The twenty-first comic: #124 Alix

The basic description of Alix - an adventure comic set in Roman times - sounds good. Some historic references, a more serious story than something like Asterix, but something interesting and colourful. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work out that way.

Alix is set up as a flawless character. Strong, smart, a good fighter, athletic and able to get out of any situation. If he gets captured, it isn't for long, and most problems arise from him being too trusting. There's no flaws, no internal conflicts and nothing stays bad for long. It's boring, with a lot of repetition between album storylines and no real interesting places it goes.

What doesn't help is a bit of a "show, don't tell" feeling I got from some of them. A few times too often, we get told what people feel or what happens. Sometimes this is duplicate in images, sometimes it would have felt more effective if given an extra panel to show it - either way, it feels unnecessary and lazy here. Sorry, it never quite worked for me.