Martín Holmes

Zachary Holmes / Martín Holmes #1

by Carlos Trillo, Juan Bobillo

¿Será verdad que Martín Holmes es sobrino del famosísimo Sherlock Holmes? ¿Y que ha heredado de él la sagacidad para investigar los asuntos más extraños, descubriendo siempre al culpable? Vamos a ver, porque en esta aventura se va a topar nada menos que con el monstruo de Frankenstein.

La “Colección Aventuras Dibujadas” compila, en libros de edición local, obras de la historieta argentina contemporánea orientadas al lector infantil y juvenil. Esta colección adhiere a los conceptos expresados en el Manifiesto de Banda Dibujada, movimiento para la difusión de la Historieta Infantil y Juvenil: www.bandadibujada.blogspot.com. Martín Holmes fue una de las primeras experiencias de la dupla Carlos Trillo - Juan Bobillo. Publicada originalmente en Genios a partir del año 2000, fue distribuida a nivel mundial por SAF Comics, y rebautizada en Francia como Zachary Holmes. La saga de Martín Holmes precedió a la obra Chocolate con Papas Fritas, de los mismos autores. Fuera del campo de la historieta para niños, guionista y dibujante crearon la serie “Bird”, el álbum “Anton Blake”, y tienen otros proyectos en su haber.

Genres: Comics, Collections, Detective

48 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

About the author

Carlos Trillo was an Argentine comic book writer. Trillo began a prolific career as writer already at the age of 20, writing his first story for Patoruzú magazine. Trillo created, together with Horacio Altuna, the strip El Loco Chávez, which appeared every day at the back of the newspaper Clarín from July 26, 1975 to November 10, 1987. After that, the strip was replaced by El Negro Blanco, which he wrote for the artist Ernesto García Seijas until September 1993. He married writer Ema Wolf and had two children. He participated on the creation of several comics including Cybersix in 1992, with Carlos Meglia, and the Clara de noche and Cicca Dum Dum series with Jordi Bernet. He has also collaborated with Alberto Breccia and Alejandro Dolina. In 1999, his work La grande arnaque won the Prize for Scenario at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. He died in London on May 8, 2011, while on holiday with his wife.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Francine]

This was really cute, for what it is! Not too deep, not too exciting, but perfectly acceptable. Give me Holmes and Frankenstein and I am happy.

I read it in Dutch.

[Johanna]

A clever idea, but not really Holmesian (although I liked the Watson mouse). Defending the monster, in spite of its temper, was amusing.

[Kristel]

Combining the late 19th century famous detective personality with some early 19th century gothic fiction, Trillo (who passed away in May 2011) and Bobillo have created a monster of a new graphic series. Zachary Holmes must prove the so-called monster Frankenstein’s innocence, when London authorities put the Baron’s creation on trial. Holmes’ new friend Diana is convinced of Frankenstein’s good character but Holmes must track down the true saboteurs, in one night. Zachary Holmes acts and lives independently as an adult but the Bobillo depicts Holmes in child-like stature. Holmes is drawn wearing a cap and short pants, commonly worn by male children in the Victorian era—when they became adults, they wore long pants and derbies or top hats. Holmes’s familiar sidekick Watson has been transformed from a doctor into a rat with opaque-looking eyes. However, Watson no longer attempts to discover and document Holmes’ crime-solving methods but saves Holmes’ life and draws the detective’s attention to clues. Background colors tend to be rich hues of green, yellow and eggplant until the end when Holmes views a sunset with his lady friend. Trillo creates a rapid pace by infusing action scenes with witty conversations held by Holmes and the other characters. The vocabulary is rich but not overly complicated. Younger children could easily figure out the meanings of the longer words through context and the images. Illustrated in a series of square panels, the largest of which does not reach 5 inches tall or long, this graphic novel allows the reader to see the realize the scope of each scene. Constrained by space, Frankenstein appears huge in contrast with the other characters, especially when bursting his chains which he does to frightening effect several times in the story. Trillo does not employ the common sound indicators like POW! or ZOOM! often found in comics but Watson does “squeak” to great effect. The authors do an excellent job of introducing Victorian themes, language, and settings as well as familiar characters like Detective Holmes and new twists on horror stories like Frankenstein. Highly recommended for public libraries.

[Fugo Feedback]

No es que la haya pasado mal leyendo este libro (salvo tal vez por los diálogos trillescos, que me resultan cada vez más insoportables e inverosímiles), pero comparado con otros grandes comics que leí últimamente, y que por caprichos míos los limité a tres estrellitas, con este que no me terminó de convencer no puedo más que dejarlo en un mediocre 2, aunque tenga varias cosas de zafable para arriba. Entre ellos, la idea central, algunos personajes y, principalmente, el genial dibujo de Bobillo, quizás no tan inspirado como en otros laburos suyos, pero sí muy funcional y creativo. Se ve que la dupla Trillo-Bobillo no es de mis favoritas en historieta, pero si me cae otro comic a un precio tan bueno como este, quizás le dé oootra chance más.

[Variaciones Enrojo]

Primera historieta de Martín Holmes. Primer tomo de la Colección Aventuras Dibujadas.

[Dony Grayman]

Colección Aventuras Dibujadas #1. Primer tomo del personaje. El segundo no se editó al menos en Argentina.

[Ribrarian Not]

Libro de historietas con ISBN propio. Edición argentina de la colección Aventuras Dibujadas.