UPDATED: Blake & Mortimer - the first publications

In recent years Cinebook (http://www.cinebook.co.uk/index.php) have been working their way through numerous continental comic strip adaptations. The series I've enjoyed most if that of Blake & Mortimer by (initially) Edgar P. Jacobs. You can find plenty more about the series here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_and_Mortimer

The main protagonists of the adventures are Philip Mortimer, a leading British scientist, and his friend Captain Francis Blake of MI5. The main antagonist is their sworn enemy, Colonel Olrik, who has appeared in almost every book. Their confrontations take them into the realms of detective investigation and science-fiction, dealing with such themes as time travel, Atlantis and espionage.

Jacobs worked for Hergé (more details here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_P._Jacobs) and his style is therefore very recognisable who has been brought up on the Tintin albums.

Cinebook have now published 23 B&M titles but they weren't the first to publish B&M books - in the late 1980s 6 volumes were published by "Blake and Mortimer editions - Brussels".

Here are volumes 2-6 of these books. I'm still on the hunt for volume 1 (which is 'The secret of the swordfish, part 1').

The Panelhouse (1995/6)

The Panelhouse was an extremely professionally produced comic magazine from 1995/6. A4 in size, 36 pages, black & white throughout. I'll list the British comics highlights of each issue.Well worth tracking down.

The Panelhouse issue 1, April-July 1995

Hugo Pratt; Peter Bagge; an index of European graphic novels (in English) - part 1

The Panelhouse issue 2, August-November 1995

Bryan Talbot; an index of European graphic novels (in English) - part 2; 

The Panelhouse issue 3, November 1995-February 1996

Alex Toth; Hugo Pratt obituary; Edgar Jacobs; 

The Panelhouse issue 4, March-July 1996

Moebius; Mike McMahon; Jean Giaud's Blueberry; 

The Panelhouse issue 5, August-November 1996

Yves Chaland; comic price guide 1996/7 review; an article on US comic strips set in the UK (ridiculous stereotypes ahoy!)

Blake & Mortimer (3)

And here's volume 6 (volume 1 in the Cinebook series) from January 1988

The only other publisher to tackle English language publication of B&M books were Catalan communications (under their comcat comics imprint) - they published 2 titles, I only have the first and it's shown below (volume 19 in the Cinebook series).

They also published a second volume, The Atlantis Mystery, which is volume 12 in the Cinebook series.

For more images you can't beat a trip to http://www.eurocomics.info/ which has masses of scans of English language reprints of European graphic novels. It's a fantastic site.

Blake & Mortimer (2)

Here's volume 5 (volume 3 in the Cinebook series) from August 1987, again the book is slightly larger than the Cinebook volume.

here's a page which could have come straight out of a Tintin volume - sparse dialogue, action sequence, pratfall

and yet the very next page is laden with dialogue and would be very out of place in a Tintin album

Blake & Mortimer - the first publications

Since we've looked at Alix I thought it might be interesting to show my (partial) collection of Blake & Mortimer reprints.

In recent years Cinebook (http://www.cinebook.co.uk/index.php) have been working their way through numerous continental comic strip adaptations. The series I've enjoyed most if that of Blake & Mortimer by (initially) Edgar P. Jacobs. You can find plenty more about the series here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_and_Mortimer

The main protagonists of the adventures are Philip Mortimer, a leading British scientist, and his friend Captain Francis Blake of MI5. The main antagonist is their sworn enemy, Colonel Olrik, who has appeared in almost every book. Their confrontations take them into the realms of detective investigation and science-fiction, dealing with such themes as time travel, Atlantis and espionage.

Jacobs worked for Hergé (more details here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_P._Jacobs) and his style is therefore very recognisable who has been brought up on the Tintin albums.

Cinebook have now published 23 B&M titles but they weren't the first to publish B&M books - in the late 1980s 6 volumes were published by "Blake and Mortimer editions - Brussels".

Here's the cover to volume 4 (volume 2 in the Cinebook series) from June 1987. The book is slightly bigger than the Cinebook volume but is otherwise identical.