THE MYSTERIOUS MANUSCRIPT

Bad guys are traveling back in time, and it’s up to a fixer named Mortensen to repair the damage.

In this kickoff episode, a picture of an airplane in an old manuscript sends secret agent Mortensen to 16th-century Loch Ness. He goes twice, once to see the evidence (including the plane’s large cargo of stolen books from many eras) destroyed, and then a second time to rescue the mute, comely, hatchet-wielding young “witch” Blossom who had helped keep him from being burned at the stake. Looking particularly dapper in a duster and long scarf over formal evening wear, the imperturbable hero surmounts one crisis after another. Though the plot is as airy and light on internal logic as can be, readers will be carried along by both his élan and by the charged-up pace of his misadventures. Jakobsen’s cartoon panels are small but discrete, and he keeps the dialogue pithy, his figures clearly drawn and the action easy to follow.

A bonbon for Tintin fans.