A dying ship magnate buys a decrepit ship with the intentions of sinking her and committing insurance fraud. This book is just about getting the ship prepared. This story is a clunker. The only women in this book are mistreated at the very least and one gets much worse. Trigger warnings certainly apply.

Tramp gets points for managing the cynicism, fatalism, and moral ambiguity associated with noir, but despite these strengths, the book failed to capture my interest.

Tramp hits all its marks as far a tone, but the characters struck me as underdeveloped, the atmosphere felt historically thin, and the story lacked the level of suspense I needed. To be perfectly blunt, I finished the story utterly bored and with no desire to continue the series.

Very involving, if a little more adult than I had expected. Duplicity, intrigue...virtually every character is flawed in some way, which makes it more realistic. I want to read volume 2 now, but I have just discovered there are loads of them!

The Trap is the first volume of Tramp, an 11 part maritime noir series. This volume was originally published in 1993, although the translation is quite new - from 2017. The story sets up the rest of the series, introducing us to the main characters (whose personalities range from mildly unlikeable to loathsome), and the core drama of a cargo ship and an insurance scheme.

Set in 1950, the art (by the late Patrick Jusseaume) captures the post-war setting with evenly gritty detail. The dialogue (by Jean-Charles Kraehn, and translated by Edward Gauvin) suffers somewhat in translation due to a combination of the intentionally dated language and slang, but remains compelling. As an introduction, it successfully builds a base for what's to come, sets up the intrigue well, and does a solid job of setting up the character motivations. The book won't be for everyone (the unpleasantness of the two main characters is not going to appeal to some readers), but what it tries to do, it does well.

While the artwork is moody and atmospheric, the text appears to be a very poor translation and was just too distracting to bother with. Since this didn't appear to bother other reviewers, if you like a dark moody book this might be for you.

Not for me. This was just too wordy and I didnt like the story. This is part one of a serial comic that seems to go up to 11 books and this is just the first part.

A compelling graphic novel thriller, although I can see people disliking the heavy-handed voice-over. The biggest sin for me is that this is so open-ended, but I was all set to lambast the publishers for giving us half a story when I found there were no less than eleven (if not more) parts in the original French. Europe Comics have got up to seven of them in English, and on this evidence they're enjoyable, if that's not too bright and breezy a word. This volume, for instance, brings us a businessman who is dying and in need of a legacy to leave his crippled daughter, and so wrangles an insurance scam involving an old wreck he can only part repair, and a naive young sap eager for work and keen on the idea of becoming a captain. We don't like this guy at first, but he's the main character of the whole saga, so as dark as things get (and you can already see this opening book isn't exactly droll fun for anyone) we do have a hunch he'll survive. I'd just wish for the chance to find out the machinations of the plot, for even if the creators have a heavy touch at times they do have a great way with forming a fine thriller set-up. The historical detail looks fine, the shipping industry background is fresh, and away from having to introduce everything and everyone, these books could really engage.

Incredible artwork by French artist Patrick Jusseaume this compelling storyline was originally written and realeased in French between 1993 and 2017. The author Jean-Charles Kraehn is a well respected artist in his own right but really shines with the telling of this hard boiled sea adventure. Translated into English this graphic novel, the first of 11 in the series, steps into the grittier aspects of character development with flawed heros, brutal sadists and desperate men with a few unrepentant Nazis thrown in for good measure.

'Tramp: 1. The Trap' by Jean-Charles Kraehn with art by Patrick Jusseaume is a graphic novel about treachery.

A man dying of cancer with a seemingly unhealthy relationship towards his own daughter buys an old liberty ship. His plan is to file a big insurance claim and pay some former nazis to help him sink it. He hires an inexperienced captain, but the captain may be a bit smarter than he lets on.

This is only the first part of the story and by the end, the ship hasn't sailed yet. I didn't like how the dying ship owner's relationship with his daughter was described. The only other woman in the book suffers a bad death. The art is fine, but I didn't like this title.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

I really want more Bande Dessinees in my repertoire. When I first found this on Comixology and the recommendations, I wanted to get a taste of the adventure series that permeates France. The artwork by Jusseaume certainly doesn't disappoint for setting the mood, muted color really displays the melancholy. Unfortunately, I also see how much this piece has aged from its original publishing. There is just so much exposition on what the characters are feeling and doing. I guess this is a piece of BD's silver age.

The characters themselves aren't too bad. A few of them have flaws that make them believable including a man trying to assist his daughter by doing any dirty handed thing; as long as he doesn't get his hands dirty. At the same time though, that need for redemption for that same daughter who can never forgive him. The captain meanwhile has some pretty decent development for the titular focus. He wants to be a better man and he's trying all that he can. It's because of that he finds his employer's suspicious behavior. As for the woman herself, I feel like her death is the same as getting thrown in a fridge for later work.

Some of the editing could be better, it would be great to show not tell things about a person like the violent first mate. Not a bad series from what I can tell but the beginning feels like it can skipped.

The artwork was absolutely my cup of tea, however the pacing of the story and the story itself fell flat.