Blake and Mortimer
| Comic | |
|---|---|
| title | The adventures of Blake and Mortimer |
| Original title | Les Aventures de Blake et Mortimer |
 | |
| country | Belgium |
| author |
Edgar P. Jacobs Jean Van Hamme Yves Sente Jean Dufaux |
| Illustrator |
Edgar P. Jacobs Bob de Moor Ted Benoît André Juillard René stars Chantal De Spiegeleer Antoine Aubin Teun Berserik Peter Van Dongen |
| publishing company | Lombard |
| magazine | Tintin |
| First publication | 1946 - ... |
Blake and Mortimer is a Franco-Belgian comic series first published in 1946 by Edgar P. Jacobs . It is considered an influential classic of Franco-Belgian comics and a masterpiece of the so-called Ligne claire , the clear line .
History of the series
Edgar P. Jacobs (1904–1987) had worked as a commercial artist, portrait painter and opera baritone before he entered the comic business in 1941 as a colorist . After working on the American series Flash Gordon , he created the story "The Underground Rays" in 1943 and 1944 , which was heavily based on Flash Gordon . At the same time, he worked with Hergé on his successful series Tintin ( Les aventures de Tintin ).
On September 26, 1946, the " Journal de Tintin " appeared for the first time , which in the following decades advanced to become one of the most influential European comic magazines. In the first Tintin issue, "The Battle for the World" ("Le secret de l'Espadon") started the first adventure of "Blake and Mortimer", a series conceived, written and drawn by Edgar P. Jacobs. With this futuristic adventure series he developed the concept of Die U-Strahl further and, in terms of aesthetics, orientated himself on the style of the so-called clear line that Hergé had developed for Tintin . The title characters were the nuclear physicist "Professor Mortimer" and "Captain Blake", employees of the British secret service MI5 .
The struggle for the world arose under the impression of World War II and showed the apocalyptic vision of a world threatened by an Asian dictator . Blake and Mortimer acted here as part of a resistance force under British leadership and thwarted the dictator's plans for world conquest in a dramatic battle. In this epic story, which ran for around three years in Tintin magazine and was later published in three parts, the unscrupulous "Colonel Olrik" was introduced, who appears in almost all Blake and Mortimer episodes as the opponent of the two title characters.
Blake and Mortimer quickly became one of the most popular series in Tintin magazine and was published there over a period of 25 years (usually the stories appeared as a comic album two to three years after the magazine was published). Because of its accurate drawing technique, Jacobs' careful research and "narrative credibility and atmospheric density", the series advanced to become a style-defining classic of the comic genre and is still very popular today.
After Jacobs had completed The Battle for the World , he published the two-parter The Secret of the Great Pyramid ( Le mystère de la grande pyramide ) between 1950 and 1952 , in which Blake and Mortimer experienced a mythical adventure in Egypt and legendary ones in the Great Pyramid of Cheops Discovered treasures. The yellow M ( La marque jaune , 1953/54) showed the two title heroes fighting a villainous scientist who terrifies London. In The Secret of Atlantis ( L'Enigme de l'Atlantide , 1955/56) Blake and Mortimer experienced spectacular adventures in a futuristic Atlantis.
In SOS Meteore ( SOS Météores , 1958/59) Blake and Mortimer fought against a secret organization that, under the leadership of Colonel Olrik, manipulated the weather to cause political chaos. In 1960 Jacobs published The Devilish Trap ( Le piège diabolique ), a time travel adventure that led Professor Mortimer to the year 5060, among others. After a five-year hiatus, The Diamond Affair ( L'affaire du collier ) appeared in 1965 , a crime thriller in which Blake and Mortimer investigated a diamond theft in the catacombs of Paris. While this story managed without science fiction elements, futuristic robots appeared in The Three Formulas of Professor Sato ( Les trois formules du professeur Sato , 1971/72) (this was the last Blake and Mortimer story to be preprinted in a magazine has been). For health reasons Edgar P. Jacobs had to give up his work on Blake and Mortimer afterwards. The artist died in 1987.
Based on Jacobs' designs, Bob de Moor designed Mortimer versus Mortimer ( Mortimer contre Mortimer ) in 1990 , the sequel to Professor Sato's three formulas . Up to this story, the albums followed a more or less closed chronology, beginning in the immediate post-war period up to the early 1970s. When new adventures by Blake and Mortimer were published in the mid-1990s , it was decided to locate these stories in the "historical" period of the 1950s and 1960s. The protagonists, often unreally ageless in other series, were avoided (such as in the aviator comic Buck Danny ) and the stories could be set in the time when the series was conceptually anchored.
From the mid-1990s, Blake and Mortimer was successfully continued with new creative teams. In 1996, Jean van Hamme (text) and Ted Benoît (drawings) presented The Fall Francis Blake ( L'Affaire Francis Blake ), a classic-style adventure that was based on well-known films such as The 39 Steps . 2000 followed with Die Voronov-Intrige ( La Machination Voronov ) by the team Yves Sente and André Juillard (text and drawing) a Blake and Mortimer adventure, which mostly took place behind the "iron curtain". In 2002, the Van Hamme / Benoit team presented an album with Unheimliche Treffen ( L'étrange rendez-vous ) that was strongly characterized by futuristic plot elements.
2004 and 2005, the team presented Sente / Juillard with the sarcophagi of the 6th continent ( Les du sarcophages 6ème continent ) an epic two-parter, which through a relatively long review of Blake and Mortimer youth in India of the colonial period was an opportunity to the character of the two To better understand main characters. The Sanctuary of Gondwana ( Le sanctuaire du Gondwana ) followed in 2008 , an adventure that was largely set in Africa (again by the Sente / Juillard team of authors). Jean van Hamme was the copywriter of the double adventure The Curse of Thirty Silver Coins ( La Malédiction des trente deniers ), which appeared in 2009 and 2010 and was drawn by René Sterne, Chantal De Spiegeleer, Aubin Frechon (under the name Antoine Aubin) and Étienne Schréder ( Sterne had died while working on the first album).
In 2012, the Sente / Juillard team presented The Vow of the Five Lords ( Le Serment des cinq Lords ), an adventure that was heavily dominated by elements of crime. With Die Septimus-Welle ( L'Onde Septimus , 2013), Jean Dufaux (text) and Antoine Aubin and Etienne Schréder (drawings) linked directly to the classic The Yellow M from the 1950s. Yves Sente and André Juillard are the authors of Der Stab des Plutarch , which was published in German on November 28, 2015. This story is set in 1944 and thus immediately before the very first Blake and Mortimer story "Battle for the World".
Another volume by Sente / Juillard was published in 2017 with The Testament of William S. , which takes place in 1958 and is again more involved in the criminalistic side of the series and deals with the mystery of William Shakespeare. An innovation can be that Mortimer does not act with Blake, but with his unrecognized daughter Elizabeth. The volume is dedicated to Ted Benoît , who died in 2016 .
In 2019, the new team Sente / Berserik / van Dongen released the first part of another two-part series Das Tal der Immortlichen , which chronologically follows on from the very first adventure The Fight for the World , in some cases even scenes from the downfall of the dictator Basam-Damdu von Jacobs picks up again.
Internal chronology
The Blake and Mortimer stories have not followed a linear chronology since 1996 , but are located between the classic albums by Edgar P. Jacobs. The internal chronology of the series, as it emerges from the dates mentioned in the albums, now looks something like this:
- 1919/1935: Looking back on Blake's first years as a secret agent in The Vow of the Five Lords
- 1933: Great review of Mortimer's youth in The Sarcophagi of the 6th Continent
- 1944: The staff of Plutarch
- 1946/47: The fight for the world
- 1947: The Valley of the Immortals
- 1950: The Secret of the Great Pyramid
- 1952: The yellow M
- 1953: The Septimus Wave
- 1954: The Vow of the Five Lords (Winter)
- 1954: The Francis Blake Case (June)
- 1954: Close Encounters (October)
- 1955: The curse of the thirty pieces of silver
- 1955: The Secret of Atlantis
- 1957: The Voronov intrigue
- 1958: The sarcophagi of the 6th continent
- 1958: The sanctuary of Gondwana
- 1958: The will of William S.
- 1959: SOS meteors
- 1960: The diabolical trap
- 1963: The diamond affair
- 1971: The 3 formulas of Professor Sato
- 1971: Mortimer versus Mortimer
main characters
Blake
The parents of Francis Percy Blake are AJ Blake, Colonel of the Royal Welch Fusiliers (today: The Royal Welsh Regiment with the historic motto I serve , to honor the Prince of Wales of John the Blind, Duke of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia whose heroic deaths at the Battle of Crécy in 1346) and Lady Milicent Roche of Killarney , daughter of Samuel B. Roche of Killarney, magistrate of the Glamorgan County (in Wales). Blake is a true Welshman whose ancestors can be traced back to the 13th century. He was born at the family seat in Llangollen . After a proper training in Eton , he joined the Royal Air Force and finally came to the military intelligence service MI5 . Although Blake is actually an Air Force officer (see “The Vow of the Five Lords”), he can always be seen in a British Army uniform . Because of his extraordinary merits, he was of King George VI. awarded the Distinguished Service Order , the Military Cross , the Victoria Cross and the George Medal , and also raised to the status of a baronet . He is also a knight of the Belgian Leopold Order ; King Baldwin bestowed this honor on him personally.
Mortimer
Even Philip Edgar Angus Mortimer comes from British aristocracy: His father, Archibald Aeneas Mortimer was on the Falkland Islands was born and served as a medical officer with the rank of major in Simla in India , where Mortimer was born. His mother was Lady Eileen Hunter of Pitlochry , a gifted pianist who descended from the ancient Scottish nobility of the (fictional) MacQuarrie clan . After attending school in Dumbarton , Mortimer attended Allen Glen's School in Glasgow , from where he switched to university at an early age and graduated with a BSC (Bachelor of Sciences). This was followed by stays at Berkeley and the MIT ( Massachusetts Institute of Technology ), where he specialized in atomic physics. Mortimer, like Blake, is a bachelor. After his tragically failed love for the Indian Princess Gita, he had a brief affair with the much older writer Sarah Summertown, from which a daughter named Elizabeth comes, but Mortimer knows nothing about her. As a real Scot, Mortimer only drinks real Scottish single malt whiskey , preferably the Cardhu brand . He was by King George VI. raised to the status of a baronet and awarded the Victoria Cross and the Distinguished Service Order . He is also a knight of the Belgian Leopold Order ; King Baldwin bestowed this honor on him personally.
Nasir
With his full name Ahmed Nasir, he was originally a sergeant in the 5th Battalion of the Makran Levy Corps and thus a subordinate of Cpt. Blake. He proved himself in the “battle for the world” and appeared in later volumes as Mortimer's servant. In the recently published volumes he has returned to his Indian homeland and is now working for the Indian secret service.
Olrik
The origins of Blake and Mortimer's favorite adversary, Colonel Olrik , who is as dubious as it is unscrupulous , is in the dark. Jacobs himself only scattered a few contradicting references in the form of (fictitious) rumors: In one opinion he is a former SS-Obersturmbannführer (that would correspond to the military rank of Lieutenant Colonel, i.e. Lt. Colonel) named Ulrich (= Olrik?) Von Hohenstauff, who directed the SS Junker School in Bad Tölz (which really existed) and fled to Asia after the Second World War. Other evidence suggests that he is a former employee of the KGB or the Hungarian secret service named Kirlof .
Sharkey
The villain Sharkey , who appears in several volumes as Olrik's "right hand man", can hardly be confused because of his brutal face. His racket mentality also corresponds to this appearance. In short: it is exactly what it looks like. In "The Secret of the Great Pyramid" he still leads the excavation work of Dr. Großgrabenstein, but is already in league with Olrik and his smuggling ring. In the following volumes, too, he will always be a loyal accomplice to the Colonel.
Others
The important people in Jacobs' universe have the traits of people around him. The villain Olrik has the features of Jacobs himself. Blake and Mortimer are modeled on Jacobs' friends Jacques Laudy and Jacques van Melkebeke - both of whom are also employees from the Tintin era. Jacobs' first wife, Ninie, appears in the U-Rays as Sylvia .
Albums
All Blake and Mortimer albums in the order of their publication, with German title and German volume number, original title and year of first publication (volumes 4 to 7 were published by Carlsen-Verlag in a chronologically incorrect order):
From issue 11, “The Voronov Intrigue”, a hardcover edition with a signed print will also be published by Salleck-Publications .
| French original edition (new volume count) |
year | German edition by Carlsen-Verlag (German volume count) |
Scenario / drawings |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) Le Secret de l'Espadon, Tome 1 | 1950 | (0) The fight for the world 1 (or complete volume 1-3) | Edgar P. Jacobs |
| (2) Le Secret de l'Espadon, Tome 2 | 1953 | (0) The fight for the world 2 (or complete volume 1-3) | Edgar P. Jacobs |
| (3) Le Secret de l'Espadon, Tome 3 | 1953 | (0) The fight for the world 3 (or complete volume 1-3) | Edgar P. Jacobs |
| (4) Le Mystère de la Grande Pyramide, 1ère partie: Le Papyrus de Manethon | 1954 | (1) The Secret of the Great Pyramid - Volume 1: The Papyrus of Manetho | Edgar P. Jacobs |
| (5) Le Mystère de la Grande Pyramide, 2nd partie: La Chambre d'Horus | 1955 | (2) The Secret of the Great Pyramid - Volume 2: The Chamber of Horus | Edgar P. Jacobs |
| (6) La marque jaune | 1956 | (3) The yellow M. | Edgar P. Jacobs |
| (7) L'Enigme de l'Atlantide | 1957 | (7) The Secret of Atlantis | Edgar P. Jacobs |
| (8) SOS Météores - Mortimer à Paris | 1959 | (4) SOS meteors | Edgar P. Jacobs |
| (9) Le Piège diabolique | 1962 | (6) The diabolical trap | Edgar P. Jacobs |
| (10) L'Affaire du Collier | 1967 | (5) The diamond affair | Edgar P. Jacobs |
| (11) Les 3 Formules du professeur Sato, Tome 1: Mortimer à Tokyo | 1977 | (8) The 3 formulas of Professor Sato | Edgar P. Jacobs |
| (12) Les 3 Formules du professeur Sato, Tome 2: Mortimer contre Mortimer | 1990 | (9) Mortimer versus Mortimer | Edgar P. Jacobs / Bob de Moor |
| (13) L'Affaire Francis Blake | 1996 | (10) The Francis Blake case | Jean Van Hamme / Ted Benoît |
| (14) La Machination Voronov | 2000 | (11) The Voronov intrigue | Yves Sente / André Juillard |
| (15) L'Etrange Rendez-vous | 2001 | (12) Close encounter | Jean Van Hamme / Ted Benoît |
| (16) Les sarcophages du 6e continent, Tome 1: La menace universelle | 2003 | (13) The sarcophagi of the 6th continent, part 1: Old friends | Yves Sente / André Juillard |
| (17) Les sarcophages du 6e continent, Tome 2: Le duel des esprits | 2004 | (14) The sarcophagi of the 6th continent, part 2: The duel | Yves Sente / André Juillard |
| (18) Le sanctuaire de Gondwana | 2008 | (15) The sanctuary of Gondwana | Yves Sente / André Juillard |
| (19) La Malédiction des trente deniers, Tome 1: Le manuscrit de Nicodemus | 2009 | (16) The curse of the thirty pieces of silver, part 1: The writings of Nicodemus | Jean Van Hamme / René Stars / Chantal De Spiegeleer |
| (20) La Malédiction des trente deniers, Tome 2: La porte d'Orphée | 2010 | (17) The curse of the thirty pieces of silver, part 2: The gate of Orpheus | Jean Van Hamme / Aubin Frechon (under the name Antoine Aubin) / Étienne Schréder |
| (21) Le Serment des cinq Lords | 2012 | (18) The vow of the five lords | Yves Sente / André Juillard |
| (22) L'Onde Septimus | 2013 | (19) The Septimus Wave | Jean Dufaux / Aubin Frechon (under the name Antoine Aubin) / Étienne Schréder |
| (23) Le Bâton de Plutarque | 2014 | (20) Plutarch's staff | Yves Sente / André Juillard |
| (24) Le testament de William S. | 2016 | (21) The will of William S. | Yves Sente / André Juillard |
| (25) La Vallée des Immortels, Tome 1: Menace sur Hong Kong | 2018 | (22) The Valley of the Immortals, Part 1: Danger to Hong Kong | Yves Sente / Peter van Dongen / Teun Berserik |
| (26) La Vallée des Immortels, Tome 2: Le Millième bras du Mékong | 2019 | (23) The Valley of the Immortals, Part 2: The Thousandth Arm of the Mekong | Yves Sente / Peter van Dongen / Teun Berserik |
Special
| French original edition | year | German edition by Carlsen-Verlag | Scenario / drawings |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) Le dernier Pharaon | 2019 | (1) The last pharaoh | François Schuiten / Jaco Van Dormael / Thomas Gunzig |
Movies
Cartoons
The Blake and Mortimer cartoon series originally consisted of 26 episodes of approx. 22 minutes each, of which two always formed a coherent story, first broadcast in France in April 1997. In the DVD version, the episodes are then 13 completed, 45 each Minute-long episodes cut together. A German version does not yet exist. Most films follow the templates quite closely, while others deviate considerably from them. The last four films only use the characters, but are not based on original Jacobs stories. None of them come close to achieving the classic narrative density and attention to detail of Jacobs' style.
Others
The last chapter
In 1998 Dargaud released the unofficial Blake and Mortimer album L'Aventure Immobile in the series "Le Dernier Chapitre", based on a scenario by Didier Convard and with drawings by André Juillard. It takes place in the 1990s, when Blake and Mortimer have long retired and are living in seclusion in London. Blake receives a letter from Sheikh Abdel Razek, which finally brings all three together in one night in a dream in which Blake and Mortimer finally remember the forgotten events at the end of the second volume "The Secret of the Great Pyramid". Blake and Mortimer also witness the fate of Pharaoh Akhenaten , who turns out to be a woman.
parody
In the short story Random Encounter in Volume 18 of the Percy Pickwick series, Pickwick encounters EP Jacobs at night, who is secretly spraying yellow M s on house walls. In other Pickwick albums, two English agents named Mortimer and Blake appear from time to time.
There are countless parodies of the series in the Franco-Belgian comic space. In Germany, only the albums published by Dargaud in France in 2005, 2011 and 2015 in the series The Adventures of Philip and Francis by Pierre Veys and Nicolas Barral: 1. The Empire in Need and 2. The Machiavellian Trap and 3. SOS Meteorology have appeared in Germany (original: Les aventures de Philip et Francis - tome 1: Menaces sur l'empire and tome 2: Le Piège machiavélique 3rd SOS Météo ).
Web links
- Formerly the official website of the E. P. Jacobs Foundation for its 100th birthday (2004) from the web archive (French) ( Memento from December 4, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
- Blake and Mortimer in the German Comic Guide
- Fan page with flash animations, games, etc. a. (French)
- Review of the German edition "The curse of the thirty pieces of silver (Part 1)"
- Extensive dossier "Blake and Mortimer" from Reddition magazine
- Official Blake and Mortimer Page (French)
- Bedetheque entry (French)
- Review of the current German new publication "Der Stab des Plutarch"
Individual evidence
- ↑ Top 100 Comics: 15th place: Blake & Mortimer by Edgar P. Jacobs
- ↑ The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer 15: The Sanctuary of Gondwana :: Comic Radio Show :: Comics refreshingly subjective, since 1992!
- ↑ Interview with scriptwriter Yves Sente
- ↑ See text on the back of The Vow of the Five Lords , Carlsen Verlag, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-551-02338-4
- ↑ See page 5, 1st panel in The Francis Blake case , Carlsen Verlag, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 978-3-551-01990-5
- ↑ See page 56, 1st panel in Unheimliche Treffen , Carlsen Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 978-3-551-01992-9
- ↑ Blake's biography by Jacobs
- ↑ See The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer: The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, Vol. 2
- ↑ See The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer: The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent
- ↑ See The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer: The Sanctuary of Gondwana, pp. 14-15.
- ↑ Mortimer's biography by Jacobs
- ↑ See The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer: The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, Vol. 2
- ↑ Olrik's biography written by Jacobs
- ↑ Volker Hamann: Edgar P. Jacobs . In: Dossier Blake and Mortimer (= Reddition ). Edition 51. Edition Alfons , Barmstedt 2009, DNB 018472087 , p. 11 .
- ↑ Jacobs' templates ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Page to the album at CARLSEN Verlag
- ↑ Page to the album at CARLSEN Verlag
- ↑ Page to the album at CARLSEN Verlag
- ↑ Le dernier chapitre -1- Blake et Mortimer - L'aventure immobile