WOW!  Attilio Micheluzzi's crisp, pen & ink, black & white artwork here in the 144 pages of this full-size hardcover edition of The Farewell Song of Marcel Labrume is knock-your-socks-off good.  It's part of lineage that starts with the fine line rendering of Hal Foster and Alex Raymond on the one hand and strong compositional skills of Milt Caniff and Noel Sickles on the other, and that falls exactly – perfectly – between Alex Toth and early Jaime Hernandez (who then combined it with much else, took it in another direction and made it all his own).  The characters and stories are at times reminiscent of Howard Hawks, with a tough guy hero enountering a series of heroines who are strong (but vulnerable), and tough (but sexy) – and, unfortunately, highly perishable. 

Micheluzzi has only been sparingly translated into English, most notably in the pages of the 1988 Eclipse Comics / Acme Press co-publication, Aces.  This stunning Fantagraphics hardcover edition will go a long way towards bringing Micheluzzi's amazing work to the attention of Anglophone readers everywhere, but especially here in the USA.  The Farewell Song of Marcel Labrume was originally published way back in 1981 and is only now making it to our shores in this new English translation by Jamie Richards. 

There are at least a couple important caveats to Micheluzzi's amazing art chops.  On the formal level, his storytelling, while largely flowing and engaging, is, at certain moments – usually those involving some plot complexity – deficient, causing readers to pause and wonder, "who is/was that?", "how does this connect to that?" and/or "I'm confused as to what's going on here".  But, usually the needed answers are there, just perhaps less clearly – or maybe, just less obviously – than they could have been.   And then, on the level of content, it is important to point out that these stories are set in (former) French colonial territories (largely during WW II) and are rife with colonial (and also, especially given the war setting, nationalistic) attitudes and the accompanying implicit racism. Mitigating this is a sense that Micheluzzi is aware of this and works to assign the attitudes to the characters and their embodiment of the historical period, but it's still there, nonetheless.

Fanta sez:

The first 21st century English language translation of Italian master Attilio Micheluzzi, a rousing adventure story that takes place in the Middle East during World War II.  The Farewell Song of Marcel Labrume is Fantagraphics' first entry in its planned Micheluzzi library, which will reprint all of his most significant works. Micheluzzi is one of the most iconic graphic stylists of the European comics scene known for his elegant line and stunning draftsmanship. He drew many graphic novels between 1974 and 1990, mostly of adventurous stories grounded in historical reality with a patina of romanticism, in the tradition of Milton Caniff and Hugo Pratt. Micheluzzi's artwork in these Fantagraphics editions have been meticulously and lovingly restored by the artist's daughter Agnese Micheluzzi and will be the finest reproductions in the artist's career.

It's here – the second volume in The Fantagraphics Attilio Micheluzzi Library – and it's a doozy!  Running 312 pages, nearly 300 of which are comics, Petra Chérie collects the complete adventures of the titular character which originally ran in a variety of publications between 1977 and 1982.  A solid majority – over 3/4 – of these comics are in full color – acording to Fantagraphics, for the first time – with the remainder in black & white line art only, or black & white with grey tones, in the case of the final story. 

Also included are a pæan to Micheluzzi by Paul Pope (who confesses to basing his character Escapo on one of Micheluzzi's characters), an introduction by Loris Cantarellil that provides some handy background info on the series, and then it all closes out with an "interview" with the Petra Chérie herself, by Giovanni Nahmias. 

These are fantastic adventure comics by a true master.

The Fantagraphics description sets the stage well...

Now in English for the first time, Italian comics master Attilio Micheluzzi’s classic graphic novel follows the dramatic adventures of a mysterious heroine during the end of World War I!

Set during World War I and originally published in serial format from 1977–1982, Petra Cherie follows the adventures of Petra De Karlowitz, “Cherie” to creator Attilio Micheluzzi, who addresses her throughout the book. Born to a Polish businessman and the most beautiful woman in Paris, raised in Canton, China, and now based in neutral Holland, she is a spy who answers only to herself. Evoking but cleverly eschewing stereotypes of the femme fatale, Petra is equally at home in the cockpit of an airplane and behind the wheel of a motorcar. More than that, she is an endlessly fascinating enigma and one of the most iconic characters in Italian comics.

In short, thrilling tales across sky, sea, and land, zipping from Northern Europe to Mitteleuropa, from the Balkans to the Bosphorus to the nascent Soviet Union, Micheluzzi grapples with an era when Europe’s borders were in flux and battle lines were often blurred. Petra steps in where national allegiances come into conflict with our common humanity.

Attilio Micheluzzi, an architect by training who grew up between Istria, Libya, and Naples, brings his international experiences and his keen sense of perspective to his work. In the tradition of the Corto Maltese adventures and stylish look of Guido Crepax’s Valentina, Petra Cherie is the touchstone book in Fantagraphics’ comprehensive Micheluzzi library, prepared in collaboration with the author’s daughter Agnese Micheluzzi.