 20, 2018
I'm not even a fan of westerns, but this comic series, with its brilliantly portrayed characters and meticulously detailed setting, made me more appreciative of this genre.
Profile Image for The Cannibal.
657 reviews23 followers
October 24, 2018
♫What can make you move, Chihuahua ♫Can you feel the groove ChihuahuaWhat can make you dance ♪ Oh Chihuahua ! ♪What can make you sing Chihuahua ♪Take it and you win Chihuahua ♫

Quand la belle et voluptueuse Chihuahua Pearl serre un cigare dans ses dents, je pense que les hommes auraient envie qu'elle s'occupe du leur, mais sans les dents…

Mais avant que notre lieutenant borderline Blueberry ne croise les lèvres pulpeuses et les courbes généreuses de la belle Chihuahua, il va lui arriver moult aventures et, une fois de plus, il aura l'impression d'être le dindon de la farce, un pion sur l'échiquier, sans qu'il sache toujours très bien qui joue avec qui.

Une chasse au trésor, ça vous dit ? le magot que les confédérés auraient planqué lors de la capitulation n'a toujours pas été retrouvé, certains n'en avaient même pas connaissance, de l'existence de ce magot. Mais une fois que l'on sait, ça donne envie de jouer tout en laissant les règles de côté.

Mike Blueberry est envoyé pour retrouver l'homme qui a enterré le trésor, mais comme il doit faire ça dans la discrétion, on va le renvoyer à la vie civile et même ajouter des griefs à son palmarès déjà bien rempli de conneries en tout genre.

Chasse au trésor et partie de cache-cache pour éviter les soldats mexicains de Vigo, le chasseur de primes et les jayhawkers de Kimball et Finlay, tout en essayant de se faire rejoindre par le poivrot de MacClure et son autre acolyte, Red Neck.

Qui a dit qu'on allait se la couler douce ??? Va falloir faire gaffe à préserver sa peau, à éviter les mauvaises rencontres et ménager sa monture ! Les chemins pour passer au Mexique ne sont pas nombreux, ce qui ferait plaisir à Trumpette…

Un tome qui mélange adroitement les codes du western et du polar, distillant adroitement le suspense et les retournements de situation, le tout avec une pincée de manipulations, de jalousie, d'envie et de soif de l'or.

Un tome qui ne ménagera pas notre lieutenant mal rasé, mal coiffé, mal embouché, sale, puant et au caractère de cochon. Mais c'est ainsi que nous l'aimons, non ?
Profile Image for Rick Ray.
3,545 reviews37 followers
March 31, 2023
I was bracing for this to be a comic where I appreciate the artwork over the story, but Charlier really nails nearly every aspect of the storytelling. There are ample twists and complex character motivations abound. Lieutenant Mike Blueberry is more than just the typical anti-hero, he's someone who leans heavy into the rogueish characteristics of a man who lives in the wild more often than not.

The story begins with Blueberry encountering some Federales chasing a horseman across the US-Mexico border. Blueberry intervenes, citing the possibility of triggering an international incident and takes on the capture of the fugitive himself. He soon gets embroiled in a major political conspiracy involving a stash of Confederate gold and a mysterious woman known as the Chihuahua Pearl. The story is extremely well laid out and even though Charlier's script is verbose, the plot moves along briskly.

Moebius' artwork is of course stunning and each page turn is pure joy. The color choices are all inspired and the overall page compositions are simply genius creations. I know that English translations of Blueberry are tough to come by, but this is really a comic worth seeking out.
Profile Image for Soobie is expired.
7,176 reviews134 followers
February 16, 2023
Comincia così quello che è considerato il miglior ciclo di Blueberry. E non so cosa aspettarmi visto che il ciclo dell'oro della Sierra è stato decisamente piacevole da leggere.

In questo e nei successivi due albi, si andrà alla ricerca del tesoro dei confederati: mezzo milione di dollari che sono spariti dalla circolazione. Per poter agire indisturbato, Blueberry viene addirittura congedato dall'esercito in modo che possa andare in Messico per salvare qualcuno che potrebbe sapere dove trovare il tesoro.

Per il momento la faccenda è un po' contorta, con un marea di gente che segue Blueberry per svariati motivi. Vedremo anche come si svilupperà il personaggio di Chihuahua Pearl, che in questa copertina non fa mica la sua bella figura! Anzi, tra tutte le copertine di Blueberry, questa è quella che mi piace di meno.
546 reviews
November 23, 2023
DNF - This just wasn't really for me. It certainly wasn't bad and, for its time, was probably really quite something. Still, I just found myself a bit disinterested and bored by it. The art was nice enough but I just found the writing a bit dull, and a lot of the text felt unnecessary (this seems to be a common issue, especially with older comics, where the writer doesn't have faith in the artist to tell the story visually). Anyway, I got about a quarter of the way through and started to feel like the remaining 75 pages were going to be a slog, so I gave up.

Even though it's #13, in the editions I have it's #1. Apparently the style develops as the series goes in so I'm going to give #3 (#15?) a try and see if the writer learnt a bit more restraint in the intervening time period.
Profile Image for Timo.
Author 3 books17 followers
May 27, 2019
Kaunis kansi, mutta liian vähän tapahtumia. Valtavasti pedataan petiä kauheasti juonittelemalla sille mitä tulee olemaan.
Profile Image for John Ward.
435 reviews6 followers
October 22, 2021
Excellent western set in Texas and north Mexico. Story focuses on a Mike Blueberry and his government sanctioned quest for the confederate gold. Art is amazing
Profile Image for Seven Pesos.
285 reviews2 followers
January 23, 2023
I really liked this, a lot more than I thought I would. Very exciting western jailbreak story. Great characters, great artwork, lots of fun twists and turns.
Profile Image for Zach.
354 reviews14 followers
December 4, 2023
Another classic Blueberry tale, but much of his work is still cut out for him. . . .
Profile Image for The_Mad_Swede.
1,429 reviews
May 19, 2016
This volume collects the two Blueberry albums Chihuahua Pearl and L'homme qui valait 500 000 $ (Eng. title: The Half-a-million Dollar Man), that is, albums 13 and 14 in the original French publication, and the first two parts of the three-parter Le Tresor des Confederes (The Confederate Treasure).

Blueberry stumbles across some information about lost confederate gold hidden in Mexico and is given a secret mission to retrieve this treasure for the US government. He sets out with his friends Red Neck and Jimmy McClure, but there are others interested in the gold as well, both Mexicans and former confederate soldiers turned outlaws; not to mention bounty hunters chasing after Blueberry himself, since he has been dishonourably discharged and branded an outlaw for reasons of stealth and subterfuge.

These two albums set off events that will have ramifications for the character throughout the next three story-arcs (read the next seven albums after the end of this three-parter) and is, as so often when it comes to Blueberry, an great example of tremendously fine Western comics. Charlier's story is strong and Giraud's (a.k.a. Moebius) artwork and visual storytelling is great. The volume cannot be recommended enough.
Profile Image for Tristan.
1,449 reviews18 followers
March 22, 2021
I have a 1983 hardback reprint in French from Dargaud. Originally serialised in 1970 and published in book form in 1973, this is the 13th episode of a long-running western series starting in the early 1960s, one of the very best amongst many cowboy comics in the Franco-Belgian comics scene. This particular episode starts a stand-alone story arc concerning a treasure hunt for confederate gold. These long-running story arcs are a feature of this series, providing really meaty reads.

I never was one for westerns as a kid, but this particular story arc really caught my imagination. The artwork is absolutely exceptional (this is Moebius in his Jean Giraud persona), even though the pages are intricately detailed and very busy, and the colouring is really not up to the task. The quality of the print on the page also doesn’t do justice to the art. The story is also exceptional, very smart, very plausible and detailed. It’s a magnificent game of chess between several forces chasing the gold without any scruples. It is however very wordy for a kids’ cartoon, making for very dense pages.

All of the characters are fleshed out, the backdrops are breathtaking, the action is constant with high jeopardy ... this matches any western movie from Hollywood. Top notch stuff.
Profile Image for Bernardo.
285 reviews9 followers
December 15, 2014
Los dibujos de Mœbius, y su atención al detalle puestos al servicio de un buen western, escrito por otro francés... todo esto sumado a uno de los primeros personajes de cómics que leí en mi vida, es algo a lo que cuesta no sentirme atraído. Vi el documental sobre cómo Jodorowski ensambló un equipo ejemplar para filmar Dune, y cómo la contribución de Mœbius fue fundamental, pero fue a través de Blueberry que el director mexicano encontró a este dibujante galo, quien para mi, personifica la excelencia en el cómic europeo.
Profile Image for John.
Author 35 books41 followers
December 17, 2013
This is just the first two chapters of a big epic. (Wish I'd known that before I started reading. Now I need to dig through 87 boxes to see if I have the next chapters.) Anyway, the art's great, except for the color, which often confuses things, and the lettering, which is inconsistent and weak. The story? Oh yeah, it builds and builds and builds and then doesn't conclude because this isn't a complete story. Oh well...
Profile Image for Math le maudit.
1,376 reviews45 followers
July 29, 2011
Nouveau cycle, cette fois plus inspiré des thèmes du cinéma italien dont on retrouve un des thèmes récurrent : la course au trésor. Blueberry est chargé par le gouvernement de retrouver le trésor de guerre des confédérés.

Accompagné de Mac Clure et Red Neck, il va devoir retrouver son contact à Chihuahua, contact qui lui indiquera comment trouver le trésor.
Profile Image for Michael.
3,385 reviews
April 21, 2012
Okay, I have a different edition than the advertised version. I have Graphitti Designs hardcover, with four European albums, including the entire quest for Confederate gold begun in Chihuahua Pearl. The entire saga's brilliant, well worth tracking down!
Profile Image for Bob.
Author 393 books286 followers
May 8, 2009
My favorite comic series, mainly for the art. Luckily, Marvel translated many of them into English.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews

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