FRNK: A Pipeline Portal
(If this post looks familiar, it’s because it’s a remake of the original Pipeline Portal. For various Behind the Scenes reasons, it had to be recreated. But do read it again — FRNK is a fun book!)
“FRNK”: Cycle 1
Frank is an orphan who falls back in time. Trying to determine where he comes from, he starts where he was found, a spot in the woods that turns out to be a portal to a prehistoric time.
Trapped there, Frank must learn to survive. He has some help from somewhat friendly locals, who begrudgingly take him in, despite his strange ways. He has a knife, he wears funny clothes, and he uses vowels in his speech!
Through four volumes, Frank tries to blend in while trying to be accepted. At the same time, he has to figure out how to get home.
Can he survive the mammoths, the strange dietary options, and the antagonistic group of red-headed cave people long enough to find his way back?
And will his futuristic ways change the way prehistoric life is led? Will bringing fire and soccer push civilization forward?
“Frnk” is a four part series that originally serialized in the pages of the “Spirou” magazine anthology. Each book is a complete story, often running well beyond the expected 48 pages.
It is created by writer Olivier Bocquet and artist Brice Cossu. Four books have been published to date, each of which has an English translation available digitally through the auspices of Europe Comics. Those four books make up the first “cycle” of the title.
More books are planned, perhaps as soon as Spring 2019. (In fact, serialization of the next book just started in “Le Journal de Spirou” magazine.)
The Cast
Current Day
Frank
An orphan found in the woods, Frank has been a terror in foster care. No family has adopted him. When the next family appears to take on the challenge, Frank runs away and accidentally discovers a portal to a prehistoric time.
Once there, he’ll have to deal with lousy — read, zero — cell phone service and no fast food. He’ll need to make friends with the natives and figure out a way back home, if at all possible.
His knowledge is his curse. Nobody believes him, which frustrates him a great deal.
He’s the one who found Frank in the middle of the woods in the modern timeline. He works at the orphanage where Frank lives between homes.
When Frank leaves the orphanage for the last time, The Gardener tells Frank about how he found him for the first time. Then he gives him a map to find where…
The Gardener
Frank’s New Prehistoric Family
Gerard
Justine
Gargoyle
Johnstone
Kenza
Eeyaa
The Antagonistic (Red-Headed) Cave People
Leonard
Chorizo
Brickwall
The Creative Team
Olivier Bocquet
Bocquet is a writer-of-all-trades who began his comics career in 2013.
His prior works include “The Wrath of Fantômas,” drawn by Julie (“Betty Boob“) Rocheleau, and three graphic novelizations of crime novels by Camilla Läckberg. He also co-wrote a graphic novel in the “Snowpiercer” series.
You can find him on Facebook.
Picture from Bedetheque’s Bibliography page
Brice Cossu
Born in 1982, Cossu started his comics career in 2008.
Most recently, he drew the comic book adaptation of the Spirou movie that came out 2018. “The Triumph of Zorglub” is available digitally, though not in English (yet?).
Here’s a great interview with him, talking all about “FRNK.”
You can find him on Facebook or Instagram.
Picture by Yves Tennevin – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
The Book Trailer
Pipeline Reviews
(Click on a cover to go to my review.)
Volume 1: “The Beginning Begins”
My first impression of the series was lukewarm. It looked good, but the story felt, as I put it then, “paint by numbers.” It’s the rebellious teenager who fights against the system only to end up trapped in another world, where he has to fight for his life. He meets up with some good people and some bad people and his unique (for the time) knowledge helps him survive it and win some new friends.
But Bocquet’s story was just beginning. This book was just laying the seeds for what was to come, both in terms of plot and style.
Volume 2: “Trial By Fire”
In the second volume, we run the gamut from the life-threatening to the bizarre. Frank introduces fire to his new cave family, and accidentally sets off an arms race. Fire also turns out to be good for a broader variety of reasons than initially thought.
Meanwhile, a cave of ridiculously cute bunnies threatens to suck everyone’s minds dry. Avoid the scary wildcats and the sleeping woolly mammoths, and you’ll be fine.
Volume 3: “The Sacrifice”
Frank learns that living in the past without the aid of a supermarket means hunting your own food. Killing an animal, though, is not something he’s prepared for. As much as his own survival depends on such food gathering methods, Frank is still hesitant. He wants to eat, but c’mon, look at how cute those animals are!
While it’s mostly played for laughs, there are some serious dramatic moments in this book that are jaw-dropping by comparison to the levity of the rest of the series. It emphasizes that this way of life is fraught with peril, and surviving is the ultimate goal.
Volume 4: “The Eruption”
The first cycle comes to an exciting conclusion.
Baby Gargoyle takes his first steps and then walks away, only to be found by the mean redheaded enemies.
Meanwhile, the volcano that Frank and the clan are living in starts to erupt. Only Frank realizes the danger of this monumental event. The natives are more impressed with their new source of heat and fire for cooking.
Frank returns to the lake where he first fell into the past, and makes a stunning discovery.
Bocquet once tweeted that this is the book that sold the publisher on doing the series.
Frank Introduces Futuristic Things
Frank would not be a good member of the Federation in a “Star Trek” TV series. The non-interference part of his mission is blown constantly.
Forget the phone he’s carrying with him for just a moment, since nobody around him knows what to make of the thing, anyway. Here are some of the other things he introduces to humanity far too early for the timeline’s future stability to handle.
Fire
To be fair, Leonard discovers it at roughly the same time, but only because he was copying Frank.
And, at first, it nearly kills Frank. But then he gets to use it later as the threat of a weapon to stave off some scary animals.
It turns out to be the pre-cursor of more fun cooking ahead, too!
Vowels
This happens right away in the first volume of the series. The cave people speak without vowels. Frank has to teach them their A-E-I-O-U’s so he can better understand them.
I love word play, so this worked for me.
Bonus: It’s easy to read all the dialogue without vowels. Your brain fills in those gaps nicely.
Soccer
Along with the wheel and soap, Frank shows his new family the power of soccer. Well, not really. It’s just a one panel gag, never to be heard from again.
I wonder how long those soccer games lasted? The first person to take a header with the rock they’re using for a ball must have shown them the dangers of the sport…
Shishkaboob, er, Shishkabob
In volume 4, as the lava flows through the equivalent of the living room for the cave dwelling, the cavemen discover that they can cook their food over this flowing body of liquid heat.
Thus is created barbecue. OK, so Frank didn’t introduce them to the idea of BBQ, but I’m sure it’s his fault somehow, anyway.
Finally, Think of the Bunnies
They look cute, don’t they? Appearances can be deceiving….
A Recommendation
This is the kind of book that would sell exceptionally well in North America through Scholastic Books. The art is bright and clear. Cossu’s style mixes manga and more traditional Franco-Belgian storytelling in a great way, wonderfully complemented by the coloring of Yoann Guillo.
Bocquet’s story has unexpected heart, plus a strong message about family and belonging. He tells four separate stories in these four books, but ties them together well. When you go back to read it again, you can see that he knew where the story was going and dropped plenty of clues along the way.
The four books in this first cycle are available today wherever fine digital comics are sold. (Comixology or Izneo)
-Augie De Blieck Jr.
28 March 2019
I LOVE this series. I’m a comic book lover from Belgium and this is one of the best books around nowadays! The emotional core is very strong in the serie and more then once I teared up. Last week I bought book 6 and o-m-g: the last page!! The most suprising book in the whole serie! Love it!!!
FRNK is a really good example of how traditional comic book storytelling with a hint of manga and animation style can work very well. It’s a great story with beautiful art. I’ve fallen a bit behind on it, but now you’ve got me interested in reading v6 next! I can’t imagine how they’d top the surprises in v4. Thanks!
Hi Augie, you have NO idea what’s waiting for you in the next comics of FRNK! It gives me goosebumps telling you this, but boy, are you in for an unexpected surprise! Greetings from Antwerp! Rob