Ce premier tome des Formidables Aventures de Lapinot réjouira les amateurs de western, d'humour, de philosophie et de plâtrées de gros fayots rouges.
(This first volume of the Spiffy Adventures of McConey will delight those who like western, humour, philosophy, and bellyfuls of big red beans.)
Blacktown (translated in English as Gloomtown) is a 1995 comic book by Lewis Trondheim. It is the first album of The Spiffy Adventures of McConey series.
The story parodies The Western. Lapinot arrives in a small frontier town. He is chased by outlaws and soon the whole town turns on him, because he tried to steal a horse.
Blacktown provides examples of the following tropes:
- Adventure Towns: Lapinot, the protagonist, is chased by the gang of Rex Logan. He enters Blacktown in the beginning. He leaves Blacktown in the end.
- Affectionate Parody: Of The Western genre.
- Big Damn Heroes: Subverted. A member of the gang of Rex Logan is beating Miss Pacard in a room of the saloon. Lapinot gets through the ceiling and falls on the outlaw, who seems to be dead. He thinks that he has killed him, but actually Miss Pacard killed him beforehand with a gun.
- Blatant Lies:
- The Marshal says that he was forced to kill Lapinot's horse, because Lapinot had just stolen another horse, which is just the opposite of the truth: Lapinot stole the horse because the Marshal had killed his.
- The villagers who go in the hills at night in search for gold all pretend to look for mushrooms.
- Blithe Spirit: Miss Pacard, who teaches non-violence in the Wild West.
- Break the Cutie: Miss Pacard, a Blithe Spirit who teaches non-violence, is beaten up by an outlaw and she is forced to kill him in self-defense. After that, she loses her ideals and she kills other members of the gang of Logan. She also attempts to kill Lapinot and then to commit suicide.
- Bullet Holes and Revelations: Richard, Martin and several villagers fight with an outlaw and try to grab his gun. Suddenly, the gun goes off. Everyone is shocked, but it turns out nobody was hit.
- Bungled Suicide: Miss Pacard, after losing her ideals because she had to kill an outlaw in self-defense, tries to shoot herself, but her gun is empty.
- Butt-Monkey: The unnamed outlaw who tries to cheat at poker, then tries to kill Richard, then tries to bully Lapinot in jail.
- City Slicker: Lapinot comes from Boston. He subverts the trope because he has learned to fight on the way to Blacktown.
- Clear My Name: Lapinot is framed up for the murder of General Lee and he has to prove that he is not guilty.
- Clueless Deputy: Martin, the marshal's deputy, is not very clever. When his jacket is full of blood, he still thinks that it is his own blood even after noticing that his shirt is clean.
- Damsel out of Distress: Miss Pacard kills the outlaw who was beating her.
- Dirty Cop: The marshal of Blacktown is one of the antagonists. He is the mayor's accomplice and he kills Lapinot's horse.
- Enemy Eats Your Lunch: The guy who is in jail with Lapinot tries to bully him to eat his meal. Subverted because it does not work: Lapinot eats it so fast that he cannot do anything.
- Force Feeding: The marshal forces two villagers who went in the hills in search for gold to eat raw mushrooms.
- Frameup: The mayor frames Lapinot up for the murder of General Lee.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Miss Pacard. All the male inhabitants of Blacktown drool over her.
- Heroic BSoD: Miss Pacard after killing the outlaw who was beating her. In a daze, she kills other outlaws, and she tries to kill Lapinot and then to commit suicide.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Subverted twice. Lapinot tries to steal a horse to escape after the marshal killed his own horse, but he is caught red handed by a villager. Later, he tries to steal another horse. Unfortunately for him, it is the horse of a member of the gang of Rex Logan who immediately points his gun at him.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Miss Pacard asks the villagers if they want to live peacefully and they answer yes. Then a guy enters the room with Lapinot and proposes to lynch him. The villager joyfully agree.
- Mayor Pain: The mayor of Blacktown is one of the antagonists. In order to keep the secret about the gold seam, he orders to put Lapinot in jail and to kill his horse.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: A member of the gang of Rex Logan beats Miss Pacard in the saloon.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: When the marshal and the mayor question Fuzzi, they assume his bag is full of gold, whereas it is actually full of mushrooms. The questions and answers are vague enough to be applied to gold and mushrooms.
- Outlaw: The members of the gang of Rex Logan.
- Prospector: General Lee looks for gold in the hills near Blacktown.
- Stern Chase: Lapinot flees because the gang of Rex Logan chase him.
- Torches and Pitchforks: The villagers want to lynch Lapinot because he tried to steal a horse.
- U.S. Marshal: The marshal of Blacktown is one of the antagonists. He is the mayor's accomplice.
- "Wanted!" Poster: The standard procedure when a stranger arrives in Blacktown is the compare his face with these posters.
- The Western: The album is a parody of the genre.
- William Telling: Subverted. The marshall seems to have Improbable Aiming Skills, because he is able to shoot the hat off the head of several villagers, but he reveals that he has to target their heart to pull this off.
- Would Hit a Girl: A member of the gang of Rex Logan delivers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Miss Pacard.
