Blake and Mortimer (1946-) is a Belgian comic created by Edgar P. Jacobs, a friend and collaborator of Hergé (the creator of Tintin). The comic, which mixes traditional mystery and espionage stories with Science Fiction elements, stars two middle-aged brits: Captain Francis Blake, head of the MI-5; and Professor Philip Mortimer. Another important character is the duo's Arch-Enemy, the devious Colonel Olrik, whose appearance was based on Jacobs in his younger years.After the death of Jacobs in 1987, the comic has been continued by other authors and artists, including Jean Van Hamme, the creator of Thorgal and XIII, Yves Sente and André Juillard.
This series provides examples of:
Action Girl: Jessie Wingo in The Strange Encounter
Interestingly, women were almost entirely absent from the series while the original author was alive, and those few there were never had action-oriented parts. It was a man's world, and then some.
Jacobs had included female characters in Le Rayon U. The reason he did not do the same for Blake And Mortimer was that publication laws for youth-oriented series had become stricter after World War II: it was implicitely forbidden to draw attractive women in comics for kids.
Affectionate Parody: The Adventures of Phillip and Francis by Pierre Veys and Nicolas Barral, published by Dargaud, the same publisher as the original books. Published albums include The Empire Under Threat, The Machiavellian Trap and the (supposedly) upcoming The Yellow "M" vs. Godzilla
Anonymous Ringer: It's obvious that the hostile superpower in SOS Meteors is the Soviet Union, but the country is never mentioned by name.
Ancient Egypt: Mystery of the Great Pyramid, obviously.
Arch-Enemy: Olrik (Incidentally, his look was based on Jacobs himself)
Beard of Evil: Averted with Mortimer, played straight in The Atlantis Enigma with the Big Bad (apparently, Jacobs's beard of evil is black and pointy).
And the Traitor in The Time Trap (who also sports a pointy black beard).
Best Served Cold: It takes Septimus decades to take his revenge.
The Curse of The Thirty Denarii: Reiner von Stahl/Belos Beloukian
Break Out The Museum Piece: In The Time Trap, the rebels of the 51st century have armed themselves with ancient weapons from the 20th and 21st centuries found in underground stockpiles.
Arguably, Miloch as well. It's not said in so many words, but he's obviously on the payroll of the Soviet Bloc.
Discreet Drink Disposal: Mortimer discreetly pours on the floor a cup of sake that he (rightly) suspects of being drugged in Professor Sato's Three Formulae.
Fanon Dis Continuity: Some fans refuse to acknowledge the stories written after Jacob's death, some just chose to ignore the Sente/Juillard productions.
Infant Immortality: Averted in The Sanctuary of Gondwana, the child-character dies a pretty horrifying death.
Japan Takes Over the World: The Yellow Empire is a Tibetan expy of Imperial Japan, with soldiers wearing Japanese-like uniforms and using German weapons. They even manage to conquer most of the world in the beginning of the story.
La Résistance: The Diabolical Trap has this in the distant future.
Lesser Star: Although the series is called Blake and Mortimer, most stories involve Mortimer as the main protagonist, with Blake sometimes barely even showing up at all. This was deliberately corrected years after Edgar P. Jacob's death by The Francis Blake Affair, which makes him the main protagonist for a change.
Curiously enough, SOS Meteors, where Mortimer is captured early in the book and Blake does most of the actions, was subtitled "Mortimer in Paris" in some editions.
Mad Scientist: Septimus, Miloch, Voronov and Z'Ong all qualify.
Master of Disguise: Olrik is an expert of this trope. Blake is pretty good at it as well.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Ashoka in The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent: while we learn that the "present" Ashoka is the daughter of her predecessor, we never learn who said predecessor was. Plus, the giant albino monkeys (which apparently have survived for 30+ years and can be summoned with a puff of smoke) are never explained.
The Mole: Doyle-Smith in The Francis Blake Affair.
No Export for You: There were English translations of all published Jacobs stories, but nowadays they're quite expensive. Cinebook has put out a number of both Jacobs and post-Jacobs stories, although for some reason they've put the Jacobs stories out of order, and have yet to publish The Secret of The Swordfish, even though some stories reference it quite heavily. Then again, at three volumes, can you blame them?
Slipping a Mickey: Mortimer is served a drugged cup of coffee in Mystery of the Great Pyramid.
Somewhere A Paleontologist Is Crying: The Time Trap. The scene was an homage to one of Jacobs's favorite movies, a stop motion dinosaur flick of the beginning of the 20th century...
Those Wacky Nazis: in the latest book. We even learn that there was a secret pact between them and the Yellow Empire.
Video Phone: Their adventure "The Time Trap" depicts a dystopian far future in which communication takes place via camera-equipped wrist phones, for those who can afford them anyway.
Villain Opening Scene: In The Secret of The Swordfish, Olrik is the first character to appear on stage.
Weather Control Machine: The secret weapon of the USSR that hostile superpower to the East in SOS Meteors.
Who's Laughing Now?: Septimus turned evil after his theories were ridiculed by other scientists. Then he brainwashed them into believing he was their god.
Yellow Peril: The Yellow Empire of Basam Damdu, whose capital is in Lhasa.
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