His Name Was Ptirou cover detail
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His Name Was Ptirou: The Somewhat True Story of Spirou

“His Name Was Ptirou” is The Shocking, True Origin Story of Ptirou, The Boy Who Would Be Spirou!

Almost.

It’s really highly fictionalized and not exactly 100% historically accurate, but it sure is a fun dramatic period piece with a likable version of Spirou.

Writer: Yves Sente
Artist: Laurent Verron
Lettering: Cromatik Ltd.
Translator: Tom Imber
Published by: Dupuis/Europe Comics
Number of Pages: 78
Original Publication: 2018

Spirou’s “Titanic”

This book feels very cinematic to me.  It almost feels like a movie script in comic form.  It even reminds me of “Titanic” in its story structure.

Ptirou leaves the circus for America

It’s December, 1929.  The economy is in trouble.  A young circus boy named Ptirou becomes an orphan. He dreams of going to America, where the streets are paved with gold, etc. etc.  (This is a far better dream than “Be adopted by a millionaire and join his war on crime to avenge his, likewise, murdered parents on the streets of the dirtiest and most crooked city in the world.”)

A French transatlantic cruise ship is about to steam off to America.  The boss, Henri De Sainteloi, is on the ship, heading to New York City. He will try to re-negotiate some contracts there.  The cruise ship company finds its margins shrinking, and they’re looking for every point they can win back.  They’re also having a reduction in labor, which (of course) ticks off the ship workers.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this nearly enough on this site in the past, but labor in France is always mad and constantly blocking roads, it seems.  This particular group, though rowdy and prone to throwing things at people, never stops traffic. They do, however, hatch a plot to warn the ship’s owners that they can’t fire people at Christmas time.  That ain’t right. The cruise ship is their battle ground.

Sainteloi is bringing his daughter on this cruise. That’s tricky because she has a medical condition which requires the constant care and attention of a nurse and medications.

Ptirou sneaks aboard the ship, and all the pieces are in place. You just need to shake them up, see who runs into who, and let the fun begin!

Drama on the High Seas

The drama is about what you’d expect.  It’s Upstairs/Downstairs, in part.  The rich folks upstairs are taken care of by the stewards like Ptirou, while the down and dirty work is done downstairs in the engine rooms by the more rough and tumble streetwise set.

As a steward, Ptirou lives in both worlds.  He’s part of the servant class on the ship; he works upstairs all day, but stays in a bunk downstairs at night.  An orphan on his own at a relatively young age, he’s at home in neither world, and is the subject of the abuse of the veterans down below and the commands of the upstairs folks.

Ptirou meets Spirou's creator
Ptirou meets Spirou’s creator

That said, the upstairs folks are generally kind to him, particularly his immediate boss, Robert.  Yes, this Robert is the same Robert as in Rob-Vel fame, the guy who created Spirou. It’s true that he did work in the service industry.  He started in hotels and then moved onto cruise ships just like the one in this book.  He met an artist on one such trip who gave him his big break in New York.  There he’d stay for a while before moving back to France and creating the Belgian mascot for Spirou.

That’s the rough outline of the true story, and this book fits right into it.  The story is still centered on Ptirou, but Robert keeps showing up, and slowly we can piece his story together.  We see that he likes to sketch in his off hours, but in reality we know the real Rob-Vel also did caricatures of guests on the ship, as well as ship posters.

Along the way, we get a solid piece of dramatic fiction, with everything from the more mundane — the boys down below picking on the stewards and roughing them up — to the crazier parts that happen at the end.  It stretches credulity a bit, but provides the story with a big action set piece ending.  At that point in the book, it doesn’t matter. You’ve already grown attached to the characters and want to see where they end up.  You’ll get swept away in the moment and not question things too much.  Besides, they planted the seeds for the ending very early in the book, so it’s not like it’s a big shock.  I’ll happily give Sente some literary license here.

Ptirou practices parkour aboard the ship
Tell me that last panel doesn’t look like a Sam Kieth drawing.

That goes the same for Ptirou’s carnival past.  I referenced Batman before, but this does feel a bit like the Robin series, with a touch of Daredevil.  When he needs to, Ptirou can bust out some amazing parkour/circus moves to leap around like a grasshopper to avoid things or to get to someone quickly.

The Art of Verron

Mix in a bit of Matthieu Bonhomme with the inky stylings of Nate Powell. Throw in a dash of Sam Kieth’s cartooning. That should give you a rough approximation of Verron’s style.  It’s agreeable and enjoyable.  He nails both the dirty, dark underbelly of the ship and the shining exuberance of the upstairs dining hall and ballroom, just as easily.

The characters often have heads that seem just a bit too big for their bodies, but it’s consistent enough that I’ll call it a stylistic choice.  The storytelling is crystal clear, with packed four-tier pages and no shortcuts taken.

It’s the inking of the book that I keep coming back to. There’s something about it I really like.  It’s a very dry brushy style, adding depth to the images with their line weights, but also adding character and a touch of realism. Verron matches that nicely with his colors.  He mutes them nicely with a bit of a grit and texture.  He helps keep everything looking old-fashioned with the littlest touches that way.

Recommended?

His Name Was Ptirou cover

It’s a longer book and there’s a lot of dialogue in it, but it is charming and enjoyable.  It takes a grain of truth and wraps an entertaining story around it that I enjoyed reading a second time over the course of writing this review.

If you’re completely new to the world of Spirou, “Spirou in Berlin” is the book I’d recommend starting with.

— 2018.085 —

Buy It Now

 


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2 Comments

  1. I wrote a little something here yesterday but it went to limbo and I didn’t save it. Probably wasn’t that interesting or smart though :p

    1. I’m sure it was brilliant, but I have no sign of it here on the back-end. It’s not held up for moderation or anything. I’m sorry it’s lost. =(