'Michel Vaillant Short Story Classics' with story and art by Jean Graton is a graphic novel collecting some classic stories from the late 1950s about a fictional racing legend.

First created in 1957, these characters were created for Tintin magazine. Michel Vaillant is the son of a racing family. He drives the Vaillant line of cars in Grand Prix races along with his brother.

These were a lot of fun to read. I liked the stories and characters and the art style was so great at conveying the action.

3 stars

A classic comic series about car racing & engine building in mid-century Europe. You might like it a lot if those topics interest you.

[What I liked:]

•”Like Father Like Son” is a cute story! I really like the “surprise” ending.

•The art is fun in a classic comic book sort of way, & very detailed. The visuals add a lot to the story-telling.

[What I didn’t like as much:]

•The storylines got a bit repetitive about 25% in. I guess it was also an issue of pacing; since the plot progressed very slowly, it was hard to maintain my reading momentum.

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

Enjoyable adventures that still read well today, with illustrations that capture the drama of car racing. Also provides an interesting look at how the comic book adventure format works when you replace adventurer (Tintin) crime fighter (Batman/Superman) or detective (Slam Bradley) with car driving. First, you think, "how can shots of a car going around a bend over and over again not get boring?" Then you discover it does work and can be quite exciting.

VROOOMM!

Being a total novice to Michel Vaillant comics, I jumped headfirst into volume one of the relaunched series a while back and quite enjoyed it. For someone like me that really isn’t into racing, cars, or anything having to do with the title, It was surprisingly good and made me want to read more. I think I remarked that I wanted to possibly read some of the older material from Tintin Magazine, to which Europe Comics seems to have obliged. The original comics by Jean Graton ran from 1957 to the late 70’s and were collected in an absurd number of the volumes (albums to those across the pond). This comic is a mere hint of that original material, spanning just a handful of the character’s earliest stories.

“In 1957, Jean Graton created the legendary race car driver Michel Vaillant, who was featured in a series of short stories published in Tintin magazine. These stories marked the beginning of a long-running adventure saga that continues to this day. This collection includes seven early stories that brought Vaillant onto the scene and made him what he is today. A fascinating look into the origins of a classic, with a vibrant retro style.”

This is more of a collection for comic historians (or perhaps older people that grew up with these comics), as the stories are very much aged at this point. The artwork has been cleaned up and retouches, and it appears that the coloring has either been corrected or entirely redone digitally, but in a way that preserves the old look. Most of the stories lack the drama for our modern sensibilities, and are resolved very quickly, much in the same way a Speed Racer episode would go.

I found it somewhat amusing to see what old-timers in the 1950’s saw as loathsome youth culture, as Michel seemingly partakes in the utter chaos of sneaking out to play trumpet in a jazz band at one point. Truthfully, he was actually sneaking out to engineer an entirely new fuel-injection engine in his spare time, much to his father’s dismay. Comics were silly back then. Luckily, these are not insanely questionable reads like many other comics from this era, reading things like Superman from the same time period is always somewhat rough when old sensibilities creep in.

Overall, I’m glad I read this comic even though I do definitely prefer the newer run that Europe Comics has been publishing. If this is a test run to see how well received a relaunch of older editions would be, I’m all for it. Not only is it important to preserve older comics for future generations, but seeing a characters progression through time is always a plus. if anything this makes me want to read more of the newer comics now that they have released quite a few.

“Michel Vaillant Short Story Classics” by Jean Graton is a collection of seven short stories originally published in Tintin magazine in the late 1950s. These stories introduced us to Michel Vaillant, the legendary racecar driver that (supposedly) still carries on to this day.

The stories are definitely short, and to be quite honest they are not very exciting. Most of the time the story involves something going wrong and which point it’s fixed and Michel wins the race…. That’s about it. But the retro-style and colors are interesting, the use of “VROOM” and other such onomatopoeias was probably groundbreaking at the time, and there is a slight bit of humor in these as well. Nice for its historic value, but not for much more.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Europe Comics via NetGalley. Thank you!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers Europe Comics for providing me with an arc of Michel Vaillant Short Story Classic by Jean Graton in exchange for my honest opinion.

This collection of stories shows the early adventures of racing driver Michel Vaillant, which were originally published in Tintin magazine.

I really enjoyed reading this collection. The artwork was stunning and the storytelling was captivating. Each page was so vibrant and full of action and motion. The world building was great and really made the stories exciting to read. Each story showed different aspects of the characters life as a racing driver and gradually introduced new characters such as Michel Vaillant’s friends, colleagues and family. I would highly recommend this for any one who likes retro comics or motor sports. It was a really fun read!

I liked how the foreword gave an the insight into how the illustrator Jean Graton found ways to convey car movement and speed through kinetic vocabulary. I loved how the illustrations showed so much movement!

The other year I got to see a complete snoozefest of a book concerning the concerns of the Vaillant racing empire, and all their cars and domestic quibbles about the world. It was just yack after yack after yack, as my review – https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3935137439 – proves. Here for comic historians and a rare few sadists is where it all began, with the scene-setting, character-introducing, world-building original short stories, given a snappy new introduction completely at odds with the verbiage in them. They are handicapped by being based on 1950s originals, and they have been refreshed and delivered in perfect order when it comes to visual sharpness, and resolution, but the writing has all the sharpness of, well, a yak. And compared to other comics of that age they really have no commonality with either them or what they've evolved into, leaving them a dull variant on the illustrated short story instead. The introduction claims the author had to design a brand new way to show the vibrancy, speed and power of motorsports, but when he began from such a stilted, boring start it's little surprise. It's clear these comics just haven't engaged with me across the years; all power to your throttle if you like them but I cannot enjoy either the old form or the reboot.

This is what comics always meant to me.

Jean Graton with strong links with Tintin, introduced a new comic series and Michel Vaillant was created about the same time as I was born. Happily both of us are still around but Graton’s work has been inspiration in this field to many illustrators who have followed and developed their craft.

Europe comics have done it again. Producing this retro selection of early episodes which appeared in Tintin magazine. The colour palette is similar and these vibrant hues are ideal to recreate the world of motor racing. The thing about Graton is that he know this environment and brought that knowledge and appreciation to his art. He also managed through his drawings to bring action into each page and the sounds of the circuit brings the cars to life.

I loved this throwback. I was briefly young and falling in love with this genre all over again. I also have had a lifetime following motor sport and these early stories have that immediacy of historical circuits and races.

This collection will engender a love for motor sport, encourage reading and ensure comics and graphic novels remain a vibrant form of story telling.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Michel Vaillant Short Story Classic by Jean Graton is a graphic novel about race-cars that is perfect for fans of Speed Racer or the Indy 500. The story revolves around Michel Vaillant, a legendary race car driver and follows him on some exciting races. According to the description, this book "includes seven early stories that brought Vaillant onto the scene and made him what he is today." Also, the series continues to this day!

Overall, Michel Vaillant Short Story Classic is a sports graphic novel with a wonderful retro style. One highlight of this book is the retro art. If you're a fan of older comics or the art style of older comics, then you will know what I'm talking about. it's like a blast from the past! I did take off 1 star, because I'm not much of a fan of race-cars. That's just a personal preference though. I'm sure many people are a fan of race-cars. If you're intrigued by the description, or if you're a fan of retro comics, I highly recommend that you check out this book, which is available now!

The graphics, art work, everything was fantastic. The story running was good too but mostly what impressed me was the amazing graphis.