La petite souriante

What do you do when you hate your wife and you’re sleeping with your stepdaughter? If you’re ostrich farmer Pep, you beat your wife’s head in with a shovel when your stepdaughter asks you to. You might do it some rainy night, and toss the body down a well for good measure. You might even think you’re getting some money out of it. But if you’re hapless and unlucky as Pep is, you might find yourself trapped in a hell of your own making, endlessly wondering: how many times do you have to kill someone before they’re really dead?

François has no interest in choosing between dream and reality: he wants both! Like all ten-year-olds, François has a lot of questions–but he puts his imagination to use to try to find the answers.

Six years ago, Harmony was a young orphan who was part of a research program conducted by Doctor Torres, due to the signs of special brain powers she had manifested. She has by now developed an incredible talent for telekinesis, which has unfortunately attracted the attention of a private military organization. They plan on setting up a training camp, as a means to their own ends, in order to develop the capacities of Harmony and others like her. Will this organization really be able to make war machines out of these children? And will Doctor Torres to be able to save Harmony from this horrible fate?

Prolific comic book author Pierre Christin, who penned the game-changing classic sci-fi series “Valerian and Laureline,” switches to autobiography here to bring us the thoughtful, enlightening tale of two vastly different lands, the American West during the civil rights movement and the counter-culture phenomenon, and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War, as seen through the eyes of an inquisitive French artist and journalist with a love for travel, intellectual query, gypsies, and jazz. Christin and his faithful road companion and “Valerian” co-creator Jean-Claude Mézières drive across landscapes ranging from Utah to Bulgaria in a series of cars each more dilapidated than the next, encountering people and adventures of all kinds in a story that is part travel journal, part geo-political documentary, and part artistic coming-of-age.

Dad, unemployed actor and full-time father, is back, and he’s going to have to get used to having another woman around the house! He already has his hands full dealing with the totally reasonable demands of his eldest, Pandora, the swarms of boys hovering around teen Ondine, the wall-shaking energy of Roxanne, and all the walks to the park with Baby Bella. Having his ex-wife come to crash on the couch could be the final straw, as Rose, the fabulous actress, is hardly an ideal house guest… One thing’s for sure, Dad’s going to need a vacation!

At the age of twenty-six, Largo Winch inherits a financial cartel worth ten billion dollars. Rebel, womanizer, hoodlum, and anti-conformist, he is called “the blue-jeaned billionaire.” But can you keep your hands clean at the head of such an emporium? From women with deadly charms to conspiring bank managers, from financial transactions to illegitimate trafficking, Largo Winch gives blow for blow. And not always within the bounds of the law. This re-edition of the now classic series contains the first two volumes.

The touching story of a child getting to know his grandfather, an Italian immigrant living in Belgium. 11-year-old Romeo thinks of his grandfather as nothing but an “old pain-in-the-butt.” So when he finds out that he’s going to have to spend a few days with him at his crumbling old house, without even a TV to keep him entertained… well, it’s his idea of hell. But there are some surprises in store for Romeo during his visit. He changes his mind about a few things, perhaps thanks to his grandfather’s neighbor, Lucy, who tells him about her own “nonno,” and shows him how a spoil tip can be a thing of beauty. Or perhaps it’s thanks to Romeo’s dad, who speaks for the first time about his childhood relationship with his father. But it’s mostly thanks to Ottavio who, beneath his old, grouchy exterior, conceals the hard life he has led, full of suffering and sacrifice. It is a life the 11-year-old Romeo finds hard to comprehend, but which gives him a deeper understanding of someone from another century. It started off as just a short holiday to a grey Belgian town. But this holiday turns into an opportunity for three generations of men to lift the silence that surrounds them. A touching story about Italian immigration, coal mining, communication between the generations and the difficultly of opening up when you’ve spent your whole life in silence. 

The dark days of war are not getting any brighter in occupied Brussels. Spirou and Fantasio are on the brink of hunger and homelessness, but their ingenuity and gumption allow them to survive. While our two heroes are bringing what joy they can to the children of Belgium, the iron fist of the Nazis is tightening its grip on the country. The villainy of the oppressor hits close to home as Spirou’s friends start becoming its direct victims. We know how the war ends; unfortunately for Spirou, he does not, and in its midst, his virtue and good intentions might lead him straight to the worst of its horrors.

Private detective Jerome K. Jerome Bloche is hired by his friend Father Arthur, a former boxer turned Catholic priest, to look into a series of blackmail letters extorting money from his parishioners that share one odd detail: the money is to be donated to the church to repair its famous organ! Meanwhile Jerome’s girlfriend Babette gets a shocking surprise when her father, whom she believed to have died when she was a child, shows up on her doorstep. Jerome tries to solve the crime while juggling prickly questions about charity, justice, and mercy.

A monkey-faced man named Kid Noize who has a 1977 Mustang, a talking dog, and dreams of being a famous DJ, travels between worlds to deliver mysterious packages to people. Unfortunately, he has lost the package of his next recipient, a young boy named Sam who is having a hard time in life, grieving the loss of his mother while trying to adapt to a tough new town and school. Neither Sam nor Kid Noize has any idea what awaits them as they join forces to find the package that will help shape Sam’s destiny…