Largo Winch Book 5: See Venice... By Jean Van Hamme & Phillipe Francq

Largo Winch Book 5: See Venice...

Cinebook

Billionaire adventurer Largo Winch has yet another femme fatale in his arms as we open this book, but his invitation for the beautiful Charity to join him in New York is declined as she heads towards Venice and the arms of another, a lady by the name of Domenica.

By now every red bloodied male who's similarly opened this book knows they're hooked right through to the last page. But our affiliations towards the erotic is sidestepped as a bank is robbed and terrorist activities take precedence and our ladies find themselves caught up in the travesty, with Charity kidnapped into the bargain.

Meanwhile, over in the States, Largo is busy dealing with the W Group's most recent business affairs, turning down invitations to fancy dress balls, and found his PA has hired him a butler who begins to act as if he's seen more action than Batman's Alfred. Events then conspire Largo to head to Venice, butler in tow, with the threat of even more danger in store!

Cinebook's decision to trim their books down to single volume translations of their original European material leaves this book in a 'To be continued' state that's highly frustrating. However, the fact that in See Venice... the creators have upped the ante makes it bearable.

Largo Winch is The Count of Monte Cristo in a modern thriller setting, with its lead character playing The Saint's Simon Templar one minute and vintage TV's Banacheck (played by George Peppard) the next. It's a tad James Bond (without that franchises' preposterous stuff and the camp bits) in places as if filtered through the comic book sensibility of a Doug Moench/Paul Gulacy partnership. It's all a little too far-fetched when you really think about it but it is so brilliantly put together, and crafted with precision while never swearing off emotional involvement (and I don't just mean the gorgeous women Winch always gets involved with) that you forgive such elements.

I can genuinely say that I was excited to see how this story would conclude in the forthcoming ...And Die, but I had to wait a couple of impatient months.

For more information on the English comic book visit: www.cinebook.com

As I've noted previously in Speech Balloons, Largo Winch started out as a series of novels, became bestselling graphic novels, and was adapted into a popular TV series in France. Click on the Youtube link present on this feature to see a clip for yourselves.