Chaland Anthology #1: Freddy Lombard

Don’t know if anyone has ever mentioned this character on the site (did a search and couldn’t find him), but Freddy Lombard is one of the other be-quiffed Belgian comic characters.

I just visited Forbidden Planet, a big London comic shop, and found that DC Comics have just brought out a three story English-language anthology of this (loosely) Hergé-inspired work.

Created by Yves Chaland, these strips were drawn in the Eighties, and feature a slightly less than perfect leading man, who, as the blurb on the back says, “masquerading as a philanthropist, sponges off his Uncle as he wanders the globe, and gets his crew into trouble.”

Chaland died very young in a car accident in 1990, so this is something of a tribute; I think he has had translations before, but this is a good opportunity to find the stories if you don’t know him.

I was about to start a thread about this myself. I just finished reading it, and was sort of curious about the character, as I hadn't heard of him before.

Were there many stories? It seems to be rather intensely inspired by Tintin, but also much more adult.

Yves Chaland is one of my favourite European creators - and he has been mentioned here before, jock123, as I know I've brought him up somewhere on this forum.

I first discovered him through the pages of Heavy Metal when The Will of Godfrey Bouillon was reprinted, and had my enthusiasm piqued further from a feature in Panelhouse Magazine. Having since got hold of the two Humanoids volumes, my favourite story of Chaland's is F.52. Hergé wanted to do a story that takes place entirely in an airport, and here Chaland does one entirely on a 'super-plane'. It's just a wonderful strip.

- Garen.

tybaltstone
Yves Chaland is one of my favourite European creators - and he has been mentioned here before, jock123, as I know I've brought him up somewhere on this forum.

Ah ha! I had recalled that someone had mentioned something - but I searched on Freddy Lombard, which returned nothing (which I found surprising), rather than Yves Chaland, which brings up your posts! Glad the mystery is solved!

The Will of Godfrey Bouillon is in the new collection, as are The Elephant Graveyard, and The Comet of Carthage. Does that match the original collections? The books are actually under a joint Humanoids/ DC Comics imprint.

Justin Kelly and Sasha Watson have handled the translations, and as Heavy Metal/ Metal Hurlant don’t get mentioned, could these be fresh translations?

Anyway, I agree that they are commendable strips!

They are new translations from the Heavy Metal reprint (Bouillon), but are identical to the Humanoids books.

Humanoids Vol 1: Will of Godfrey Bouillon, Elephant Graveyard, Comet of Carthage.

Humanoids Vol 2: Holiday in Budapest, F.52

In F.52 there were a couple of penmarks on the master plate which got printed into every book, giving Sweep a beard on page 2, and the letters 'BL' written on the plane wing on p.6. Hope these are fixed in the DC edition.

Best - Garen.

Thanks for the info guys! Went to London on the weekend to buy 'Freddy Lombard', visited Forbidden Planet but the Comic counter man had never heard of it, (Looked like a Mavel man). Eventually found it at 'Gosh Comics' in Great Russel Street (opposite the British Museum) . A Fantastic shop which has a european section and very helpful staff who know all.
Ive just started reading and am enjoying immensly. Cheers again!

All London comic-shop staff are trained not to know what anyone is asking about (“Superman? Never ’eard of ’im…”), unless you have asked about it in another shop first…

“Gosh!” is a good shop, and more or less appears in Blake & Mortimer’s “The Yellow ‘M’” (well a lot of it happens in streets round the museum, so it might, had it been there in the 1950’s…).

FP actually has a European section downstairs in the basement, although the floor-plan is so confusing I won’t dare to offer directions; I suggest that you ask for/ look for the Astérix books - that’s the section you want!

That’s where I got my copy - it may be treated as a book, rather than a comic, so perhaps that’s why your comic bloke wasn’t aware of it. They usually have a selection of titles, although as they only carry translations it isn’t huge.

Yeah, I found the Eurpean section in FP, and scanned the books (several times), then qued up and asked with no avail. I found Gosh a much more relaxed and helpful comic shop, and I also bought the new translation of Enki Bilal's 'Townscapes', which is also on the Humanoids/DC range. Its good stuff.

“Charland Anthology #2” is out, and I haven’t been able to identify the plate errors you mention, Garen. Have I missed them, or are they gone?

Les, it looks like they have rounded up all the available material for this collection, as there is a section of odds and ends in the book in addition to the two main stories.

On the subject of Yves Chaland, he appears to have paid an homage to Hergé in this piece.