Jour J - French AH Comics collection

There is also Luxley in term of French AH where the Inca/Aztec invade Europe with "planes" and others things. The hero is Robin Hood (who has superpower just like the most powerful Inca/Aztec) leading a guerrilla war against them with help from the king of France and Richard Lionheart. And the pope is with Saladin who's army help retake Europe from the Inca/Aztec . I don't remember the ending to be honest but the last i read had Robin Hood being captured and send to south america
Planes? I don't remember that part of the book... But then again, I barely remember Luxley and I hadn't read much of it.

I had always remembered Luxley more as "Sunset Invasion before Paradox created that DLC for Crusader Kings II" honestly...
 
There is also Luxley
Ah! AAAAAH! He said the word!
images



I don't remember the ending to be honest but the last i read had Robin Hood being captured and send to south america
Basically, he's offered being part of the new world, after having been revealed that Mayaintec empire was created thanks to the vision of a chaman that predicted the coming of Europeans and the destruction of their culture, so automatic continental unification.Robin Hood refuses and becmes a wayward bandit in the forest of Mexico because even authors had no idea what they were going for.

I had always remembered Luxley more as "Sunset Invasion before Paradox created that DLC for Crusader Kings II" honestly...
Sunset Invasion at least tries to make sense. This was about how to gurgle enough clichés on the mouth of the defensless reader.
 
Sunset Invasion at least tries to make sense.
Emphasis on tries. There is still plenty of things about Sunset Invasion that doesn't make much sense: even the developpers have acknowledged that.

That said, it's probably far more likely than Luxley.
 
Finally catched up on Jour J : the Mongol comics are surprisingly good in my opinion, and the "Green God" thing much less heavy handed than I tought and the plot is actually coherent. Prince of Darkness is correct-ish, I guess if you're into spy plots it might be more interesting.
On the other hand the adventures of Vlad the Impaler in Constantinople? Meh; and while expanding out better than it began the Cesarian story isn't really exciting which is a problem for a quasi-peplum.
I didn't read the Oppenheimer-Kerouac bromance story, is it any good?
 
Had the occasion to glance through a copy of The Snake and the Cobra today. Not really convinced.

Oh, and I have my doubts regarding Celopatara's wardbrobe in that tome... On the one hand I know jackshit about Ancient Egyptian clothing but on the other hand, the few panels I remember of her gave me the impression she was wearing some sort of swimsuit... Might be the art style's fault though.

So I got my hands on "23. The Republic of Slaves" and "28. "The Eagle and the Cobra" and yeah, you're not kidding. You already reviewed the plot, so I will instead concentrate on the art: The Hell was that? Everything in 28 is washed out, static and looks ridiculous. Some of the action scenes are okay and they seem to be building to a cinematic ending, but every panel involving humans talking looks like bizarre. Just picture someone mid-pose, arm thrust out unnaturally, mouth and face in a wild expression bearing no semblance to reality of how humans talk. Just silly. The colors themselves are muted, washed out and strange.

Now, as to Cleo. She's a bimbo who gets turned out by bloodshed. And if she's not wearing swimsuit, she's definitely wearing cloths that just happen to hug her body the way a 20th century swimsuit would. The other thing, they made her a foxy black chick. Which is fine, because it makes sense that Cleo would look more like Cardi B than Elizabeth Taylor, but if we're striving for historical accuracy here, why is she rocking 21st century high heels with sparkly shoes? Utter nonsense.

Speaking of nonsense, Mark Anthony. Not sure why they made the decision to make him look like a cross between Jon Snow, Kurt Russell and Eric Bana, but here we are. You know you're in trouble when Mark Anthony is the hero of your story. Brutus looks like an effeminate Benedict Cumberbatch whose hair was dyed white for the occasion and Pompey was given what we used to call b*tch tits. Why? What does that serve?

Oh, and was I the only who thought the comics made Mark Anthony look like Spartacus?

23 is interesting, by the way. But you'll have to deal with some bad art.

28 is just flat out ridiculous with ugly color scheme.

I won't go into plot because others have, but the lengths this story had to go to get Brutus and Caesar on the same Senate floor is just plain silly.

This won't get the Greg Grant patented 5,000 word dissection, but thumbs down for 28. Thumbs in the middle for 23.
 
Volume 35 of Jour J comes in 31 October 2018

Jour J 35. Les Fantômes d'Hispaniola (The Ghosts of Hispaniola)
b155d44e400f5fd859492228b9514a3d.jpg

And if Toussaint Louverture, the black heir of the Enlightenment, had the means to release all the slaves of Haiti?
This uchronic story, tinged with voodoo magic, is really revealed in the last pages of the story.
In June 1802, after a voodoo ceremony, the Scottish Walker O'Reilly organizes the release of Toussaint Breda as other white demons prepare to exile across the ocean to die in a French jail .
Toussaint is not yet called Louverture but, for 11 years, he fights the whites with the help of Loas to free his island.
He is still far from imagining the great destiny that awaits him.

The Art Work is made by Dim. D
 
Last edited:
Remember Zeppelin's War ?
Part 1 review https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...omics-collection.287759/page-10#post-17248622
Part 2 review https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...omics-collection.287759/page-10#post-17317996

Now there is part 3 "Zeppelin aganist Pterodactylus"

short summary
WW1 with a Rasputin has Supernatural power. Hitler & Goering and Hess are in Luftwaffe in a Super Zeppelin.
with Capitan America France rise
As we left our "Heros" in part 2
has Rasputin with Supernatural powers "convinced" Zeppelin Hitler to get new destination: the island of Spitzbergen
in mean time Capitan America France report nude in godlike body back to duty in front of a confuse General Deray.

as we return to story Hitler, Hess, Göring and Rasputin with Supernatural power have very inlogical conversation about the Travel and Aryans
only ending the dispute by Rasputin stoping a bullet with bare hand, scaring Hitler to death
at Spitzbergen they welcome by two enemy battleship, but no worry Rasputin with Supernatural power open a wormhole with bare hand
and escape destruction by enemy

France
Capitan America France meet the French minister of War were he get orders..
in meantime arrive a French Zeppelin the island of Spitzbergen to support the two battleship
While there crew start expedition to site we saw in Part 1
in same time Super Zeppelin of Hitler & Goering and Hess rise the Question "were to hell are we ?"
Rasputin with Supernatural power screams "ATLANTIS" and Zeppelin is attack by Pterodactylus (what for dead horse Trope)

Germany,
Hindenburg has Briefing with Schreiber (Hitler Superior) on Mission Rasputin failure, while testing German Wunderwaffe (looks like british Mark I tank)
the Russians inform the French about Rasputin with Supernatural power little Detour via Wormhole and Capitan America France is send to investigate
in mean time the crew of Super Zeppelin survived the attack of Pterodactylus, make repairs and see in sky Second Moon
Hitler get vision of Hans Hörbiger idea on end of the Atlantian civilization and get totally crazy about it
on way to the island of Spitzbergen destroy Capitan America France every German force he encounters

Here End Part 3 in a cliffhanger
 
I love the general concept and art of Jour J, but some of the plot lines seem like they were written after the authors read a bunch of popular history books with every page laced with LSD.
 
Had a chance to take a glimpse at tome 35 and 36 of this... Kinda regret it.

Let's start of with Les Fantômes d'Hispaniola (Ghosts of Hispaniola), aka Tome 35.
The Tome basically seems to involve Toussaint L'Ouverture being freed by a British sailor (that is before he was sent to France), working for the islands' inhabitants but also apparently on the orders of the Brits who probably have ulterior motives for doing this. The British then seems to serve as a lieutenant for Toussaint as he fights for the island's freedom.

Can't summarize the story as it was only a glimpse. All I remember though is the downright crazy awful ending...

Before that, I should precise that the tome opens with a Voodoo Shamaness dressed in revolutionnary garb asking for soldiers to go free Toussaint and performing a ritual to give them courage or something like that... All I remember is thinking "Carribean Cliché Number One, Check" to be frank. And our Hero, the British sailor, end up drinking from the cup's ritual.

Except that at the end, in a twist that would make M. Night Shaymalan proud, it's revealed that Toussaint was apparently hallucinating in regards to the British sailor, just as he is killed by someone who apparently was him but not.
And the final page shows the Vodoo shamaness we saw on page 1 stumbling upon the corpse of our british sailor during a flashback. And raising it as a zombie...

All I think in the end? Bad juju...
Overall, this might probably be one of the most WTF tomes in the series.

But it gets worse with tome 36 Tout L'Or de Constantinople (All the Gold of Constantinople).
It's a sequel to tome 27 and continues the adventures of Skanderberg and Vlad the Impaler...

Last tome, Western armies came to the resuce of Constantinople. The tome deal with the consequences of that, which apparently includes an attempt at mending the Great Schism. I don't mind the idea, as it's possible this could be attempted in such a scenario. I'm also not against the idea of there being tensions between Latins and Greeks, linked to what happened in the fourth Crusade...

But the Byzantine attitude makes no sense for me. You clearly see the Orthodox trying to seize control of the Church... Which is a stupid crazy plan that just can't work... Byzantium at this point is in no position to defy the West. Hell, even one of the book's characters mentions how stupid the idea is because Byzantium is relying on foreign CATHOLIC mercenaries to defend it. Worse, we clearly saw last tome that it's because the Western fleet came that Byzantium was saved. The Byzantines, in other words, are the ones in position of weakness, not the opposite, even if Constantinople is theirs...

What makes it worse is that they kind of succeed apparently. Well, at least, they defeat Catholic forces in Constantinople thanks to a clever trap by Vlad (kind of) and then apparently raise a fleet that gets defeated in an ATL Battle of Lepanto (yes I am not making that up) where they get their asses kicked (shocker) by the combined fleets of Venice and Genoa led by Pietro Doria.

Also, whoever wrote this tome really loves the fact that Vlad the Impaler inspired Dracula... Never mind the fact that Bram Stoker scholars said there is no proof to back it up and that Stoker probably just took the name because it sounded cool... Or that Vlad the Impaler wasn't the only Dracula around apparently...
Still that leads us to many scenes that show Vlad as insane, drinking blood while murder-raping the Pope (yes, seriously), declaring himself the antichrist and saying he's found the secret to immortality. Also, he apparently bathes in blood at one point, which makes me feel that he's gonna marry Elizabeth Bathory at some point in the story... For all I care, that probably makes sense in the mind of whoever wrote that piece of crap...
Also, there is a scene where Skanderberg (who is growing distant from Vlad because... Well it's obvious given what I've said) walks through Constantinople and sees the Four Riders of the Apocalypse. And I have no idea if it's supposed to be an hallucination, a dream, an allegory of what happened or an actual event...
Oh and by the by, the ending? Vlad was at Lepanto commanding the Byzantine fleet (BECAUSE) and got captured by the victorious Veneto-Genoese forces. He's supposed to be interrogated by a Cardinal but when the latter one arrives on the scene, you see rats fleeing Vlad's cell which is empty... Because Dracula can turn into rats...

I don't mind a Fantasy AH but that's not what I signed for when reading this story...
In case the summary doesn't give it away (or you didn't read it to avoid spoilers), that tomes is among the worst in the series from my POV.

God these were pretty bad reads.
 
neu J Jour comes out 15/05/2019,
i hope it's better read that last issue, but its artwork is ...odd

Red Moon (1 of 3)

fb5cb548b36cec51ca1fb4f5a18ee12b.jpg


Moon 1980, from one end to the other of Europe is about to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics of Europe.
60 years have passed since the Russian revolution conquered the whole of Europe, and well beyond, because since the 40s, the red star also shines on the Moon.


The moon, from which the USSR draws its greatest wealth, helium 3, the only source of energy in the world, helium 3,
extracted by Glavnoye orpravlenie laguerei, in other words "the main administration of the camps", in other words, the Gulag.
Because the prosperity of Soviet Europe is due only to the grueling work of the Zeks on the Moon,
prisoners of common rights and especially political who regularly leave the launching bases of the Sahara for a trip without return ... But this situation could change ...
 
Last edited:
Little bit Off topic here but it's involve Fred Blanchard one of guys behind Jour J

Le Dernier Atlas (the last Atlas)

Ismael Tayeb is a lieutenant in a criminal gang. His boss gives him an order he can not refuse: find a nuclear battery ...
For this he will have to restart and fly the last Atlas, one of those huge French robots who managed titanic constructions to the middle in the 1970s, but after a serious incident in Batna during the Algerian war, all were dismantled ...
with the exception of George Sand. At the same time, Françoise Halfort, a former war reporter, finds herself confronted in the Tassili Park with an unprecedented ecological and seismic phenomenon that will upset the balance of the world ...


This Alternate history Mystery Thriller is quite good read.
Story by Gwen de Bonneval and Fabien Vehlmann, art work by Hervé Tanquerelle et Fred Blanchard.
the Art work is not beauty but it roughness and Brutally match the story perfect
https://www.dupuis.com/le-dernier-atlas/bd/le-dernier-atlas-tome-1-le-dernier-atlas-t1-3/83088

9782800171166-couv-M800x1600.jpg
 
I had read Le Dernier Atlas (the last Atlas)

And I deeply impressed by this Graphic Novel
It's start as dam good crime thriller, then turn geopolitical and Mystery and finally as Alternate History
It has his moments from the X-Files or Fringe or like Luc Besson thrillers (wen he was good) and inkling Gigant Robots like Goldorak and the Iron Giant.
The Characters are dam good portray in this Graphic Novel like cool blooded Ismael Tayeb who get in situation that's almost impossible to win or either to survive.
Or The international godfather Jean Legoff (nicknamed "God the Father", feared of all) who don't care about the consequences of his work or wrongdoing
and the investigative journalist Françoise Halfort who is after a new sensational News story and get more as she can handle...
I read through the 232 page and enjoy it

9791034739288_cg.jpg

The Special Black & white edition of the Graphic Novel
 
Had the chance to looking into Jour J Nr° 37 Red Moon

And it's a "WTF what i'm reading here ?" moment
First the Artwork by Ponzio
What is this CGI ? photo Collage by Photoshopping with After Effects ?
Allot of artwork looks like copy of other things, like Soviet Space station in moon orbit is a carbon Copy of Hermes from Ridley Scott movie "The Martian"
What i notice is lack of Characters and Background figures in the Art work.

Hand drawn had help allot to save the lack luster Scenario
That Scenario has allot logic errors and makes little sense what so ever
The European Soviets send hand full prisoners to moon by hand full of guards, were to hell is the support personell of Space Port ? why can the handful prisoners not overwhelm there hand full Guards ?
on Moon the situation is not better, no guards and fighting group who try to kill each other in rate that Glavnoye orpravlenie laguerei is depopulated in Hours
and were are Guards and Commanders of that Installation ?

If Jour J produce more of those story and Artwork, it will be it's downfall and Delcourt will shot it down...
 
The European Soviets send hand full prisoners to moon by hand full of guards, were to hell is the support personell of Space Port ? why can the handful prisoners not overwhelm there hand full Guards ?
Well lets look at the situation, you have acouple political prisoners who probably dont know how in hell to do stuff in space (which brings up its own issues but no matter) they then have to try and go after the guards who both have at least some training in space and Guns, probably making any sort of rebellion very fatal for many participants. And then now they have succsessfully rebelled,whats going to happen? Is the US (if its still around) going to risk nuclear war to rescue the prisoners, not very likely. Even if the soviets dont send a troop transport to simply slam down the participants a rather unlikely occurrence, they have to deal with making food and water on the moon, which if they fail in any way will mean their deaths from either starvation of Dehydration. Really the moon is a perfect prison in alot of ways.
 
Well lets look at the situation, you have acouple political prisoners who probably dont know how in hell to do stuff in space (which brings up its own issues but no matter) they then have to try and go after the guards who both have at least some training in space and Guns, probably making any sort of rebellion very fatal for many participants. And then now they have succsessfully rebelled,whats going to happen? Is the US (if its still around) going to risk nuclear war to rescue the prisoners, not very likely. Even if the soviets dont send a troop transport to simply slam down the participants a rather unlikely occurrence, they have to deal with making food and water on the moon, which if they fail in any way will mean their deaths from either starvation of Dehydration. Really the moon is a perfect prison in alot of ways.

If you look on synopsis, it make sense, but way it's presented in Comic it make no sense...
 
new Volume 38 for August 2019

The Last Musketeer. 1 of 2

883c5bc7dfa053d3d7c131a1fd9785af.jpg


Fall 1651, fleeing Paris during the Fronde des princes*, the young king Louis XIV is killed by robbers.
The musketeer d'Artagnan, charged with the protection of the royal family, never recover of this.
A few days later, the prince of Condé won the battle of Cognac and delivered France to the Spaniards.
Twenty years later, exiled Cardinal Mazarin is trying to form an ultimate alliance to reconquer France.
He recalls his surest man to carry an important message, this man, become a master of arms is d'Artagnan, the last of the musketeers.

* Fronde des princes was a series of civil wars in France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War.
 
on Moon the situation is not better, no guards and fighting group who try to kill each other in rate that Glavnoye orpravlenie laguerei is depopulated in Hours
and were are Guards and Commanders of that Installation ?
Considering that this is basically the situation in The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress and considering how popular that book is, I can't honestly say that this would likely be a problem to most readers...
 
Top