Synopsis:

This comic follows two old friends Blake and Mortimer who are brought together again by a mysterious person called the Yellow M. This person commits crimes and then before they leave they draw a circle with an M in the middle. However, it is the most recent crime of stealing The Crown in the Tower of London which has brought them together to help the police unmask this Yellow M. When the two meet they come across a group of old pals that seem to be connected to this Yellow M but the question is how and why?

My Pitch To You:

I was really excited to start reading this series as they had been staring at me at work when I was at Waterstones for so long that I just had to pick them up. So far they are good but I think what you have take into consideration is that these are quite dated comics they were first produced in 1956. It was a nice slow burn mystery where they got really into the nitty gritty details of the mystery which felt like you were in a 1930s mystery.

The plot of this comic was a long drawn out case that weaved its way in and out of many situations to get to the truth of who the Yellow M was. I do enjoy slow burning stories but in this particular comic it was too long and it felt too dragged out to get to the conclusion. The beginning felt too slow to introduce the story as there were too many unnecessary conversation between Blake and Mortimer about what their plans were and how the mystery was taking so long to solve. However, once I got to the middle of the mystery it really started to pick up the pace especially with the home invasion by the Yellow M into Mortimer’s house. Then there was the car chase that was thrilling and intense with the setting and not knowing if they are going to collide. Although when it got to the ending and the big reveal it went back to the slow pacing which started to annoyed me.

The dialogue in this comic was just way too much everywhere as it took away from the beauty of artwork. There was also a lot of over explaining of what the situation was and the point in which we are at in the mystery. Then the ending was also a lot of monologues which I was expecting a bit because you could see that it was a criminal that love to monologue behind it but this was way too much. It felt at points that the dialogue was a bit of a caricature of the situation which made me laugh but also just annoyed me as it changed the tone of the whole comic.

The artwork in this comic was beautiful it was the great old school style of 1950’s dark and mysterious look with the use of colour. The scenes of London were very nostalgic and heart warming especially for me as Londoner. My favourite pieces of artwork in this comic have to be the part of the home invasion of the Yellow M in Mortimer’s house as they used shadows and pop art style of what was happening which made it quite comical.

All in all good it is a good mystery but I think this comic is trying to hard to be a novella than an actually comic with the over extensive pieces of dialogue and explaining throughout. Although I did enjoy the mystery reminded me a bit of a Nancy Drew mystery in that simple style of mystery. I enjoyed the two main characters although I have more of an interest in Mortimer mainly because of the many artifacts in his house which I am sure have some great stories to tell. I think this is not a good adventure to start with but I am curious to see what the other adventures are like. I think this is a great comic to give to the 9-12yrs old that want to get into comics.

Where To Buy:

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The Next Blake and Mortimer Mystery The Mystery of the Great Pyramid I am Reading:

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