Thorgal 17: The Blue Plague

Thorgal 17: The Blue Plague, by Jean Van Hamme and Grzegorz Rosiński, Cinebook, £6.99/$11.95

♦ Thorgal is an incredibly popular French language comic from Belgium by Belgian writer Jean Van Hamme and Polish graphic artist Grzegorz Rosiński.

Thorgal now runs to over 30 volumes, selling millions since its inception, and creating three successful spin-off series in its wake. Thorgal’s genius is to combine most of the genres that Tripwire readers are interested in: Norse mythology, science fiction, horror, adventure, and even Atlantis is all here.

Thorgal first appeared in 1977 in Tintin magazine in 1977, being collected into graphic novels by Le Lombard from 1980 on. There’s even a video game, Thorgal: Curse of Atlantis, by Cryo Interactive Entertainment. Van Hamme leaves the series with the 29th book, to be replaced by Yves Sente. So who is Thorgal? Thorgal Aegirsson, our main protagonist, is an alien stranded on earth as a baby when his ship crashes. So, basically, Superman. Viking leader Leif Haraldson raises the baby, naming him after the Norse gods Thor, and Aegir, the ruler of the sea. Thorgal’s origins are only revealed after some years, when, presented with artefacts from the capsule he was discovered in (is any of this sounding familiar?). Thorgal is a survivor of a technologically advanced race of considerable power, though principally mind-related rather than jumping-tall-buildings-with-a-single-bound-related. The series proper starts when Thorgal becomes a young man, loved by the daughter of Gandalf the mad, Leif Haraldson’s successor as leader of the Vikings. There’s a pointer to future conflict there; if someone’s called “the mad,” it rarely bodes well.

The Blue Plague is the 17th Thorgal adventure to be published in the United Kingdom, although the 25th in Belgian continuity. Thorgal and his family are seeking a quieter
life, a quest interrupted by their discovery of a blue corpse in a boat. Well, technically, it’s a corpse that’s turned blue. Pursued by pirates Thorgal and co.-are rescued by Prince Tarkat aboard his royal ship and find temporary tranquillity on his island stronghold. The tranquillity lasts until Tarkat in the process of trying to cop off with Thorgal’s wife, Aaricia, discovers she has a blue patch on her skin. Upon this, the Prince banishes Thorgal and family into a valley, where more plague-victims (for it is the plague!) await them. Thorgal being Thorgal, he sets off to seek a cure for his family and the other exiles.

The Thorgal books are not straightforward sword and sorcery, as you might easily assume from the covers (although an amnesiac Thorgal does have a period as the pirate Shaigan, in an Amra-esque sort of way) but combine many genres. The “search for the cure” quest is a trope that can be found in films, TV, books – almost all media, but Thorgal’s world is so well realised by Van Hamme and Rosiński, that the clichés barely show through. Van Hamme is a past master of pacing in the European form of the graphic novel, and Rosiński’s visualisation is peerless. Special mention goes out to the enigmatic Graza for the colouring, which he or she uses to shift the mood between scenes most effectively. If you’re a fan of sword and sorcery or Edgar Rice Burroughs type action-adventure, treat yourself and invest in this. For late-comers to the series the Thorgal Wiki should sort you out!

Peter Mann

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