Eric Heuvel: January Jones (not from Mad Men)

I found a website which features scanned panels from comic books which show characters from different comics mixing together: such as Blake & Mortimer making a on-off appearance in "Valérian and Laureline", a popular science-fiction comic series.

The webmaster of the site included some scans in particular which stood out. These were from a Dutch comic called "January Jones" about a woman aviator in the 1930s (renamed "Jennifer Jones" in the French version) which is drawn in a ligne claire style similar to Hergé's.

(I doubt if she has anything to do with actress January Jones from "Mad Men", since the books date back to about 1986.)

In one adventure, "De schatten van koning Salomo" (Dutch for "King Solomon's Treasures"), she meets the same captain of the smugglers' ship in which Tintin meets Oliveira da Figueira in "Cigars of the Paraoh". Hergé based him on the adventurer Henry de Monfreid, and he introduces himself as such to Ms. Jones.

A lovely scene includes a desert Sheik opening a crate but instead of guns he finds some "useless comic books" and furiously throws them away. These are in fact copies of "Cigars of the Pharaoh" as it was published in the 1930s. He was obviously not based on Patrash Pasha, the Sheik Tintin fan.

I'd forgotten that scene!
The January Jones artwork (by Eric Heuvel) is very much in Hergé's style; the stories (by Martin Lodewijk) are good too.
None of the books were ever published in English, but a two-part story appeared in French (Le Crane De Mkwawa and Le Trésor du Roi Salomon, published in hardback by Glenat) which is how I first discovered the series, while perusing BDs in a French shop in London in the early 90s.
It took a long time to track down the rest of the series, only available as second-hand Dutch paperbacks.
The first book, Dodenrit naar Monte Carlo, was possibly published in French (as Course Contra La Mort) but I've never found that.

The books are:

1. Dodenrit naar Monte Carlo (Death Ride to Monte Carlo)
2. De Schedel van Sultan Mkwawa (The Skull of Sultan Mkwawa)
3. De Schatten van Koning Salomon (King Solomon's Treasure)
4. Het Pinkerton Draaiboek (The Pinkerton Case)
5. De Hoorns van de Stier* (The Horns of the Bull)

* Written but never published. Rumoured to be published some time in 2011 in Eppa magazine.

Moderator note: Book 5 was published in 2012, under the marginally different title De horens van de stier

Thanks for flagging up this series, mct, and the further info, Rocky. I'd not come across these books or this illustrator before, but, from a bit of googling I found some sample pages on line, and they look very interesting. I see that she's flying a de Havilland Comet in at least one of the books, which is a plus for old aeroplane nerds like me!

To me, Heuval's drawing and colouring style looks influenced by Willy Wandersteen as well as Hergé, though no doubt there are numerous Dutch and Belgian clear line cartoonists whom I don't know, whose influence may also be there in in the mix.

Let's hope someone like Cinebooks brings out the series in English one day. (Maybe I should try the French versions in the meantime, as my terrible French is better than my non-existent Dutch!)

I noticed when Googling that two Heuval-illustrated comic books not in this series - Family Secret and The Search - have been brought out in English.

A series of "January Jones" omnibus editions are due out in French later this year. French-language readers can click here for details.

Link removed includes a drawing by artist Eric Hewell in which January Jones is introduced to Tintin. She remarks: "I see what you mean. A perfect line in which one can regonise the master's style. My artist has a lot to learn from him..." Hewell's way of being modest!

Moderator Note: Link removed - you know that it can get us into trouble to share links to fan art, and you know that it's against our forum policy, so why do you insist on trying to slip them past? It's tantamount to trolling.

The Very Disappointed Tintinologist Team

Nice to see them being translated into French, BDMust seems to be developing into a very specialised publisher of marginalised artists in deluxe formats - they also currently have Bob De Moor's Barelli and Monsieur Tric.

I can't imagine anyone publishing January Jones in English any time soon, though I'd love to see it if they did!

"The first book, Dodenrit naar Monte Carlo, was possibly published in French (as Course Contra La Mort) but I've never found that."

I can confirm that his was printed in French with that title - I found a copy in the Gite we stayed in last week in France.

Thanks for confirming that, Crazy Jay. I wonder whether it was the new publication (see mct16's post for link) or the old, which has a different cover. I'm wary of posting links but if you do an image search for 'Course Contra La Mort' you'll see both versions. The older one uses the character name 'Jenny Jones'.

Moderator Note: Provided you are linking to legitimate material, on legit sites, and aren't recycling pirate images, or material which would leave Irene and the site in trouble should word get back to higher authorities, you should be okay - and if you ever have any doubt, just run it past the mods first, before posting the link (you can use the https://www.tintinologist.org/contact/).
As has been said before, this isn't to be kill-joys, or authoritarian, or to get some sort of kick out of bossing folk around - it simply keeps us clean and clear of any legal trouble which might shut us down.
The (as Far as Possible) Law-abiding Tintinologist Team