Blake & Mortimer: The Complete Collection

With The Time Trap, first of the two titles in this fourth volume, Jacobs tackles a quintessential science-fiction trope: time travel. Dinosaurs, medieval knights and an apocalyptic future make it a fabulous adventure, and who cares if, for the first time, Olrik isn’t there? The Affair of the Necklace, on the other hand, is a pure crime story done in ultrarealistic overtones that set it somewhat apart from the rest of the series. Finally, the extra material will shine a light on the dangers of censorship at the time - from which even Jacobs wasn’t safe.

Created byEdgar Pierre Jacobs after WWII, Professor Philip Mortimer, nuclear physicist, and Captain Francis Blake, dashing head of MI5, are legendary heroes of the 9th art. His first comic, The U Ray (translated by Cinebook) was noticed by Hergé, and Jacobs became his first assistant, helping to illustrate Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in America, The Blue Lotus, King Ottokar’s Sceptre, The Seven Crystal Balls, and Prisoners of the Sun, before being given free rein to work on his own series.