The Rainbow Orchid

AS someone became hooked on comics through his older brother's Tintin books, I have always adored the clean-line style, the detailed backgrounds, the boys own adventure stories and plots which don't talk down to the audience.

So I was delighted to see the poster advertising Garen Ewing's Rainbow Orchid at BICS and picked up a copy straight away.

This is set up as the first adventure for Julius Chancer, a young adventurer, antique hunter, and mystery solver who is joined by glamourous silent film star Lilly Lawrence on a quest to find a mythical flower.

The 1920s world of Julius Chancer is peopled by a range of larger than life characters from the evil corporate tyrant Grope, the sleazy reporter and gossip columnist Pickle, a bumbling Hollywood agent and, in the final scenes of volume one, a daredevil pilot who drops everything to save the day, in style.

It is truly great stuff. I am looking forward to volumes two, out in April and three to follow later in 2010

Garen, while signing books, helpfully explained that, while welcoming the comparison's with Herge's work, there is more to clear line comics than just Tintin and his website gives a few useful pointers.