The Bluecoats Book 4 – The Greenhorn
The Bluecoats Book 4 – The Greenhorn, by Raoul Cauvin & Willy Lambil, Cinebook
MY INITIAL assumptions of The Bluecoats was that it would be a Gallic take on Mort Walker’s classic newspaper strip Beetle Bailey as if back in the time of America’s civil war. Certainly there are undertones of that in both the cartooned art and the broad-stroke characterisations of its humour but under inspection one suspects there’s a wider depth of influences at work.
In its readings, one might draw comparisons to Robert Altman’s MASH for it uses the folly of war (unless you’re in the business of profiting from it) as a backdrop to dealing with life’s really serious matters, while fronting it all with a joke to offset despondency – or maybe it’s to point out that live’s too short to take even despair seriously all the time.
Maybe it’s just a scenario tell a fun little adventure, because that’s how most folk reading it will take it, certainly the young.
The Bluecoats focuses on two soldier in particular: Corporal Blutch, who if not a potential deserter is certainly a man not ready to stand in the firing line on the words of any pompous general’s say-so, and his sergeant, Cornelius Chesterfield, a big man with a bigger heart that beats strong for their commander’s daughter, Emily.
Alas, Chesterfield doesn’t always pack common sense along with his military paraphernalia and when the two return to their fort and find Emily dancing in the arms of a handsome young lieutenant named George things hit the fan... From a drunken saloon fight (which might well be a recurring theme in the series, the way it reads), to discovering George’s true identity and the affects that has on all their lives, pro and con there's quite a commotion going on.
There’s a feeling that like many a European cartoon adventure series, from Asterix on, themes may repeat themselves and the status quo remains the same no matter what, but on this first showing for me as a reader the Belgian writer and artist involved have produced a nice little album with some wry comments to boot.
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