Largo Winch: Takeover Bid

Largo Winch Book 2: Takeover Bid
By Jean Van Hamme and Phillipe Francq
Cinebook

COLLECTING BOTH the original French albums Takeover Bid and Business Blues in one handy volume.

Largo Winch was originally a series of successful novels by writer Van Hamme , and in subsequent years it became a TV series and a big screen movie came out a while back. This bestselling comic book series stays true to form with all its other adaptation for other media by being a story that is a mixture of heady-thriller and business politics.

Winch has inherited the W Group, making him extremely rich - the fact that he's previously been a modern age adventurer and freebooter and now enjoys taking time out to play the playboy doesn't ingratiate him with many old school financiers and personal assistants. But these are modern times and maybe a new broom's needed. If so, Largo certainly has to prove himself.

Largo falls for a ravishing beauty, finds himself spread across the newspapers with a headline that he's due to marry someone else (an ageing gold-digger actress); sees arrows pierce the heart of businessmen he likes and is told by an elderly Father Christmas bearded tycoon to watch out for himself because they're both endangered, all while the W Group's own affairs are turned upside down. To be truthful there are economic escapades aplenty and you need to keep a score card to keep track of where the money's moving at times.

The pace quickens by the time Business Blues kicks in internationally as physical motion takes precedence with some ingenious chase scenes, action sequences and well crafted acts of necessary violence. The takeover is halted, abruptly, powerfully, and with a dash of humour too.

Coming into the series here it's a little hard to gather all the background facts and sympathise with the characters but there's no mistake one is reading part of an impressive series, with all due respect to Van Hamme.

Francq's art captures that classic European adventure flavour with a penchant for square jawed characters that's more American or even Manga styled, his background details, even if some are possibly photo-referenced, don't stand out and dominate the panels but when you soak them in they're breathtakingly detailed, all adding to the ambiance of the work.

For more information on Largo Winch graphic novels in English visit: www.cinebook.com