A Buck Danny Adventure Vol. 4: No Fly Zone

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A Buck Danny Adventure Vol.4: No Fly Zone

Cinebook the 9th Art Publisher 2009

By Francis Bergèse

Coloured by Frédéric Bergèse

About to be sent to a small country in Central America, Buck, Sonny and Tumb are given a special briefing by two high-ranking US government agents. Under the cover of their official mission – train Managuan Air Force pilots in the use of their brand new F-18s – the three men are to try and overfly a strangely modern airfield suspected of belonging to a drug cartel. Problem: the airfield is in the middle of a no-fly zone…

This is one of my all-time favourite series. I was lucky to get a few of them from Cinebook, now if I can only get the rest lol, and once I started reading them I couldn’t stop. The writing and the interiors here are phenomenal and while a lot of folks may dismiss this because it is a “war” book that would be silly to do. Sure this is a war book but the stuff these folks get up to and the lessons that they learn doing their thing is something that is so universal and shouldn’t be overlooked because it’s a genre you don’t think you like. Trust me as this issue demonstrates sometimes life throws you a curve-ball and you have to adapt quickly if you are to overcome the problem you are faced with.

I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development is utterly phenomenal thanks to the way that we see the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we find ourselves glued to the page.

I’m a huge fan of the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, evolve and strengthen. Seeing the guys and their characterisation, their camaraderie and how they can rely and support each other just adds to the depth and complexity of the bigger picture. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is beautifully achieved.

The interiors here mindbogglingly bloody gorgeous! The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques utilised in creating this level of detail work that we see is extraordinary. The strength in the linework that we see is brilliant and how it creates the faces, facial expressions and body language furthers the characterisation perfectly. That we see backgrounds utilised as prevalent as we do is phenomenal as it really enhances the moments, brings this sense of space as well as working within the composition of the panels to show depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is equally as brilliant. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work demonstrate how colour could and should be utilised.

I know its Buck’s book but Sonny really does steal the show every time that we see him. He’s just oddball and overconfident yet completely shy at the same time and his humour and sarcastic wit make me smile repeatedly. Also that the boys seem to find trouble no matter where they go is a part of what makes their adventures so gosh darn appealing. It's also nice to see Cindy again though I was hoping she'd play a larger role in their new adventure. I do like that this combines their jobs with something unexpected and lets be honest out of their depth. I cannot wait to read next issue to see where this goes because the cliffhanger ending here well yeah there’s something rotten in the state of Denmark and it isn’t their cheese.

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Intelligently written and spectacularly illustrated this is the perfect example of a “genre” book being able to crossover with universal appeal.