Spirou & Fantasio having been clinically dead for five years, Dupuis editions continue to develop its universe or its entourage in a bunch of more or less attractive variations. The Count of Champignac was therefore affixed his noble surname at the head of an eponymous series whose second volume, Le Patient A, appeared on February 5. What cannot be denied in Champignac is its dynamism and vivacity. From the first pages, we are launched into the story, lively and removed. Aesthetically, it is very good, and we regret that a designer of the style of David Etien was not entrusted with the reins of Spirou & Fantasio to take up the torch after the Japanese – and unwelcome – period of Morvan & Munuera (2004-2008).
To any berzingue…
Associated with an irreproachable aesthetic, the scenario is to match. Downtime does not exist, dialogues are generally good, even if we can sometimes regret some moralizing remarks. But after all, this is a series stamped "youth" (in which we still see Pacôme and his girlfriend Blair in bed after love. um…) Some will probably also want to create a controversy by criticizing the fact that Germans are presented as villains against their will (because in fact, they have been drugged!) But this is a science fiction story (the count knows how to create many things from mushrooms) and not a historical narrative. Moreover, in Patient A – set in 1941 – the British sovereign is a sovereign (plate 8). Place to the imagination, therefore.
… but a few breaks
Despite its obvious qualities, the dishevelled rhythm and the almost permanent action make that the reading of the album is however very fast. There are, however, some interesting pauses, the most interesting – and funny – being the one where Pachomius explains to Blair how he failed to solve a simple arithmetic problem to become a town hall employee while this brave Duplumier succeeded. In the end, Pacôme Hégésippe Adélard Ladislas, Comte de Champignac continues his warlike adventures in an album once again elegant, tinged certainly with a touch of fantasy, but which still lacks something for the mixture to be totally satisfactory. Maybe if we weren't once again immersed in the world of the Second World War…
