Christophe Blain is a French comics-artist, and it’s a little hard to find info about him. Here’s his wikipedia page...in French.
Some of his comics have been collected into graphic novels, and some of those have been translated into English and published by NBM Publishing. It looks like he’s got something called The Dungeon, which piques my interest.
I discovered Isaac the Pirate 1. To Exotic Lands on the shelf when exploring the library in another town. Wouldn’t you know it? They didn’t have book 2.
So I had to hunt a bit and now own Isaac the Pirate vols 1 and 2 (2 is titled The Capital), and The Speed Abater.
long noses and square-ish heads.
I like Blain’s long-nose, square head style of caricaturization, his use of simple shadowing to convey darkness, stealth, fear and crappy weather, and his stories are gripping.
In Isaac the Pirate, Isaac is a Jewish painter, dirt poor, and in love with a nice young Gentile lady. He takes a job as a painter on a sea voyage, and finds himself conned into joining a pirate crew, on a glory mission to be the first to explore the Arctic. Will they survive the cold, the cannon-balls, the starvation? How long can a guy live on grog and heartbreak? (needless to say, some of Jonah’s songs earwormed their ways into my head while reading these). Meanwhile, back at the ranch, love interest Alice is torn apart by his mysterious disappearance–does she move on and live her life or wait for him?
Very highly recommended.
his use of simple shadowing to convey darkness, stealth, fear and crappy weather
