(onomatopœic noises)
Second frame of third page of Barabas:
"Please stow your tray tables, and move your seats to the upright position"
(See previously vols 1, 2, 3, 4)
This is the close of Marc Legendre's reimagining of the classic Flemish kids' comic, Suske en Wiske, with the two central characters finally reunited but only for a rather downbeat ending. Volume 5 actually won the Willy Vandersteen Prize, the award for a Dutch-language comic named after the original creator of Suske en Wiske. (The only other Vandersteen Prize winner that I have read was Ergens waar je niet wil zijn, by Brecht Evens, which I thought was great.)
I have to say that these final two volumes somewhat lost me. I thought that the fifth volume went in for shocking violence, which I never much like, and the sixth built towards a rather grim conclusion. The art and characterisation remain good, but perhaps missed the mark under our curent circumstances. You can get Vol 5 here and vol 6 here.
These were my top unread non-English comics. Next on that pile is the diptych De dag waarop ze haar vlucht nam/De dag waarop de bus zonder haar vertrok, by Béka (Bertrand Escaich and Caroline Roque) and Marko (Marc Armspach).
