Spirou & Fantasio 8 - Tough Luck Vito
Authors: Tome & Janry
Age: 8 years and up
Size: 21.7 x 28.7 cm
Number of pages: 48 colour pages
ISBN: 9781849182485
Price: £6.99 inc. VAT
Publication: April 2015
An old seaplane skims the waves over the Pacific. Onboard are Vito Cortizone, former Don of the New York Mafia forced into early retirement by Spirou and Fantasio; Von Schnabbel, unscrupulous pilot; and a mysterious cargo supposed to turn Cortizone’s fortunes around. But the mafioso is cursed with terrible luck, and the plane ends up at the bottom of an isolated island’s lagoon. When two months later a sailing boat arrives, an unrecognisable Vito sees none other than our two adventurer-reporters come ashore!
I think the first page below shows what I what I meant when I wrote of Papyrus as being cartoony character art but set in a really well drawn world. Look at those palm trees and that aircraft and last panel -big foot character art!
And wait til you see the aircraft flip in the shark infested water. Sorry, why do they call this man "Tough Luck Vito"??
It's great story, gags, lovely art and Stephane de Becker's colour work, like many of these European artists, adds more weight to the pages. Another of those books that I think cover "kids of all ages". Really nice read.
I'm getting old. I saw Spirous and Fantasio looking around and Vito with a gun behind them and thought "uh-oh!". It was only on checking the cover a third time -a third time!- that I saw the shark behind Vito.
I need to retire.
