Merry Christmas

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas. Thanks for reading the blog and hopefully, I'll see you around.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Kaamelott

Over the centuries, the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table have been told and re-told countless times in pretty much every medium. The quality of these stories have varied strongly, from the truly excellent to the ungodly awful. In this post, we'll take a look at one of my own personal favorite takes on the Arthur-legend: Kaamelott.

In case you haven't heard of it, Kaamelott is a French TV-series which lasted six seasons (or books as they're called) and ran from 2005 to 2009. The series is the brainchild of Alexandre Astier who, aside from serving as the show-runner, also composed to music and plays the role of King Arthur.

The outline of Kaamelott: Arthur has been crowned the king of Britain and now seeks to unite all the squabbling, smaller kingdoms of the realm into one, using the quest for the Holy Grail as a pre-text. However, said goal is not an easy one since the king has to content only with outer enemies, but also with the general incompetence of his men, not to mention his father-in-law Leodagan, who regards Arthur's unorthodox ideas about democracy and abolition of torture with a skeptical eye.


One of the most interesting things about Kaamelott is the way the show evolved during its tenure. The early seasons are pure comedy; there's no story-arc to speak of and the short (2-3 minutes) episodes can be watched in pretty much any order. Eventually, a plot starts to take form, dealing with the falling out between Arthur and his greatest knight, Lancelot. Lancelot, being one of the few knights who knows what he's doing eventually gets fed up with the general ineptitude of his fellow knights and decides to strike out on his own, as a knight-errant. The conflict between Arthur, the democratically-inclined king and Lancelot, the knight who believes that the Grail-Quest should be reserved for the elite is what drives the plot of the show in the later seasons.

The biggest change though, comes in season five. Here the tone of the show changes drastically; what began as a comedy, now turns into a serious drama. Although, the comedic elements are still present, though not as much as they used to be. Personally, I liked the direction the show took in its final two seasons, not only did I find the transition from comedy to drama well-made, but the characters also gain more depth, which can only be a plus. The final season is a prequel, which takes place fifteen years before the series began and focuses on Arthur's youth in Rome.

Character-wise, Kaamelott features quite a large cast of characters, taken from Arthurian lore. From the childlike and naive (though surprisingly insightful at times) Perceval, to the scheming king Loth, who always has a (faulty) Latin quotation at times to justify his treacherous behavior.

Of course, since Kaamelott began life as a comedy, some of the characters are quite different from how they're usual portrayed. For example, the wise and powerful Merlin is portrayed as a largely inept druid.

As great as the supporting cast is, the heart of Kaamelott is Arthur himself. Alexandre Astier's portrayal of the legendary king is nothing short of brilliant: His Arthur is a complex, flawed indivudal who cheats on his wife (something that comes back to haunt him in the end), can be pretty rude and sarcastic at times and, as the series slips into darker territory, becomes more and more plagued with self-doubt. That said, despite these flaws, Arthur remains at his core a heroic figure who strives to do what's best for his kingdom and his subjects.

Like many successful shows, Kaamelott has also given birth to its share of merchandise. Among them a comic-book. However, I haven't had the opportunity to read the comic yet and so am unable to vouch for its quality.

The series itself ended on something of a cliffhanger with the promise that Arthur would soon once again become a hero. However, it's been disconcertingly quiet about since then. Word has it that Astier has been planning both a seventh season titled Resistance, as well as three movies. Alas, these projects seem to be stuck in development-purgatory.

Until then, we'll have to enjoy the six seasons we already have. So let's go to Kaamelott, it may be a silly place, but it's well worth a visit.

Comics That Should Be Translated: Rebecca

Recently, I decided to re-read an old comic which had been gathering dust on my bookshelf ever since I last read it, many years ago. Upon reading it, I was struck almost from the page what a great read it was and so, I decided to make it the subject for the second post in my Comics That Should Be Translated series. The comic in question is Rebecca (but of course, you already knew that, having read the title of the post) by Anna Brandoli (art) and Renato Queirolo (script).

Rebecca takes place in Italy at the end of the 15th Century,  the story begins with the street-singer Mercutio fleeing through the snow, he's being pursued by two city-guards who took offence to one of his songs. Mercutio soon happens upon a cave, where he meets the comic's eponymous character; the gypsy-woman Rebecca. After she has helped Mercutio to get rid of the guards (I won't tell you how), Rebecca enlists the singer as her partner-in-crime (so to speak): She has found a hidden stash of weapons which she aims to sell in the city of Como. Once there, the duo soon finds themselves involved in a conspiracy cooked up by the local inquisitor to have a Jewish moneylender accused of witchcraft so that the church can confiscate his fortune.

One of Rebecca's chief strength is the very believable portrayal of Italy during the Renaissance.  Brandoli and Queirolo does not shy away from showing the injustices of the time, from the corruption to the religious oppression. The protagonists are hardly perfect, but they do come of as saints (or almost) when compared to the villains. Another thing the comic has going for it is it's cast of memorable characters. Aside from our two leads, Rebecca and Mercutio, this also includes (among others) the orally-gifted and intellectual miller Mennochio, who becomes one of the duo's allies as well as Filippo da Cesena; a leper who roams the countryside telling the tale of the crimes he committed when he was in the service of a generous but naive nobleman.

Incidentally, Filippo's story is perhaps my favorite segment of the comic. Covering only ten pages, it paints a fascinating portrait of a man who doesn't shrink from the blackest deeds in order to fulfill his thirst for wealth and power.

The comic is helped immensely by Anna Brandoli's artwork, which really sets the mood. Brandoli is another artist who has clearly mastered the use of black-and-white, much like her fellow countryman and colleague, the great Hugo Pratt.

There is a sequel to Rebecca called I Testamenti di Sant' Ambrogio (The Testament of St. Ambrogio), in color. I've read the first part of it in French and enjoyed it well-enough. However, the original Rebecca still stands out as one of the finest examples of its genre and a comic that definitely deserves to be translated.