European Comics in Official and Fan Translations
Pico Bogue and his little sister Anna revel in the delights of winter, from Halloween to snowball fights, and, of course, that special Christmas magic.
It’s summer vacation time! And Pico and Anna are enjoying every minute: friends, fun, pool, lounging, sunshine… this is the life! Until… all of a sudden, it all goes wrong. Pico and Anna’s parents decide to go away on a week-long sailing trip… WITHOUT THEM! Big mistake. Pico and Anna soon refine their guilt-tripping tactics…!
It’s summertime, and Pico, Anna and their uncle Antoine fill up the car with all manner beach paraphernalia and head for the seaside. It’s sure to be a vacation full of all sorts of magic and mischief!
It’s 1943 and all-American Joe is heading off to fight the Japanese. His distraught fiancé Dottie Partington is fired from her job as a movie usher, and a friend helps her find employment at the Yoyo Club, a cabaret favored by soon-to-be-deployed US Air Force personnel. In the meantime, Joe is marooned on an atoll in the South Pacific, where he experiences firsthand the terror of war, and encounters a motley crew of fictional and real-life characters. Back in the States, famed cartoonist Milton approaches Dottie and uses her as the model for his new comic strip, “Poison Ivy,” which centers on the adventures of a patriotic vamp capable of making soldiers “forget their girlfriends back home.” The strip is a runaway success and kindles the fantasies of GIs across the globe, eventually reaching even Joe.
Dottie works in a munitions factory as a WAC, while her fiancé Joe is stationed in the Pacific. A colonel visits Dottie to convince her to resume posing for cartoonist Milton, and that “Poison Ivy” is the patriotic boost the troops really need. She agrees and then sees a newsreel with footage of Joe declaring that he wishes to spend a night with “Poison Ivy”—the fictional sex bomb he doesn’t realize is actually his fiancée. Dottie travels to the front on a publicity tour, and destiny brings her—and her desire for revenge—face-to-face with the unwitting Joe.
President Truman drops two atomic bombs on Japan, and Dottie cuts ties with Milton and begins posing for lowlife cheesecake photographer, Irving Klaw. In the meantime, a shadowy figure with a vendetta against ex-Yoyo Club girls persists in evading police. While Colonel Eigrutel shows a marked interest in Talullah, Milton tries to track the increasingly bitter Dottie down, and a war-injured Joe wastes away in a squat for the homeless. Everything comes to a head one dark night in the New York City.
A United States Air Force U-2 airplane goes down over Russia, and pilot Gary Francis Powers is captured. Back in the States, Powers is considered a traitor for allowing himself to be taken alive, and his wife, Dottie – aka “Poison Ivy” – has to hide from irate neighbors while also figuring out how to handle her angry young stepson. In Russia, U.S. agents discover that Powers’ plane may not have been shot down after all, and then Dottie receives an offer of help from an unexpected source: billionaire Howard Hughes, who may be able to free Gary. But at what cost?
American pilot-spy Gary Francis Powers has been shot down by Soviet forces and languishes in a dank prison cell awaiting trial. His wife, Dottie – a.k.a. “Poison Ivy” – continues her uneasy alliance with billionaire film producer Howard Hughes, who has promised to help her free Gary – in return for certain favors. Meanwhile, cartoonist Milton toils away at his adventure strip, “Steve Canyon,” and his precocious teenage daughter advises him on how to spice up the long-running comic. The “Canyon” storyline begins to parallel world events, which may get Milton into some very hot water.
Lorenzo works for proTECTO, an agency of not-exactly-guardian-angels whose jobs are to protect the lives of mortals who have important roles to play in the future. Lorenzo’s charge, a carefree teenage girl named Kim, is one of the most important clients, classified as “major elite.” Unfortunately, Lorenzo gets distracted and his charge is run over by the heartless and not-entirely-stable Madame, a sort of grim reaper cruising around in a black Citroën. Lorenzo decides to go against the rules of proTECTO and fate itself to save Kim with the help of his fellow protector, Aegis, and Kim’s heartbroken older sister, Alicia.
Marco’s left town for the countryside. He’s left his psychologist because he feels he’s doing better. He’s quit his job as a reporter because he’s had enough of photographing corpses. He gets himself a little cottage in the heart of rural France, where he lives with his cat, Adolf. He throws out all his work, and cuts ties with his employer. That night, he has his first panic attack.It’s not long before he meets the lovely Emilie, and also the wise and good-natured old man who lives in the cottage just across the way… but who, it turns out, isn’t exactly what he seems…