What do you think?
Rate this book
I.R.$. #1
Taxing Trails
Larry B. Max is an unusual specialist from a little-known branch of the Internal Revenue Service, the all-powerful tax-collecting agency of the United States. Reading into tax-evasion and money-laundering rings the way a virtuoso pianist would read a sheet of Mozart, Max has every technological method at his disposal to find links between high finance and high crime. In this first album, he must look into a particularly delicate file belonging to a rich Jewish-American, known for his involvement in recovering items that were confiscated by the Nazis. Dissecting this billionaire's accounts, Max embarks on a dangerous journey to find the mysterious origins of the man's immense fortune..
96 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1984
4 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 13, 2021
I've liked quite a bit of Stephen Desberg's work, so I thought I'd check this out even with a title of I.R.$. Larry Max is an accountant for the IRS. But he's not just any accountant, he's part accountant, part James Bond. He's one of 10 agents working for the IRS uncovering nefarious schemes to ultimately get the U.S. the taxes it's owed. The whole time I was reading this, the Beatles' Taxman was playing through my head. In this first story, Max uncovers a murder that leads him to crimes committed at the end of World War II.
May 30, 2015
It’s taken me a long time to convince myself that a book with a title that’s equivalent to the British HMRC is really going to captivate me. Tax returns and finances don’t really get my juices flowing. Two things ended up changing my mind; firstly Cinebook have put out several volumes in the series now, so with their fantastic track record why would they be doing it if it was as dull as ditch water; secondly, it’s written by Stephen Desberg, the writer of the rather excellent The Scorpion series. So I bought myself a copy of book one, pushed by accounts and invoicing to one side, and got reading.
The tale centres on one Larry B Max who is a specialist working within the IRS. His talent is that he spots patterns in the tax arrangements of individuals that suggests evasion or money laundering, or worse, and is empowered to go after the individuals concerned. He’s concerned with those links to large scale criminal activity and his unique approach gives him an advantage that he uses ruthlessly. A sort of Sherlock Holmes of spreadsheets, although he doesn’t operate from behind a desk, but is out there getting his hands dirty.
This first volume sees him following a trail that leads him to an ultra-rich Jewish-American entrepreneur with links going back to the end of WWII. Larry’s initial probing starts a chain of events that threatens a carefully built empire and it’s not one that will topple easily.
I think it’s a bold move to create a comic series about something of this nature, but perhaps it’s not that surprising. We have so many variants of the detective in novels, TV and movies, why not one what approaches it from this angle? There’s plenty of scope for romantic liaisons, car chases, violent confrontation and the inevitable bodies amongst the turgid revelations and surprises, even if the bedrock of the book is the taxman.
So if you buy the book you get a proper crime story, packed full of action, with a modern-day villain who has built a house of cards with its foundations in the fall of the Nazis. Desberg keeps it rolling along nicely, setting up the premise and the lead character comfortably enough to make us interested in this new adventure. There are some 1980s’ action movie-style quips that perhaps could have been ditched involving tax puns, but they’re very few and far between. I’ve not come across Vrancken’s artwork before, but he seems a good fit and I look forward to discovering more from him.
Overall, a pleasant surprise and not what I thought it was going to be at all. Another welcome addition to my reading list.
The tale centres on one Larry B Max who is a specialist working within the IRS. His talent is that he spots patterns in the tax arrangements of individuals that suggests evasion or money laundering, or worse, and is empowered to go after the individuals concerned. He’s concerned with those links to large scale criminal activity and his unique approach gives him an advantage that he uses ruthlessly. A sort of Sherlock Holmes of spreadsheets, although he doesn’t operate from behind a desk, but is out there getting his hands dirty.
This first volume sees him following a trail that leads him to an ultra-rich Jewish-American entrepreneur with links going back to the end of WWII. Larry’s initial probing starts a chain of events that threatens a carefully built empire and it’s not one that will topple easily.
I think it’s a bold move to create a comic series about something of this nature, but perhaps it’s not that surprising. We have so many variants of the detective in novels, TV and movies, why not one what approaches it from this angle? There’s plenty of scope for romantic liaisons, car chases, violent confrontation and the inevitable bodies amongst the turgid revelations and surprises, even if the bedrock of the book is the taxman.
So if you buy the book you get a proper crime story, packed full of action, with a modern-day villain who has built a house of cards with its foundations in the fall of the Nazis. Desberg keeps it rolling along nicely, setting up the premise and the lead character comfortably enough to make us interested in this new adventure. There are some 1980s’ action movie-style quips that perhaps could have been ditched involving tax puns, but they’re very few and far between. I’ve not come across Vrancken’s artwork before, but he seems a good fit and I look forward to discovering more from him.
Overall, a pleasant surprise and not what I thought it was going to be at all. Another welcome addition to my reading list.
May 20, 2021
Read the English version. A little silly concept in which it’s a James Bond version of a branch of the IRS. This vol., Max takes on a former Nazi who assumed the identify of prisoners of the Holocaust to take their money hidden in Swiss Accounts.
May 4, 2020
Très froid, ce Larry. Mais le monde de l'argent, de la grandissime finance, c'est plus cynique que chaleureux, alors d'accord pour un inspecteur financier-flic froid. Une seule esquisse de sourire en 48 planches, celui de la secrétaire godiche de la planche 22! Ou serait-ce une grimace? Peu emballé au départ par le dessin et puis de plus en plus séduit, notamment par les gros plans. Mais pourquoi, dans une BD en français solide et "sérieuse", ponctuer ça et là de jurons en anglais au style de far west de bas étage?
April 8, 2023
Good one. Reminds me of other similar works (Largo Winch / Wayne Shelton etc).
When a migrant millionaire in the US who is under investigation by the IRS is killed and the suspicion falls on a millionaire Jew (who is an Auswitz survivor), the IRS tries to revisit history to find the connection..
When a migrant millionaire in the US who is under investigation by the IRS is killed and the suspicion falls on a millionaire Jew (who is an Auswitz survivor), the IRS tries to revisit history to find the connection..
January 1, 2023
My final read of the year, turned out to be a pretty good actioner with an eye brow raising protagonist.
March 22, 2024
Pour une bonne part de cet album, j'ai nagé dans la confusion la plus grande. Moi et la fiscalité, c'est deux.
March 3, 2017
Splendido e molto molto ben scritto!!
July 5, 2022
book#00018, Vol. 1. Mark: average and partly good [?] Cd. 2. I read the German edition of this book. Ich habe die deutsche Ausgabe gelesen.
Über Nacht wird ein Schweizer plötzlich Multimillionär und sagt nach eigener Aussage: "Geld spielt für mich eigentlich keine Rolle mehr." Für ihn vielleicht nicht, wohl aber für den Internal Revenue Service des US-Finanzministeriums. Wo kommt das viele Geld plötzlich her und liegt dort, wo es herkommt vielleicht noch ein Vermögen, das bislang unversteuert blieb? Doch bevor der Schweizer diese kritischen Fragen beantworten kann, wird er Opfer eines ebenso tragischen wie tödlichen Autounfalls. Offenbar hatte er vergessen seine Bremsen regelmäßig vom TÜV checken zu lassen. Seinen genauen Todeszeitpunkt konnte der Mann noch auf seiner Rolex ablesen, die so genau lief wie ein Schweizer Uhrwerk. Doch anstatt den Fall nun abzuschließen spinnt sich der Internal Revenue Service die Theorie zusammen, der Unfall sei gar kein Unfall gewesen, sondern vermutlich gezielter Auftragsmord. So werden die Geldströme einer professionellen Auftragskillerin genauer unter die Lupe genommen. Sie führen den IRS zu einem Juden, der der Frau eine hohe Geldsumme zukommen ließ. Weitere Nachforschungen ergeben, dass der Mann nur ein Strohmann ist von einem der reichsten Männer der Welt. Welches Verwirrspiel spielen die Reichen und Mächtigen mit uns und gelingt es dem Internal Revenue Service diesen Steuervermeidern und Steuerbetrügern endlich das Handwerk zu legen? Die Antwort erfahren Sie in "I. R. $. Steuerprüfung".
Über Nacht wird ein Schweizer plötzlich Multimillionär und sagt nach eigener Aussage: "Geld spielt für mich eigentlich keine Rolle mehr." Für ihn vielleicht nicht, wohl aber für den Internal Revenue Service des US-Finanzministeriums. Wo kommt das viele Geld plötzlich her und liegt dort, wo es herkommt vielleicht noch ein Vermögen, das bislang unversteuert blieb? Doch bevor der Schweizer diese kritischen Fragen beantworten kann, wird er Opfer eines ebenso tragischen wie tödlichen Autounfalls. Offenbar hatte er vergessen seine Bremsen regelmäßig vom TÜV checken zu lassen. Seinen genauen Todeszeitpunkt konnte der Mann noch auf seiner Rolex ablesen, die so genau lief wie ein Schweizer Uhrwerk. Doch anstatt den Fall nun abzuschließen spinnt sich der Internal Revenue Service die Theorie zusammen, der Unfall sei gar kein Unfall gewesen, sondern vermutlich gezielter Auftragsmord. So werden die Geldströme einer professionellen Auftragskillerin genauer unter die Lupe genommen. Sie führen den IRS zu einem Juden, der der Frau eine hohe Geldsumme zukommen ließ. Weitere Nachforschungen ergeben, dass der Mann nur ein Strohmann ist von einem der reichsten Männer der Welt. Welches Verwirrspiel spielen die Reichen und Mächtigen mit uns und gelingt es dem Internal Revenue Service diesen Steuervermeidern und Steuerbetrügern endlich das Handwerk zu legen? Die Antwort erfahren Sie in "I. R. $. Steuerprüfung".
April 17, 2016
Bon, l'histoire est plutôt intéressante, mais il y a aussi beaucoup de choses qui ne me plaisent pas :
- le dessin, franchement je n'accroche pas trop
- les jurons en anglais, je ne vois pas l'intérêt
- le rythme : ça va super vite, avec beaucoup d'action mais j'ai trouvé ça bizarrement mené...
- je n'accroche pas des masses avec le héros, mais à voir dans la suite.
Je lirai au moins le volume 2, mais on est très loin du coup de cœur.
- le dessin, franchement je n'accroche pas trop
- les jurons en anglais, je ne vois pas l'intérêt
- le rythme : ça va super vite, avec beaucoup d'action mais j'ai trouvé ça bizarrement mené...
- je n'accroche pas des masses avec le héros, mais à voir dans la suite.
Je lirai au moins le volume 2, mais on est très loin du coup de cœur.
Read
July 28, 2011L'enfant :
- Monsieur, je vous en supplie ... Vous pourriez retracer tous les comptes dormants depuis la fin de la guerre ... Même avant.
Le banquier :
- Ce serait une grave entorse au secret bancaire, jeune homme ; la trahison de notre principe le plus sacré : la discrétion !
- Monsieur, je vous en supplie ... Vous pourriez retracer tous les comptes dormants depuis la fin de la guerre ... Même avant.
Le banquier :
- Ce serait une grave entorse au secret bancaire, jeune homme ; la trahison de notre principe le plus sacré : la discrétion !
December 26, 2010
Bd decrivant la vie d'un james bond du fisc americain... Prochains tomes montreront la qualite du scenariste. Dessin ok,ressemble a xiii, largo winch and co...
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews