Trent #2: The Kid - Rodolphe and Leo

I enjoyed the first Trent graphic novel, THE DEAD MAN, and I'm still a fan of Mountie stories, so I recently read the second volume in the series, THE KID.

This one finds Sergeant Trent of the RCMP and his faithful companion Dog on the trail of The Kid, an American outlaw who has crossed the border into Canada after a botched bank robbery that cost the outlaw the life of his girlfriend, who had been traveling and robbing banks with him. The Kid has killed numerous men during this spree, and Trent expects him to be a brutal, callous, hardened criminal.

Well, as it turns out, he kind of is, but he's also an actual kid, still a teenager, and something of a sensitive soul who reads Rimbaud's poetry and writes passages from it on the walls of buildings as he flees across Canada. There's never much doubt in the reader's mind that Trent will catch up to him, but everything doesn't play out as might be expected.

I liked this one even more than THE DEAD MAN. THE KID has a lot more action, along with a good script by Rodolphe and excellent art by Leo. Trent is a fine protagonist with layers that are only slowly being uncovered. I plan to read the rest of this series and probably will do so in fairly short order.

Trent #1: The Dead Man - Rodolphe and Leo

If you’ve been reading this blog for very long, you know I enjoy Mountie stories. A friend of mine on Facebook recently mentioned a series of graphic novels about a Mountie sergeant named Trent, so I had to check them out. Written by French author Rodolphe Jacquette, with art by Brazilian artist Leo (Luiz Eduardo de Oliviera), they’ve been translated into English and are available on Amazon and as part of Kindle Unlimited.

The first volume, THE DEAD MAN, finds Sergeant Trent and his canine companion, known only as Dog, on the trail of a wanted murderer. In the snowy wasteland, they come across a lone traveler who turns out to be a beautiful young woman on a mission of her own. Trent saves her from a blizzard and reluctantly agrees to help her on her quest before returning to his own assignment.

The big plot twist in this one is pretty obvious, and there’s a lot of brooding and not much action, but danged if I didn’t get caught up in the story and enjoy it a lot anyway. The art is great, Sergeant Trent is a good protagonist, and I think there’s a lot of potential in this series. Originally published during the Nineties, there are eight volumes in all, and I definitely plan to read the others. This isn’t the sort of two-fisted, action-packed Mountie yarn that I love so much in the pulps, but I give THE DEAD MAN a high recommendation anyway.