I've always been of the opinion that Bryan Talbot's Adventures Of Luther Arkwright edged out Alan Moore's Watchman as the great monumental comic of the eighties, for all that Arkwright was messy with underground new ave influences as opposed to the stunning, but sterile, formalism of Watchmen. Anyway, Talbot's on my pantheon of greats, and I've been looking forward to trying out his Grandville series, combining as it does, according to the blurb, Conan Doyle, Rubert The Bear and Quentin Tarantino. So what we get is a post-9/11 alt-history steampunk adventure with sex, ultra-violence and anthropomorphic animal characters and tons of references to animals in art and comics. It's an absolute blast as Inspector LeBrock, quintessentially British badger detective and tough guy investigates the apparent suicide of a diplomatic aide, an investigation that takes him to the French city of the title and a wide-ranging conspiracy that implicates the most powerful in French society.

Admittedly the dastardly plot is VERY post-9/11 but there's no denying the amazing vision and dazzling art and the fantastic energy and dark humour, the wonderful homages and cleverness of the vision.