Blake and Mortimer

Blake and Mortimer is a Belgian comics series created by the Belgian writer and comics artist Edgar P. Jacobs. It was one of the first series to appear in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Tintin in 1946, and was subsequently published in book form by Les Editions du Lombard.

The main protagonists of the adventures are Philip Mortimer, a leading British scientist, and his friend Captain Francis Blake of MI5. The main antagonist is their sworn enemy, Colonel Olrik, who has appeared in all but one of the books. Their confrontations take them into the realms of detective investigation and science-fiction, dealing with such themes as time travel, Atlantis and espionage.

Since the death of Jacobs, new books have been published by two separate teams of artists and writers. A television series based upon the series was produced in 1997, entitled Blake and Mortimer.

The books by Jacobs himself are generally set in the very period of their writing, but those authored by others after his death are set mostly 1950s and 1960s.

Jacobs
When Tintin magazine was launched on September 26, 1946, it included the story, Le secret de l’Espadon (The Secret of the Swordfish) which introduced the characters of Captain Francis Blake of the British Intelligence Service, his friend Professor Philip Mortimer, a leading physicist, and their sworn enemy Colonel Olrik.

The epic of the Swordfish ended in 1949 but Olrik, Blake and Mortimer continued their conflict through a whole series of science-fiction/detective stories that saw them go all the way from the lost continent of Atlantis to the Catacombs of Paris

After Jacobs’ death in 1987, Bob de Moor completed his unfinished last story. In the mid-1990s the series was continued by the Jacobs Studios with two teams of writers and artists: Van Hamme/Benoit and Sente/Juillard. The series was still firmly set in the 1950s and included many new regular supporting characters, most notably Blake's colleagues in the security services.

Post-Jacobs
From 1987, the Jacobs estate, centred around the still-going Jacobs Studios, republished all of Jacobs’s works. In the 1990s, after much debate about story authenticity, Dargaud got permission to revive the Blake and Mortimer series with a set of new stories by a new team of author/draughtsman. Famous scenarist Jean Van Hamme provided the storylines while Ligne claire specialist draughtsman Ted Benoit (whose style resembles the later Jacobs's) was contracted for the artwork.

1996 saw the publication of The Francis Blake Affair. Purists immediately objected to the choice of Van Hamme and, upon publication, went on to discover some typical Van Hamme plot twists they disliked. Jacobs' science-fiction was noticeably absent with the story focusing on espionage. However the book became a relative success and the publisher decided to continue the line. In the meantime however both Benoit and Van Hamme were tied up on other projects and work on the next book started to lag. As an interim solution, writer Yves Sente and artist André Juillard were contracted to publish another adventure, The Voronov Plot (1998) which took its theme from the Cold War.

Finally, Van Hamme and Benoit managed to finish their album and The Strange Encounter appeared in 2001, with Blake and Mortimer confronting mysterious alien creatures.

This was followed by Sente and Juillard's two-book adventure: The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent (volume 1,The Universal Threat in 2003; volume 2, Battle of the Minds in 2004) which also dealt with Blake and Mortimer's youth and how they first met in pre-independence India.

In 2008 Sente and Juillar released another book entitled The Gondwana Shrine which chronologically follows the events of The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent.

The next adventure in the series, The Curse of the Thirty Denarii, is divided in two volumes and is written by Jean Van Hamme. The first volume, titled Le Manuscript de Nicodemus (The Manuscript of Nicodemus), was drawn by René Sterne who suddenly died on 15 November 2006, delaying the publication of the book. Sterne's girlfriend Chantal De Spiegeleer eventually completed his work which was published on 20 November 2009. Aubin Frechon drew the second volume of the adventure, which was published 26 November 2010.

Main characters
The three main characters of the series were already present in slightly different form in the unrelated, first full length comic strip by Jacobs, Le Rayon U (The U-Ray, 1943).

In the original Jacobs' version it is not specified that Blake and Mortimer are Welsh and Scottish. They are simply two proud Britons serving HM's Government. The post-Jacobs title, The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, dwells on their early lives, showing how they met in colonial India. He appears for the first time in volume one of The Secret of the Swordfish where he prevents the two men being captured by Olrik in Iran. He is a sergeant of the 5th Battalion of the "Makran Levy Corps" who served under Blake. Following this intervention, Nasir during this adventure helps the two heroes in Egypt then in London becoming the butler of Professor Philip Mortimer. Nasir will in fact appear only in the first albums of Jacobs: The Secret of the Swordfish, The Mystery of the Great Pyramid, and The Yellow Mark. His disappearance (which in time corresponds to that of the British Empire) remained unexplained in the later albums by Jacobs.
 * Professor Philip Angus Mortimer — a leading physicist of Scottish descent, he grew up in British Raj and is the archetypical British gentleman scholar.
 * Captain Francis Percy Blake — Welsh-born officer in Her Majesty's armed forces. He studied at Oxford and later became head of the British Security Service MI5 but is still very active in the field. He is a master of disguise, even fooling Mortimer on occasion.
 * Colonel Olrik — the perennial villain from the first instalment onwards. Of the original series there was only one book that did not feature him in one capacity or other: Le Piège diabolique (The Time Trap). Olrik started out in The Secret of the Swordfish  as the head of intelligence for Oriental dictator Basam Damdu. His activities have since ranged from mercenary, spy, smuggler and general criminal adventurer.
 * Ahmed Nasir - Nasir Ahmed is the faithful friend and ally of the two main heroes Francis Blake and Philip Mortimer.

He will reappear many years later in the albums of Yves Sente and André Juillard: The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent. We learn then that after leaving the service and Mortimer, he returned to India, where he went into the intelligence service.


 * Commissioner Pradier is a character created by EP Jacobs, whose physique was greatly inspired by the actor Jean Gabin. Divisional Commissioner to the Paris Branch of Territorial Surveillance (DST), Pradier help Blake and Mortimer during their adventures taking place during their stay in France.


 * Nastasia Wardynska is a female friend and ally of Blake and Mortimer. She is from Russia.

Philip Mortimer was based upon a friend and sometimes collaborator of Jacobs, Jacques Van Melkebeke. There was one imaginative addition by Jacobs since Van Melkebeke had no beard. Francis Blake was modeled by another friend and sometimes collaborator of Jacobs, Jacques Laudy, with added mustache. Olrik was a self-portrait of Jacobs.

Story characteristics
Although the series is (no doubt for reasons of euphony) called Blake and Mortimer, it is Professor Mortimer who is often the main protagonist. In the original series, it is mainly he who, through his impulsive character, gets entangled in adventurous circumstances. Blake is the straight man, the serious army officer who comes to the rescue. On the bad-guy side, Colonel Olrik combines characteristics of both heroes.

Blake and Mortimer are sometimes shown to live in the same house, sharing an apartment in the same manner as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Many Belgian comics have had similar themes of confirmed bachelors living together, including Tintin and Captain Haddock, Asterix & Obelix, Spirou & Fantasio and Tif & Tondu. However this is not surprising considering this was first published at a time when censorship on youth publications was very stringent and segregation between girls and boys applied with rigor.

Jacobs always drew his stories as being contemporary and based on real environments, so the first few titles have a 1950s look and feel while the last installments are decidedly 1970s. One exception to this rule is, again, Time Trap, which starts in the present (i.e. early sixties) but whose action, due to a sabotaged malfunctioning time machine, largely takes place in the 51st century, and includes a short ventures in medieval times and a stopover in the Jurassic period. Post-Jacobs stories are so far integrated in the chronology of the first ones therefore taking place in the 50s and 60s

The layout in most of the stories include some similarities: when the adventure begins certain important but unseen events have already taken place; at the beginning of The Yellow Mark, for instance, the titular character has already made himself known through various activities which the reader only learns about when Mortimer reads a newspaper about these events.

Some of the adventures also end with the characters reflecting on what they have learned from their experiences: after his travels through time in Time Trap, Mortimer concludes that rather than dwell on the "good old days" or look forward to a "brighter future", one should be content with the present.

The style of E.P. Jacobs although typical of the Belgian comics drawings (called "clear line" or "ligne claire") is specific in its extensive use of light colors and shots very similar to what can be found in films production (The panoramic view over London by night opening "The Yellow Mark" being a good example). It is also characterised by a quest, most often involving adventures underground till the final ending, free and back to the surface.

List of titles
Writers’ credits:

1-11: story and images by Edgar P. Jacobs

12: story by Edgar P. Jacobs, images by Bob de Moor

13, 15: story by Jean Van Hamme, images by Ted Benoit

14, 16-17, 18, 21: story by Yves Sente, images by André Juillard

19: story by Jean Van Hamme, images by René Sterne & Chantal De Spiegeleer

20: story by Jean Van Hamme, images by Aubin Frechon


 * 1. The Secret of the Swordfish Volume 1: Ruthless Pursuit, 1950
 * 2. The Secret of the Swordfish Volume 2: Mortimer's Escape, 1953
 * 3. The Secret of the Swordfish Volume 3: SX1 Counterattacks, 1953
 * 4. The Mystery of the Great Pyramid, Volume 1: Manetho's Papyrus, 1954
 * 5. The Mystery of the Great Pyramid Volume 2: The Chamber of Horus, 1955
 * 6. The Yellow "M", 1956
 * 7. Atlantis Mystery, 1957
 * 8. S.O.S. Meteors: Mortimer in Paris, 1959
 * 9. The Time Trap, 1962
 * 10. The Necklace Affair, 1967
 * 11. Professor Sató's Three Formulae, Volume 1: Mortimer in Tokyo, 1977
 * 12. Professor Sató's Three Formulae, Volume 2: Mortimer vs. Mortimer, 1990
 * 13. The Francis Blake Affair, 1996
 * 14. The Voronov Plot, 2000
 * 15. The Strange Encounter, 2001
 * 16. The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, Volume 1: The Universal Threat, 2003
 * 17. The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, Volume 2: Battle of the Minds, 2004
 * 18. The Gondwana Shrine, 2008
 * 19. The Curse of the Thirty Denarii, Volume 1: The manuscript of Nicodemus, 2009
 * 20. The Curse of the Thirty Denarii, Volume 2: The gate of Orpheus, 2010
 * 21. The Oath of the Five Lords. 2012

Additionally, the storyboard sketches by Jacobs of Volume 12, left incomplete at the time of his death, have been re-issued in 1996 outside of the series as Dossier Mortimer contre Mortimer (ISBN 2-87097-022-6).

Timeline
in progress

* Major inconsistency, since Olrik was supposed to be picked up before WWII/The Secret of the Swordfish, which happens before The Mystery of the Great Pyramid.

English translation and publication
Like many Franco-Belgian comics, Blake and Mortimer initially had limited publication in English. Cinebook Ltd have now published the majority of the series.

The Blake and Mortimer Editions published English translations of all three parts of The Secret of the Swordfish in 1986, both parts of The Mystery of the Great Pyramid in 1987 and The Yellow "M" in 1988.

Catalan Communications, under its 'Comcat' line of books, published two books in inexpensive trade paperback copies in the US. They released:
 * 1) The Time Trap (Le Piège diabolique) (1989)
 * 2) Atlantis Mystery (L'Énigme de l'Atlantide) (1990)

There were also plans to release Secret of the Great Pyramid in 2 volumes, and then The Yellow Mark, but the company went under before they could get a chance to realize them.

Cinebook Ltd have been publishing English language translations of Blake and Mortimer since 2007. The following volumes have been released to date:
 * The Yellow ‘M’ (published January 2007) ISBN 978-1-905460-21-2
 * The Mystery of the Great Pyramid Part 1: The Papyrus of Manethon (published November 2007) ISBN 978-1-905460-37-3
 * The Mystery of the Great Pyramid Part 2: The Chamber of Horus (published January 2008) ISBN 978-1-905460-38-0
 * The Francis Blake Affair (published September 2008) ISBN 978-1-905460-63-2
 * The Strange Encounter (published January 2009) ISBN 978-1-905460-75-5
 * S.O.S. Meteors (published September 2009) ISBN 978-1-905460-97-7
 * The Affair of the Necklace (published January 2010) ISBN 978-1-84918-037-5
 * The Voronov Plot (published October 2010) ISBN 978-1-84918-048-1
 * The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, part 1 (published January 2011) ISBN 1-84918-067-9
 * The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, part 2, (published April 2011) ISBN 978-1-84918-077-1
 * The Gondwana Shrine, (published September 2011) ISBN 978-1-84918-094-8
 * Atlantis Mystery, (published January 2012) ISBN 978-1-84918-107-5
 * Curse of the 30 Pieces of Silver, part 1, (published April 2012) ISBN 978-1-84918-125-9
 * Curse of the 30 Pieces of Silver, part 2, (published August 2012) ISBN 978-1-84918-130-3
 * The Secret of the Swordfish, part 1, (published February 2013) ISBN 9781849181488
 * The Secret of the Swordfish, part 2, (published June 2013) ISBN 9781849181617

Further volumes are scheduled as follows:
 * The Secret of the Swordfish, part 3, (to be published October 2013) ISBN tbc
 * The Oath of the Five Lords, (to be published 2014) ISBN tbc
 * The Time Trap, (to be published 2014) ISBN tbc

Television series
 Main article Blake and Mortimer (TV series)

In 1997, the company Ellipse made an animated series containing 26 episodes, which made up 13 stories, 4 of which were entirely new and not based on existing books.

Film adaptations
Several attempts have been made to make films of The Yellow M, though none have been successful. Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia, however, had announced that he was working on an adaptation of the comic to be released around 2010. It has also been said that Hugh Laurie and Kiefer Sutherland were to play Blake and Mortimer respectively. Since then, however, nothing has come of this project.

Parodies
Caricatures of Blake and Mortimer do appear in other comic book series as background or supporting characters or just cameo, usually when the plot includes a British Empire storyline. This is often placed as a tribute to E.P. Jacbs influence and a link or a wink) to the reader who shares the same devotion to what has become a cult.

For example, they make a one-off appearance in the Valérian adventure On the False Earths when the hero visits a Victorian London club.

Another example is the popular Belgian comic series concerning the adventures of MI5 agent Colonel Clifton. Clifton once featured in a story entitled Jade, published in 2003. In it he meets two characters called Blake and Mortimer, though even as caricatures they bear little resemblance (perhaps deliberately) to Jacob's originals. The story includes elements from the original books, such as the entrance to the secret passage from S.O.S. Météores and the cave that doubles as a submarine base in L'Affaire Francis Blake.

In 2005 Dargaud published a parody entitled Menaces sur l'Empire ("The Empire Under Threat"). This was a humorous presentation of the adventures of Blake and Mortimer and was certainly not part of the canon (in fact, the space reserved for the series' title reads "Les Aventures de Philip et Francis" as opposed to "Les Aventures de Blake et Mortimer"). Jokes included:
 * Mortimer's attempts to break his diet, which his Indian manservant always thwarts, even from a long distance;
 * confusion over whether they are working for MI5 or MI6;
 * the heroes catching Prime Minister Winston Churchill in bed with a young woman who is not his wife;
 * a send-up of Bruce Lee's Game of Death.

Tigresse Blanche (White Tigress) by Yann and Conrad is another Belgian comic series featuring the adventures of a Chinese Communist woman spy in post-World War II China. It features a British agent, Sir Francis Flake, whose friend (based on Mortimer) gets drunk on the announcement of Indian independence.