Overall I love sci-fi, but this one didn't do a lot for me. We never get a clear explanation or overview how life is in the Foundation Z controlled world and what the various factions are, so things are rather incoherent from time to time. Characters apart from Spirou and Seccotine are not really well established. Artwise I did like it a lot though; lots of little callbacks. The robotic guards Foundation Z uses are modelled after Radar Le Robot, one of the earliest Spirou stories by Franquin. So artwise it's fine, but plot/writing-wise it is rather mediocre (it could be a bad translation, but I've heard similar complaints about the french version.)


Rhonda #3: Final issue of the adventures of acrobat Rhonda Kaplan who stole a suitcase with money from the mob and became the stand-in for a famous actress who was killed. Another title that has better art than writing, though I still liked the writing here far more than Fondation Z. To wrap up the story the writer/artist Hans van Oudenaarden takes some shortcuts that I dislike (one thing for instance: apparently Rhonda has been wearing a wig for 2 days without noticing... I don't think that works like that). Amnesia is a big part of this issue, a plotdevice I always hate (exceptions XIII and Longshot, because they both do different things with it.) Not bad, but the series had such a promising start.

7 Detectives: I already spoke of the spin-off series, which I reviewed the first 2 issues of (issue 3 coming up next month). 7 is a bit of a weird series. Every issue is a standalone story dealing with 7 noun. We have 7 Psychopaths, 7 Thieves, 7 Missionaries, 7 Dragons, 7 Dwarves, 7 Clones etc. 21 issues in total with a different creative team every issue. This is the first issue I read from the series, because I got into the series through the spin-off, but taking a quick look, I notice that writers and artists are from all over the world. So it is in this issue: writing is by Herik Hanna (a french writer) and Eric Canete (who, as most people here probably know, is an American artist). I know nothing of the other titles, but I believe this is the only one in the series that received a spin-off series.
The plot starts out simple: 7 of the world's best detectives are gathered together to solve a series of murders. The issue opens with a full page image of each of the 7 detectives as they introduce themselves and it's immediately clear why a spin-off series was possible as they are each interesting individuals (all based on classic detectives as far as I can tell, even if I can't identify them all.) The main draw of the issue is the different personalities clashing while trying to catch the killer. The resolution makes sense, the art is good. I do wonder if this issue will spoil any of the spin-off issues or vice versa, but so far all issues have been standalone.

Saul #1 "The Living Cloak": When I read Lemuria and reviewed it here, I said that this was the most blatant copy/homage of Martin Lodewijk and Don Lawrence's Storm. Apparently Willem Ritsier and Apri Kusbiantoro saw that post and said "Hold my beer." To be fair, Lemuria was published by Don Lawrence estate and was a loveletter to his artystyle and Saul is equally open about its origins (also Ritsier has written one of the post-Lawrence issues of Storm itself and Kusbiantoro was the artist on the first 2 issues of Lemuria, so ... no suprises there.) To be even more fair, Ritsier has done a lot of very diverse work (comedy, sci-fi, sports, autobiographical, thriller and so on), so he's not a one-trick pony who is building his whole career on working on the decades-old creation of a more talented writer/artist(must.. not.. make .. dig.. at.. certain.. American.. writers/artists... Aw... failed....)
So the story: Saul has been accused of a crime he didn't commit. So he goes on the run, chased by bounty hunters that want the reward on his head. A cyclone takes him to a land where he is attacked by giants and saved by dwarves who are convinced he is their leader. He is possessed by the cloak they give to him. Meanwhile, Lea, a bounty hunter has followed his tracks and is recruited by a witch that wants to stop Saul from summoning the former owner of the cloak.
Saul is physically an exact copy of Storm. I like Storm better, because he is smarter, more curious about the world around him and always tries to explain the weirdness happening to him, but Saul is not a blank persona, so he has that going for him. Lea is the obvious Roodhaar/Redhair analogue, but as the person hunting Saul, their relationship is more antagonistic (though not completely, Lea is willing to help Saul to defeat the greater evil without the usual distrust/bickering that lesser writers would inject). The story itself does not include the sci-fi elements early Storm would include, but is straight up fantasy. The ending is anticlimatic and we skip between different scenes a bit too fast to actually develop the characters.
Overall: better than Lemuria, not as good as Storm. If following issues take a bit more time to make us care about the characters, it could be good. As it is, it's a mediocre fantasy story and from what I've seen Ritsier should be better than this.

Irons #1 by Luc Brahy and Tristan Roulot. The story opens with young Jack and his family falling with their car into a lake when the bridge they are on collapses. Thanks to his father's advise, Jack manages to survive, but he's the only one. Years later, an adult Jack has become a brilliant engineer, but he also lacks any empathy or sense of tact. While visiting a Canadian island, the bridge connecting the island to the main land collapses. Jack's attempts to leave the island (he has a business meeting within a few days) fail, so he offers his expertise to investigate the collapse in exchange for a ride on the police boat to the mainland.
Overall: It's a thriller/mystery and overall I enjoyed it. The biggest downside for me was Jack Irons himself; the brilliant asshole is a character type that I've seen too often before (really aspiring writers, being a complete dick to people around you does not make you smarter in any way) and Irons is not really adding anything new to that mix. On the upside, the story was interesting. There are multiple parties involved, each with their own agenda and at the beginning it is not even clear if the collapse is an accident, sabotage or even a terrorist attack.

I more familiar with series that got translated (especially by NBM, Heavy Metal or Catalan).  It appears to have started after most of the references I had to European comics or that arrived here.

For fantasy series, I am more familiar with things like Thorgal and The Mercenary.

Marvel UK's heroine with a foul mouth.

It's been over a year, but I've still been reading European comics, just never got around to posting about them here, so a quick view of a lot of comics this year:

Cafe Noir: Series by the makers of Cognac (mentioned before; Brahy, Postec & Corbeyran) about the Fair Trade Coffee trade. I liked the subject matter of Cognac better (my father enjoys a good glass of Cognac every Sunday and has also enjoyed the series), but Cafe Noir is the better story. Cognac's history and production of the liquor was mostly incidental to the story, window-dressing around a pretty straightforward murder story. In Cafe Noir, the coffee trade is the center of the story: the antagonist of the story owns a company that deals in Fair Trade Coffee, but wants to increase its profits. They can't pay the Colombian farmers less, without losing the valuable Fair Trade mark, so he comes up with another plan. By some of the same creators I also started Chateaux Bourdeaux (guess which that one is about), which is more akin to Cafe Noir than Cognac.

The Atom Agency by Yann and Schwartz. Do you like Gil Jourdan? This is apparently *exactly* the same thing. I haven't read much Gil Jourdan, but it's still very good on its own. Atom (that is his first name) is a private detective against the wishes of his father, the chief of police. Assisted by a smart and wilfull secretary and a loyal boxer, he solves crime. It's a period piece and a fun adventure/detective story.

Spirou by Emile Bravo: Bravo returns to Spirou to follow up on his standalone story from 10 years (has it been 10 years already?) Belgium is occupied by Germany, food is becoming more and more scarce and people are not aware yet of the atrocities that are about to happen. My main issue with Bravo's first work (the role of Spip, the squirrel) is side-stepped: Spip is just a regular squirrel here, so we can focus on the depression of the occupation with occassional glimmers of humanity and dark moments of betrayal by former friends and neighbours. Recommended, but not light reading IMHO.

Speaking of Spirou, after Zorglub, The Count of Champignac get his spin-off. It's also a WWII period piece; the brilliant Count, still a young man, is recruited by the British Secret Service to work on cracking the Enigma device. A mixture of real history with fantasy, it doesn't really require any Spirou knowledge. The Count could have been any character. Overall, I found it just OK at best.

Brian Bones: Roadmaster: I liked Atom Agency so much, I picked another comic with a yellow cover and an old car on it. An insurance agent is sent to investigate a car accident. Three accidents on the same piece of road where a driver apparently fell asleep behind the wheel. Sadly, I found this one pretty weak. I can't really recall anything but disappointment about it. The creative team are veterans at the genre though, maybe somebody else likes it better.

Zibeline by Aouamri, Hautiere and Goddyn. Young Tannicia is transported to another world after being used in a ritual by Voodoo Priests. This world is filled with intelligent humanoid animals. A group of animals decide to protect the young girl and help her find her way home. She is adopted by them, taking the name Zibeline. It's pretty good, but I think it's aimed at a younger audience.

Apart from these, many series I followed continued and this month especially seems to be Jean van Hamme tribute month: new issues of series he started like Largo Winch, Thorgal and XIII among others. I've stopped following XIII (they committed the big sin, by suggesting that XIII might regain his memories due to new therapy. Nope, XIII's memories forever being gone is *key* to the series as far as I am concerned) and Thorgal (the current plot was extended too much). I did like the latest Largo Winch, but it might be a jumping off point for me as well; it's a good place to end the series.

I'm pretty sure I read more European comics, but those were mostly back issues of series I was already following.

 For me, the first 12 issues of XIII is the XIII story. (maybe 13 issues, the 13th being a "journalistic investigation" explaining what happened so far in more details). It should (or at least could) have stopped there. There is some good issues after that, but I never re-read past issue 12. The XIII mystery issues (one shots about the characters) are usually pretty good.

Thorgal I still love, but I haven't read a new one since #34 I think, so I'm probably missing a few.

Largo is also good, although I stopped  few years ago because I felt the plots were always the same.

I'm super excited about the new Emile Bravo, Le Journal d'un Ingenu was GREAT!

Here's an index to a series of blog posts on the history of British comics: henryjenkins.org/blog/2020/3/20/remembering-uk-comics-series-index

Looks like interesting reading.