The Littlest Pirate King by David B.
My rating: 4/5 cats
who knew i liked david b??
every day a lesson learned.
i bought this because i thought it was, along with Toys in the Basement, part of this frenchie bande dessinée revivalist thingie that fantagraphics was doing, but it’s not, really. neither of them are. they are french, but they are contemporary. i was fooled! the story is older, adapted by david b from a story by pierre mac orlan, but the artwork is all shiny 2010 material.
and here i was thinking my people were so ahead of the curve…
but both books are great—i liked this one slightly more, i think. and the story bleeds frenchiness like heated brie.
a ship full of skellington pirates seek permanent death—oblivion—while spouting lines like “God exists. Who could deny it, seeing as how we’ve been damned for all eternity?”
yet every time they think they have finally met their end, somehow they escape.
there is truly no rest for the wicked. they plunder boats and murder the passengers, but it gives them no peace, and they throw their ill-gotten loot into the sea in recognition of the empty triumph.
alas…
but when they find a baby, stranded in the remains of their last-attacked ship…they begin to make plans…
it’s good. it is very good.
and very french.
by which i mean absurd and fatalistic.
enjoy!
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