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Algernon Woodcock
L'Oeil Fé #2 | |
Guillaume Sorel/Mathieu Gallié
[Delcourt]
The first tome of this two-parts fantastic series imposed from the first pages two very particuliar elements. First, Guillaume Sorel's drawings, which are real paintings using a very special palette of colours, oranges for the confined interiors, and dimly lighted blues for the nocturnal exteriors. Two ambiences favourable to mystery in which the strangely drawn characters, closer to painting than the comics we're used to, are developped. Then, the mode of narration and the atmosphere coming out of it, remind of Lovecraft's work. Indeed, the narrator tells us something he lived, something we feel is marked by fantastic and mystery, but he'll take his time to tell it from the begining, revealing all the elements one after the others... He knows, but we don't know yet. The story takes place in Scotland in 1800, a young graduate, just out of medecine school, gets his first job as a locum in a rural community. He's accompanied by another young medecine graduate friend, Algernon Woodcoock, a very small guy of merely 4 foot heighth. You could find out what they were going to deal with in the first tome, "L'Oeil Fé", published last year, and the reading of this little gem was a real pleasure, as much for the eyes as for the brain. The frustration which followed the end of this thrilling first tome was high as we couldn't wait the second tome to know the end of the story.
So, it's with great pleasure that we meet these engaging characters again and start the reading of this second tome. The immersion in these mysterious ambiences happen naturally and we eagerly and easily read the first pages. But the surprise waiting for us is enormous, after a first part as thrilling as the first tome was, the "conclusion", stretched on a dozen pages is much too simple and too confuse at the same time... It's difficult to say more about it without spoiling the story, but there's a real break in the tone, the rhythm, and the characters don't have anymore this crafty facet that made them so engaging at first... In the end, even if we're disappointed by the last pages, we'll advise you to read both these two comics, put together in a box, indeed, the story could have ended in the first tome with a dozen extra pages. Shame.
Christophe Labussière |
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