Meet Julius Chancer, the adventurous assistant to historical-researcher Sir Alfred Catesby-Grey, as he embarks on a quest to find the mystical rainbow orchid - an extraordinary flower last mentioned by the ancient Greek philosopher Theophrastus and steeped in legend...

The Adventures of Julius Chancer: The Rainbow Orchid - Volume 1 is a modern graphic novel designed to look and feel like Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin and Edgar P. Jacobs's Blake and Mortimer. Personally, this is not an artistic style I'm overly fond of so I was expecting this to be a rather dull read.

On the whole my worse fears were met. The first volume requires quite a lot of introductions so that the reader is aware of who the main players are. As a consequence the actual story gets a little neglected in the process. The end result being that volume one is not overly exciting. In fact, I think it's fair to say that it's a little too old school and a little too dull.

The story, once it gets going properly, will follow Julius Chancer as he embarks on a hazardous quest for the rainbow orchid - a mythical flower. His epic journey takes him from 1920s Britain to the Indian subcontinent and its mysterious lost valleys.

To be fair the last few pages of this collection looked like the story was about to take off but, as the majority of this release seemed a little on the dull side, I'm not really sure if I'd be overly bothered about picking up the next two volumes.

6

Pete Boomer