Grand Prix Legends
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007
I grew up reading the adventures of Michel Vaillant, the French comic (by Jean Graton) about the adventures of a Formula 1 racer and his family. My uncle had a whole bunch of them, and I especially liked the earlier ones, before the cars came to resemble jet fighters without wings. When a friend of mine pointed me towards the GPLfanatic site, I immediately was taken back to those days when I was immerged in Michel’s adventures on and off the track, the Texas Drivers’ shenanigans, the Leader (or rather le Leadeur) and the Vaillante Marathon.
On GPLfanatic, Dutch racing fan M.E.C. Huiskes creates reports in comic book format on historical formula One races (like the one in Monza in 1967). He doesn’t draw the books though, but rather uses screenshots and camera traces from the (in itself already historical) racing simulator Grand Prix Legends, which he arranges on the page using Comic Book Creator, combining the screen shots with historical photography and quotes.
These ingredients themselves not necessarily a good comic make. Huiskes however uses them with enormous care, and pays incredible attention to detail and style, creating an exciting tale.
