THE ADVENTURES OF BLAKE & MORTIMER The Complete Collection Volume 2

Here are the most emblematic early adventures: the two-part Mystery of the Great Pyramid, and above all, the incredible Yellow M, a classic that propelled its author into the ranks of bande dessinée greats. Graphic quality, narrative rigor, constant dramatic tension, and that touch of the unreal that are the trademark of the series -- it's all there. Along with, of course, 40 pages of extra material on the creation of such seminal stories! First published in the legendary Euro magazine Tintin.  Each volume in the Complete Collection will gather two or three books, in the original publishing order, plus another book's worth of extra material on the series and the author, as well as sketches and historical notes. More about the series, from Wikipedia: Adventures of Blake & Mortimer is a Belgian comics series created by writer and comics artist Edgar P. Jacobs. It was one of the first book series to appear in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin in 1946, and was subsequently published in book form by Belgian comic book publisher Le Lombard. The main protagonists of the adventures are Philip Mortimer, a leading British scientist, and his friend Captain Francis Blake, of MI5. The books' recurring antagonist is the sworn enemy of the heroes, Colonel Olrik, who appears very frequently throughout the series. Their confrontations take them into the realms of detective investigation and science fiction, dealing with themes of time travel, historical events, and espionage. The settings of many of Jacobs' stories are contemporary, based on real-world events and environments, and as such the first few titles of the series present a look and feel reminiscent of the 1950s, while later installments showcase a political climate comparable to the 1970s. One exception to this rule is "The Time Trap," starting in the present (i.e. early 1960s) but its action, caused by a sabotaged time machine, largely takes place in the 51st century – a brief venture in medieval times and a stopover in the Jurassic period also take place. Post-Jacobs stories are, so far, integrated into the chronology of the earlier books, or precede it, taking place in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Jacobs' art style, although typical of the Belgian comics drawings (known as "clear line" or "ligne claire"), is notable for its extensive use of light colors and its containment of scenes similar to those found in film production (the panoramic view over night-time London featured as the opening scene in "The Yellow M" being a good example of this).