Euro Previews: ‘Yoko Tsuno Volume 19 – The Astrologist Of Bruges’

More from Roger Leloup‘s long-running series Yoko Tsuno, the all-ages adventures of the intelligent and courageous young electronics engineer who has a habit of stumbling into the most fantastical of adventures.

Yes, Yoko has a real penchant for happening on the strangest adventures, taking her all across space and time, to solve all manner of mysteries using her engineering and science background and her considerable reserves of smarts and bravery.

But the defining thing about all of the Yoko books is how Leloup continues to make things interesting and thrilling whilst also giving us such a strong young woman as a character, and stories where the key elements are always about doing the right thing, and the importance of loyalty and friendship.

This latest album takes Yoko to Belgium and Bruges on the invitation of a local artist, Van Laet. He wrote to her through a fashion magazine that she modelled for and claims to have painted her portrait. Nothing strange about that really, so you’d think, except this is Yoko Tsuno and things rapidly begin to take a turn into the strange.

On arriving in Bruges, Yoko takes in the sights of the city and soon realises that Van Laet has a reputation amongst the people she meets – he’s meant to have made a deal with the devil himself.

When the pair finally do meet, with Yoko brushing off the silly pact with the devil rumours she’s been told of, Van Laet reveals that he has painted her – but the kicker is that he claims to have painted her back in the 16th Century when she posed for it in person.

It’s not a moment before Yoko’s under threat, needing to escape, and involved in another mystery involving the legend of Zacharius’s vial, meant to contain the black death. With the aid of her friends, it’s time travel time for Yoko as she heads back to the 16th Century to solve the mystery of her painting once and for all.

As with all Yoko Tsuno tales, this one is densely plotted, plentiful of captions and exposition, but still has Leloup’s lovely artwork, so clean and clear, and a plot that races along despite the density of it all.

YOKO TSUNO VOLUME 19 – THE ASTROLOGIST OF BRUGES

Written and drawn by Roger Leloup

Translation by Jerome Saincantin.

Published by Cinebook on 18 April 2024

Now, time for a preview….