Hexagon Comics: The Freeshooters Classic

 

THE FREESHOOTERS CLASSIC; cover by Luca Pozza

7x10 squarebound trade paperback,

124 p.

b&w

ISBN-13: 978-1-64932-492-4; US$15.95

https://www.hexagoncomics.com/forthcoming-books-the-freeshooters-classic.html

Contents:

- Foreword by J.-M. & Randy Lofficier

- ANDREIOS: The Lion of the Thermopylae; art by Franco Oneta

- LAM LIGHTNING: The Ten Masks; art by Stelio Fenzo

- LONE BARDO: The Adventure Begins; art by Carlo Cedroni

In our recently published Strangers No. 15, we introduced a new group of characters, The Freeshooters, four heroes pulled from various periods of Earth’s history. They consisted of Ivan Karine, Lone Bardo, Andreios and Lana Lightning.

Thanks to our “Classics” reprint series, you are now able to discover a sample of the original stories that featured these characters.

* Lone Bardo is a character inspired by Phileas Fogg, the star of Jules Verne’s classic Around the World in Eighty Days. It was created in 1958 by Carlo Cedroni, the author of Jed Puma.

* Andreios is a Greek warrior circa 480 BC, the date of the famous battle at the Thermopylae between Greeks and Persians, depicted in Frank Miller’s celebrated graphic novel, 300. Andreios was created in 1967 by Franco Oneta, better known as the artist on Zembla.

* Finally, Lightning Lam is a western graphic novel by Stelio Fenzo that originally appeared in 1968. The story takes place in the South just after the Civil War and follows the adventures of recently demobilized Confederate Captain Robert Lamm.

 You can always tell you are in for an old school adventure when the character has his revolver grip attached to a lanyard. Ahhh, the waft of nostalgia! 

This adventure begins with our hero martial arts training and an interruption that leads he nd his manservant James on to a new adventure. I love how, on getting to India, the pair take to pennyfarthing bicycles to get around LOL! ah, the 1880s and the English abroad. It is a very nice, clean art style from Cedroni and quite an enjoyable romp -I hope part 2 is on the table ready to print!

Oneta's art on Andreios is also nice and clean. All seems to be as accurate as you can get when it comes to buildings, clothing and unlike one artist who drew ancient Greeks on saddled horses, the ones accurately depicted in this story are not. Do I tend to boringly keep referring to historical stuff in reviews?  That's age and reading a lot for you.

Lightning Lam I was reading through and something kept niggling my brain about the Fenzo art and I think it's because it was reminding me of someone else. I believe Mike Ploog art although a couple times there was a hint of Eisner. It's a nicely paced Western and we get few of those these days.

All-in-all this is a very nice Classic collection and so many old characters and comics are lost to us because no one really cares if it isn't Marvel, DC or Image and it's black and white. 

It is a very good collection for comic enthusiasts who might collect the odd French comic because they like the style but cannot read French as these are obviously all translated to English. I know there are comic collectors that will buy a specific genre -Victorian or Edwardian world travelling adventurers such as Lone Bardo.  Others will collect comics set in ancient times and until tal;king to one I never realised that it was such a big collection interest (I was told to never call it a "craze" ). And we have the Western and that genre is a huge one for collectors.

So this book covers three collector types but what it does, more importantly (maybe only for comic historians?), is it preserves the history of comics from France that appeal to any comic reader but which would otherwise be forgotten.  This collection is fun and full of adventure and action and well worth making part of your collection.