Customer Reviews

No Pasaran! Vol. 2 (Spanish Civil War)

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I've always enjoyed the work of Vittorio Giardino, the best contemporary practitioner of the "Belgian style" of comix illustration. His stories are almost always tales of intrigue, mostly starring Max Bergman, an agent of the French "Deuxieme Bureau."

In this series Max is working on his own, searching for a an old comrade-in-arms, now an officer in Spain's Republican Army, who has disappeared in the Spanish Civil War after falling into disfavor with the Republican secret police.

Max travels to the front with a beautiful young French correspondant and other, more cynical members of the press corps. We see the devastation of the war and get a feel for the political undercurrents swirling around the Republican cause.

Unfortunately, like the previous book this is not really a complete episode by itself, and ends without a clear climax. The subject matter is fascinating, the characterization and attention to historical detail are excellent, but the plotting is weak and the story is simply a kind of picaresque ramble through the war.