Who has never dreamed as a child of taking off, of leaving his parents to live a great adventure? It is on this need for freedom that Jules Vernes based Un capitaine de 15 ans and Glénat editions offer a comic book adaptation.
Set sail
A 15-year-old captain started in New Zealand in 1873. Captain Hull returns to Auckland Harbour but is worried. His whaler, the Pilgrim, returns half empty. He can no longer find enough prey to pay his crew. This proud captain could not accept this financial failure and therefore accepted an unusual mission: to transport rich passengers from New Zealand to Boston. Thus the son Jack, the wife and cousin Benedict of his owner and the wealthy shipowner James W. Weldon board the Pilgrim. However, the quiet cruise during a favorable season turns into drama. Everything changes when the captain sees a whale approaching. What should never happen, however, is taking place: the 15-year-old foam Dick Sang, finds himself propelled captain. The child will have to take on responsibilities that many adults could not bear. In quiet times, the 15-year-old captain is already struggling to come to terms with his new status. Indeed, due to the small number of passengers, the crew was reduced to the bare minimum. How will he cope with storms?
From novel to comic strip
It is on the shoulders of Frédéric Brrémaud and Christophe Picaud that rests the responsibility of putting into image the often abundant ideas contained in the books of Jules Vernes. Planned in two volumes, A 15-year-old captain multiplies the adventures in a few pages. Frédéric Brrémaud's screenplay is close to the novel by using the technical vocabulary of the navy and extracts from the original text. However, the comic book version of A 15-Year-Old Captain remains accessible to all readers, even the youngest. They will be thrown into the middle of an inconstant ocean, sometimes flat and then suddenly tumultuous. The cartoonist Christophe Picaud has a rounded style that will appeal to the youngest. He is very comfortable in the reconstructions of the city of Auckland and the wooden sailboat.
A current story?
We can think that Jules Verne's novel is marked by time. Of course, we are in another era. Pre-teens don't go on a ship halfway around the world without their parents. You don't travel a month and a half to the United States. These wrinkles of time are rather a journey into a past where the slave trade still exists. However, we can find that this old drama is a little too softened by the passage in comics. But a 15-year-old captain finds a new topicality. Whaling is experiencing a golden age that explains the current scarcity of cetaceans. This captain responsible for his sailors can be reminiscent of a boss suffering from the covid crisis who risks seeing his employees leave for other companies. Young readers will love it when a child is a 15-year-old captain. The dog that became the mascot of the Pilgrim will touch them. There are also timeless elements: young readers will be seduced by this initiatory story.Although an orphan, Dick Sang is full of spirit. He is also very brave because a storm does not prevent him from climbing to the top of the masts. The cousin is very strange, funny, crazy and knowledgeable. His all-consuming passion for science is reminiscent of Sunflower. Castaways join the crew forming an unprecedented community of solidarity. Frédéric Brrémaud and Christophe Picaud defeated the storms of A 15-year-old captain. The reader never has the impression of reading an illustrated novel but enjoys both the happiness of the original story while enjoying the dynamism of the comic. You can find on our site other adaptations in comics with Amen and A popular history of the France.
