The adventures of Chesterfield and Blutch have been around for decades. Over the years the humor has become repetitive and the plots of the stories too simple, but it still manages to blend history with fun adventure and a realistic look at how complicated friendship can be between two men with different values.
Chesterfield loves the army and wants to be a hero, Blutch finds any militarism reprehensible, senseless and mindless, so he just wants to survive. He can’t desert cause that could put him in front of a firing squad.
The latest installment in the series is not the best and not the worst. Readers get introduced to Confederate spy Belle Boyd. General Winfield Scott and his anaconda plan to economically strangle the Confederacy are mentioned. Almost traditionally the story starts out with a suicidal Union cavalry charge, but the story highlights political assassination, spy rings and counter espionage.
There are too many pages with no texts and the jokes are beyond stale. The jokes always hinge on Chesterfield threatening to use violence to make Blutch face the enemy or on Blutch finding some way to humiliate Chesterfield. The peak of this series was in the first 30 albums.
Still, it’s genuine anti-war stance, tendency to give a taste of historical facts without overcomplicated things, beautiful art and fast-paced story-telling make it infinitely healthier and more educational for kids than most Tik Tok videos.