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A review by belle_fiction
Bandette, Volume 1: Presto! by Paul Tobin
4.0
Welcome to the camp caped-crusader world of Bandette, the world's greatest thief!
Presto! was a fun and entertaining read and reminded me of 1960s Batman in a lot of ways (I suspect the illustrations and the silly dialogue had something to do with it) nevertheless, it whisked me away into France and set the scene beautifully.
Bandette is a fun, crime-loving girl who has a huge heart. Her biggest rival, Monsieur, is also looking for the biggest heist and you see them get one over each other, adding to the playfulness of the narrative. There is also an appearance by Matadori and the showdown between her and Bandette is pretty hilarious (take special notice of their banter).
The chain-smoking Detective Belgique relies on the quick-thinking/doing Bandette to bring the "true" criminals to justice, and, once again, restores a sense of harmony to the streets of France.
Lastly, there is the ultimate villain - Absinthe, who wishes to see Bandette dead, and the concluding pages to this first volume ends on an ominous, and pretty sinister, note. I have no doubt though, that Bandette will triumph again - she is a super kick-ass caped crusader!
The one drawback to this first volume were the additional urchin stories included at the end which were devoid of any real humour and didn't contribute in getting to know the various characters better. I felt they were too short to be of any real value or add any great depth to the story; if the second volume contains these, I think I'll just skip them.
Overall, Presto! contains a cracking little story and sets up the second volume nicely. I shall definitely continue with Bandette to see her kick ass again!
Presto! was a fun and entertaining read and reminded me of 1960s Batman in a lot of ways (I suspect the illustrations and the silly dialogue had something to do with it) nevertheless, it whisked me away into France and set the scene beautifully.
Bandette is a fun, crime-loving girl who has a huge heart. Her biggest rival, Monsieur, is also looking for the biggest heist and you see them get one over each other, adding to the playfulness of the narrative. There is also an appearance by Matadori and the showdown between her and Bandette is pretty hilarious (take special notice of their banter).
The chain-smoking Detective Belgique relies on the quick-thinking/doing Bandette to bring the "true" criminals to justice, and, once again, restores a sense of harmony to the streets of France.
Lastly, there is the ultimate villain - Absinthe, who wishes to see Bandette dead, and the concluding pages to this first volume ends on an ominous, and pretty sinister, note. I have no doubt though, that Bandette will triumph again - she is a super kick-ass caped crusader!
The one drawback to this first volume were the additional urchin stories included at the end which were devoid of any real humour and didn't contribute in getting to know the various characters better. I felt they were too short to be of any real value or add any great depth to the story; if the second volume contains these, I think I'll just skip them.
Overall, Presto! contains a cracking little story and sets up the second volume nicely. I shall definitely continue with Bandette to see her kick ass again!