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General Chat => Books & Comics => Topic started by: Rogue Judge on 25 February, 2017, 07:09:34 AM

Title: Valerian & Laureline
Post by: Rogue Judge on 25 February, 2017, 07:09:34 AM
Valerian & Laureline - has anyone here ever read this series? I had never heard of it until recently when it popped up on my Amazon recommendations list. I have always enjoyed Tintin and Asterix and this appears to be in the same vein of action/adventure?

The complete series is being collected in hardback a collection called Valerian: The Complete Collection starting this June (all 22 stories, 3 stories collected in each in HC).

Can anybody recommend this series? With this complete HC collection coming out it might be a good time to jump on board.

Title: Re: Valerian & Laureline
Post by: Smith on 25 February, 2017, 10:10:43 AM
Well,I read the first volume,and found the whole thing confusing.
Then again,maybe starting at the beginning wasnt a smart choice?
Title: Re: Valerian & Laureline
Post by: jacob g on 25 February, 2017, 10:40:28 AM
I own most of the collected editions that's available in my country.

This is really nice but silly adventure space opera strip with strong political overtones. Story can by childish at times but I think that's good thing. You know, when good characters seves the day it's mostly because they think how to help not because they shoot the way out of trouble, it's always admirable thing in comicbook sci-fi.

I like Valerian because it's this kind of sci-fi where you feel good after the story is finished, and even f you have problem with Pierre Christin's leftist agenda (not my problem) I think you can enjoy the story.

And ofcourse, second volume of collected edition is where the real fun begins, but on the other hand I loved postapocaliptic feel of "La cite des eaux mouvantes".
Title: Re: Valerian & Laureline
Post by: Rogue Judge on 27 February, 2017, 08:04:16 AM
Thanks for your opinions gents, I think I'll give the first volume a go. I dont mind if the story is a bit childish, I still enjoy reading Asterix, for example, now and again and still enjoy it. A feel good sci-fi sounds like a good thing. But hopefully it is not too confusing, as Smith suggests, once a couple of issues are read.
Title: Re: Valerian & Laureline
Post by: jacob g on 27 February, 2017, 11:40:25 AM
I guess the "confusing" part comes from Vol. 1 structure.

Vol. 1 opens with "les mauvais reves" (I don't know english name for this story, sorry). This story is like test run for whole Valerian and Laureline series. For years this story wasn't even collected in GN format becaus is longer than typical franco-belgium book. So if ypu get Valerian just remeber first story is about introducing characters and basic premise, but it's nowhere near later V&L adventures in terms of quality.

In my collected editions there's a lot of articles about strip history, creators background and etc. I hope english edition also contains all of them because this really add depth for whole strip.
Title: Re: Valerian & Laureline
Post by: Smith on 13 April, 2017, 06:58:47 PM
http://www.europecomics.com/a-model-for-star-wars/ (http://www.europecomics.com/a-model-for-star-wars/)
Somebody has to bring it up...
Title: Re: Valerian & Laureline
Post by: positronic on 03 May, 2017, 09:37:50 AM
There's a (magazine-sized) Valerian promo comic out this week in comics shops, which begins with an excerpt from "The Ambassador of Shadows". It's got a movie cover, and some few pages in back with more info about the movie, but the bulk of it a comic story.

As it happens, I think this was the very first Valerian story I ever read (in English), probably more than 30 years ago. The promo preview is a big enough chunk of the story to give you the flavor of the series, so there's an easy way to determine whether you'd like it or not before committing money to the hardcover collections.
Title: Re: Valerian & Laureline
Post by: The Adventurer on 03 May, 2017, 03:11:08 PM
I read the first volume about a month ago, I found it quite enjoyable. But not exactly what I was expecting. It was more comedic, which is cool in its own way.

I'm not sure what was confusing about it. It was pretty straight forward.

Edit: oh yeah, and I'm looking forward to the movie