COMICS & JEWS Chronosquad, History is Alive

“Chronosquad”, the graphic novel written by Pagine Ebraiche illustrator Giorgio Albertini, has been nominated in official selection for the Grand Prix in Angoulême, the prestigious award given annually during the Angoulême International Comics Festival to a comics author. Following is the review on the book published in the special session devoted to “Comics & Jews” in the November issue of Pagine Ebraiche.

By Ada Treves

To be part of a Chronosquad has always been Telonius Bloch’s dream: to become one of the agents who take care of the “chrono-tourists” wherever they are in space and time. The first volume of Chronosquad, written by Giorgio Albertini, illustrated by Grégory Panaccione and published by Editions Delcourt, has already been defined by critics “a little wonder.” The story will become a tetralogy.

The first question is why sending a medievalist to manage a crisis in the fourth dynasty in Egypt? Whether it’s a lack of staff or individual choice, responsibility can probably be attributed to Albertini’s personal story, in turn medieval historian and archaeologist as well as university professor of Comics History. Chronosquad, which features an escape in ancient Egypt, a love affair in 1491 and police investigations that take place in the Palaeolithic, intertwines social satire, always full of humor, and a perfectly enjoyable story, despite its length, which comes to nearly two hundred and thirty pages.

But it is evident throughout the book that even the well-known French illustrator Grégory Panaccione had fun in this first volume, “Honeymoon in the Bronze Age” that also has its beauty in the accuracy put in every detail, that can count on a historical expertise clearly out the ordinary. And to intrigue and capture the readers, the image showing the departures board at the Chronoport would be enough: from Carthago 241 AEV to London in 1666 (that has been delayed).