Lena v1: “Lena’s Odyssey”

There are other styles of storytelling besides the three act structure.

There is, for example, this one. Sure, you can find a three act structure in it, but it happens out of order. The first act happens after the second act, leading into the third.

Pierre Christin is telling a completely different type of story with “Lena,” and it’s not something I’d recommend to someone who’s never read a BD before. If I did that, I’d scare them away.

Still, it’s an interesting book, if only in all the ways it breaks so many of the assumed “rules.”

But, to be honest, you might still find it to be a slog.

Doing It All For Lena’s Credits

What’s Going On

This is the story of Lena, a spy who is traveling across Europe to deliver small packages and messages to specific people.

It’s a travelogue. She goes from town to town, stays as hidden as possible, keeps away from airports where she might be tracked, and slowly gets to all the people she needs to get to.

Then she gets away.

The End. (Sort of.)

It’s an Odyssey and a Travelogue

Christin’s script is remarkably uneventful. There are moments in which he teases you that something unexpected might happen, but it never does.

Nearly the entire book is panel after panel, page after page, of narration as we see Lena move from city to city and do her best spy job. We don’t know who she’s working for or what the big plan is. We just see her travel a lot, meeting curious people (and having a page or two of dialogue with them, to help break up the caption boxes), and then moving on.

Some of these meetings are very friendly and include a meal, while some are all business with a quick meeting followed by a prolonged stay in country while waiting for the next train.

It’s a very prose-like approach to writing a comic. There really isn’t much to show. Most writers, in fact would tell you to cut out anything in the story in which people travel. Get straight to where they’re going and show that scene. Christin luxuriates in explaining the traveling. He explains why the locals in each country might not scrutinize Lena’s passport enough to realize it’s a fake. He shows us the different modes of transportation she uses, and we’re often introduced to her drivers. They play no real part in the story, but we learn more about them, anyway.

Through 54 pages of story, not much happens. She doesn’t have any derring do. There are no gun battles. There’s no close misses. There’s no cat and mouse. There are no car chases, no revelations, no blown identities, no stupid mistakes that lead to unfortunate consequences.

In many ways, I suspect it’s a lot of what real life spying is like: Time consuming, boring, and carefully orchestrated.

In the end, we learn what it’s all about — what she was doing, for who, and why. It all plays out. And then we learn why she’s doing it. And, oddly enough, with that sequence, the three act structure nearly plays out, but the first act happens last. Then there’s a coda.

It’s a remarkable way of telling a story, and one which I’m afraid more than half the readership in America would give up on before the halfway point. And I can’t help myself, but I enjoyed it just for its structure. I did look at the page number a bunch of times to see how much more story was left, but ultimately I was satisfied that my open questions were answered and the conclusion felt satisfactory.

But I still couldn’t recommend this one to a first time BD reader. I’m afraid they’d never make it all the way through.

It is, however, an interesting story that doesn’t rely on the tropes of its genre to get the job done.

It’s not surprising that Christin would tell this kind of tale. If you’ve read anything about him before — or particularly his “East Meets West” autobiography — you’ll know the kind of political and geographical circles he moved in all his life. In the back of the book, there’s even a paragraph that mentions how this book was inspired by a European trip Christin took with the artist, Andre Juillard. He just put the thin veneer of a spy saga over top of it to turn it into a story.

The Art of Andre Juillard

While it’s Christin’s script that tries to take over and control three quarters of this comic, Juillard’s art holds its own. It’s an unrelentingly realistic portrayal of a story that is all about realism and the mundane. He cuts no corners. Every panel has a background, and these are mostly nine panel pages.

You can tell there’s a lot of photo reference at work here. The geography and the architecture feels very specific and very purposeful.

There’s an intense and meticulous level of detail in his art. It isn’t flowery or highly stylized. But it’s all there, every last bit. If Christin needs a particular vehicle or a house of a specific architectural school, Juillard provides it all, and then colors the book with a deceptively simple style. It’s a simple watercolor style, with cut in shadows and no textures. The book doesn’t need it, past whatever the paper grain gives as it shows through the colors.

People look natural without looking too posed or stiff. I’ve read enough European albums now where the artist is going for that photorealistic look and lands in the Uncanny Valley. There’s always some element of style — or maybe a shortcoming in the artist’s technique — that brings the art up just short of what, I believe, was intended.

Juillard, though, brings me in with his art. There’s a nice balance between detail and cartooning, and his artistic skills are strong enough that I don’t catch him relying on specific angles or poses to carry his art through.

Recommended?

If you like a bit of a travelogue, some solid art, and some fine details of traveling in eastern Europe in times past, then you might go for this book. It is not in any way like anything you’re used to reading. It’s going to destroy most of the rules of storytelling you’re used to. You may give up after twenty pages and move on to the next thing.

I wouldn’t blame you. I think you’ll miss how it all comes together, but I can understand your impatience.

I enjoyed it on its own merits. I enjoyed the different mode of storytelling. I liked how things came together in the end. And while Lena’s journey was mostly jeopardy-free, I enjoyed how meticulously she planned everything, how good she was at her job, and the glimpses at different parts of the world.

There are two more books in this series. I can’t imagine where Christin will go next with Lena. It’ll be fun to find out, though.

You can also pick it up on Izneo and Comixology.