At long last, a hardback collected edition of Blake & Mortimer is published in English! A Cinebook exclusive, not even available in French, this Complete Collection will gather two or three books per volume, in the original publishing order, plus another book’s worth of fascinating extra material on the series and the author, as well as sketches and historical notes – unmissable for any true fan! Four volumes will come out in 2025, with the next four already scheduled for 2026. This first one brings together the three episodes of our heroes’ very first adventure, The Secret of the Swordfish, introducing their nemesis Olrik, their habit of saving the world … and Jacobs’s love of airplanes!

This second volume collects together what are probably the most emblematic Blake & Mortimer titles: the two-parter Mystery of the Great Pyramid, and above all the incredible Yellow M, an instant classic that propelled its author into the ranks of bande dessinée greats. Graphic quality, narrative rigour, constant dramatic tension, and that touch of the unreal that are the trademark of the series – it’s all here. Along with, of course, 40 pages of extra material on the creation of such seminal stories!

The two stories contained in this third volume are firmly within the realm of science-fiction. And yet, Atlantis Mystery, with its prehistoric monsters, futuristic machines and subterranean lost civilisations, stands in stark contrast with S.O.S. Meteors, the action of which takes place entirely within Paris and the surrounding countryside. A falsely mundane environment that demonstrates Jacobs’s ability to summon adventure anywhere! The 32 pages of extra material highlight, among other things, the author’s creative process and sources of inspirations.

With The Time Trap, first of the two titles in this fourth volume, Jacobs tackles a quintessential science-fiction trope: time travel. Dinosaurs, medieval knights and an apocalyptic future make it a fabulous adventure, and who cares if, for the first time, Olrik isn’t there? The Affair of the Necklace, on the other hand, is a pure crime story done in ultrarealistic overtones that set it somewhat apart from the rest of the series. Finally, the extra material will shine a light on the dangers of censorship at the time – from which even Jacobs wasn’t safe.

The two-parter Professor Sato’s Three Formulae was the last Blake and Mortimer adventure written by Jacobs, and its second part would only be completed years after his death by Bob de Moor. A story set in Japan in the author’s time, where the advanced technologies on display look more like foreshadowing than science-fiction. The third album in this collected edition, The Francis Blake Affair is a pure spy thriller, the sort that Jean Van Hamme does so well – a descent into Hell for Blake and an unquestionable success that ensured Blake & Mortimer would live on. Finally, the bonus material explains in detail the circumstances of how Van Hamme and Ted Benoit took over the series.

This sixth volume of the collected edition introduces the second creative team assigned to the new adventures of Blake & Mortimer: André Juillard and Yves Sente, who would take turns with Jean Van Hamme and Ted Benoit. The first album of the new duet was The Voronov Plot, a spy thriller set in Russia in which our heroes try to avert a bacteriological war. The next year, Benoit and Van Hamme’s next creation came out: The Strange Encounter, a time travel story that returns to the science fiction aspects of Jacobs’s stories – much to the fans’ joy. Finally, the 24 pages of bonus material tell all about the masterstroke from Sente – whose script was the first he’d ever written!

This seventh volume of the Complete Collection collects three albums created by the team of Yves Sente and André Juillard. In the two- parter The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent, the authors boldly begin to add touches of modernity to the series. They reveal some of the characters’ youth, including their fateful first encounter in India, before taking them on an adventure from the Brussels Universal Exposition to the icy wastes of Antarctica! As for the sequel, The Gondwana Shrine, it will lead them to Africa on a search for a lost world – in the company, this time, of memorable female characters. Finally, the bonus material offers fascinating insights into the authors’ creative process.

In this eighth volume of the Complete Collection, the next Blake & Mortimer written – in two parts – by Jean Van Hamme and illustrated by three different artists, brings the reader along on one of Professor Mortimer’s favourite activities: archaeology – and if there are echoes of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade in The Curse of the 30 Pieces of Silver, the story is all the better for it. For the third album collected in this volume, The Oath of the Five Lords, the style is more Agatha Christie, with a thriller set in the heart of England that reveals some dark aspects of Captain Blake’s career as a spy – giving the character more depth and credibility. Finally, the bonus material goes over the difficulties encountered to produce the first two albums in great detail.