Euro Comics: Reviews of Bouncer, Western, and Lucky Luke: The Ballad of the Daltons and Other Stories

Time Codes: 00:01:27 - Introduction 00:04:39 - Happy holidays! 00:07:00 - Bouncer 00:56:07 - Western 01:14:57 - Lucky Luke: The Ballad of the Daltons and Other Stories 01:35:55 - Wrap up 01:36:41 - Contact us This month's Euro Comics episode is later than usual, due to scheduling conflicts and accessibility issues. But Edward and Derek are back just in time to wish their listeners a happy holiday season and to present their first theme-based show of the monthly series. For December the Two Guys (almost) with PhDs discuss three works in the Western genre. They begin with Alejandro Jodorowsky and Francois Boucq's Bouncer (Humanoids). This new edition collects the first seven volumes of the Jodorowsky's series, comprising three intricate and involved storylines. The guys focus a lot on Jodorowsky's spaghetti western style of storytelling and the unconventional twists therein, including physical grotesques and dominatrix executioners. They also spend time discussing some of the cultural and racial stereotypes found in the narratives, a topic to which they will return later in the episode. Next, Edward and Derek look at two releases from a publisher that's not yet been discussed on The Comics Alternative...an unfortunate oversight, up until now. The UK publisher of Franco-Beligan albums, Cinebook, provides the guys with Jean Van Hamme  and Grzegorz Rosinski's Western and the latest release in René Goscinny and Morris's Lucky Luke series, The Ballad of the Daltons and Other Stories. In the former, Rosinski's beautiful sepia-toned water colors creates a gritty postbellum world that is not unlike Boucq's efforts in Bouncer -- and both revolve around antiheroes with a missing arm. Both guys enjoyed Western, although Derek plays Monday morning quarterback in his thoughts on the book's abrupt shift in narration during the last two pages. With Lucky Luke, Edward begins by focusing on the popularity of the series, but then he mentions the need for more socio-historical context in way of an introduction. The ethnoracial representations in these stories may leave some readers uncomfortable, but they speak to both the time in which they were written and the cultural positioning of the creators.