posted 03-27-2009 10:27 AM               

Edition Paquet
Album Hardcover, 48 pages, color
ISBN 978-2-88890-31-0

Who has ever thought of going to the moon? 40 years ago, two men have realized that crazy dream of walking on the moon! On this anniversary, the Cockpit cartoon/comics collection pay tribute to the men who album accomplished this feat. Quite naturally the American cartoonist Joe Wight, as considered as the best aeronautics cartoonist in the U.S. will be in charge of drawing this album.

The First Moon album by Joe Wight to be released in bookstores in France, Belgium and Switzerland on 17 June 2009. We are currently speaking with NASA to realize the preface to the album. The author Joe Wight will perform a dedication tour in France and Switzerland in mid June.

posted 07-09-2013 05:12 AM               

My review, as written in French (and Google translated):

Impossible job (1 star).

Indeed, it is hardly conceivable to summarize 12 years of space exploration, the most crucial, from the launch of Sputnik (1957) to Apollo 11 (1969), while at the same time, telling the biographies, in very broad outlined of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, all in just 64 pages. The author had to choose: either the conquest of space, or the crew of Apollo 11 and or the Apollo 11 mission only and this over several volumes. And since this was not the case, there is a little bit of everything in this book because a selection of events/people had to be made. So much so that the comic stops when Armstrong and Aldrin are on the moon. The return is not even mentioned! This is a quick overview and summary of those 12 years and in addition to or consequently, is a very fast read.

This raises the question, to what audience this book is for? Probably for young people, in the 40th anniversary of man's first steps on the moon, would like to know more. If this is the case why not, as a work of introduction.

For those who, like me, interested in conquering space-or history in general, this book does not serve much purpose. There are certainly errors, the most striking is that of Roger Chaffee, who died aboard Apollo 1, whose name is "Chaffe" in this album, but the most disturbing is the sloppy side of the drawing. Not that Joe Wight is a bad artist - Michael Collins in his F-104 on page 39 is a great board-, as well as scenes from the Korean War, but he seems more comfortable with aircrafts than with rockets or characters. But this is not enough to save the rest: it feels sloppy or done quickly to meet deadlines. The characters are hardly recognizable (and not only astronauts; Kennedy, Korolev, von Braun) and on some boards, their noses and mouths are even missing... As for the rest, a more detailed work (rockets) would not have been a lesser evil.

Joe Wight, or any other artist- was probably not up to a completely impossible task. It's a shame.