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Celebrate Free Comic Book Day 2018 - Saturday 5th of May

Cinebook ComicsForbidden Planet MegastoreFree Comic Book DayFree Comic Book Day 2018Gosh! ComicsOrbital Comics+-
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I normally use Free Comic Book Day to highlight some of the best titles currently available or focus on a particular imprint. I am well beyond the age when I can tolerate standing in queues for long periods, so I don’t indulge in Record Store Day or Free Comic Book Day Promos any more. I’m really not a fan of single flimsy issues, my preferences is for ’Trade Paperbacks’ with a litle more story arc, and usually includes special issues, cover art variations etc. Both Record Store Day and Free Comic Book Day have become a little bit of scrum of late, and there’s just too many ’Ebayers’ in the midst rather than bonafide fans and collectors - hucksters looking to make a fast buck by reselling immediately online. So I use those days generally to celebrate the medium, and acquire an album or issue or two that I had overlooked or else try out a new series - of course by way of collected Trade Paperbacks.

 

For this particular day I am shining a light on lesser known imprint Cinebook - a UK publisher which translates Belgian and French material largely from the imprints Dargaud, Dupuis, and Le Lombard. A large number of the children’s titles they offer I read in my youth in Iceland - translated into Icelandic of course - series like : Lucky Luke, Marsupilami, and Spirou & Fantasio. I am currently largely interested in the more mature / adult series on offer.

 

Pictured above are 6 of my favourite series - either first or latest edition. Namely : Aldebaran, Largo Winch, Orbital, Thorgal, Valerian and Laureline, and XIII. For me Aldebaran is more than one series - it really encompasses - Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Antares and The Survivors, as well as sister series Kenya and Namibia.

  • Alderbaran etc is a Cryptozoological / UFO / Aliens / Space Exploration series.
  • Largo Winch is billionaire businessman with industrial espionage mixed with James Bond style action
  • Orbital is kind of a different take on the Valerian and Laureline space buddy dynamic - without the dimensional-time-travel
  • Thorgal is a sort of high brow Conan which weaves in Sci-fi themes too
  • Valerian and Laureline is that very influential Sci-fi series recently made into a major motion picture - more of an influenced by than ’adopting’ any particular storylines
  • XIII is a thrilling black ops murder mystery adventure with plenty of secret service agencies and agents involved

Cinebook is most definitely one of my favourite imprints, and to date I have read or am in the process of reading 36 of their series, as follows (alphabetical):

  • Aldebaran (6 Volumes)
  • Alone (8 Volumes)
  • Antares (6 Volumes)
  • Barracuda (6 Volumes)
  • Bear’s Tooth (3 Volumes eventually)
  • Chimpanzee Complex (3 Volumes)
  • Crusade (4 Volumes)
  • Damocles (4 Volumes)
  • Darwin’s Diaries (3 Volumes)
  • Green Manor (2 Volumes)
  • Insiders (7 Volumes)
  • IR$ (6 Volumes)
  • Kenya (5 Volumes)
  • Lady S (5 Volumes)
  • Lament of the Lost Moors (4 Volumes)
  • Largo Winch (16 Volumes)
  • Long John Silver (4 Volumes)
  • The Fascinating Madame Tussaud (1 Volume)
  • Namibia (5 Volumes)
  • Orbital (7 Volumes)
  • Pandora’s Box (5 Volumes)
  • Queen Margot (3 Volumes)
  • S.A.M. (3 Volumes)
  • The Scorpion (8 Volumes)
  • Spooks (6 Volumes)
  • The Last Templar (6 Volumes)
  • The Marquis of Anaon (5 Volumes)
  • The Survivors (5 Volumes)
  • Thorgal (19 Volumes)
  • Trent (2 Volumes)
  • Valerian and Laureline (22 + 1 Volumes)
  • Wayne Shelton (5 Volumes)
  • Western (1 Volume)
  • Wisher (4 Volumes)
  • XIII (23 Volumes)
  • XIII Mystery (1 Volume)

Note that the only Comic Book Store in London that properly / fully stocks Cinebook is Gosh! Comics at the bottom of Berwick Street in Soho. Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue has Valerian and Laureline and a few others, as does Orbital Comics on Great Newport Street, Convent Garden. If you’re after Cinebook though you should really head for Gosh!

Stefan Karlsson
Posted by Stefan Karlsson
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