Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure (The Adventures of Tanguy and Laverdure) is a Franco-Belgian comics series (bande dessinée) created by Jean-Michel Charlier and Albert Uderzo, about the two pilots Michel Tanguy and Ernest Laverdure, and their adventures in the French Air Force.
Contents
Publication history
Initially titled Michel Tanguy, it made its debut in the first issue of the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote on October 29, 1959. The series provided Pilote with a competitor to the older, but similar, series Buck Danny serialised in Spirou magazine (incidentally also written by Charlier as his first major bande dessinée series), and Dan Cooper, which appeared in Tintin magazine.
Started in October 1959, the series was continuously published by Pilote until June 1971. Then its publication went on in Tintin (1973), Super As (1979/1980), the Catholic magazine Le Pélerin (around 1981/1984), Moustique Junior (Belgium; 1988). In 2002, the series was resumed by two new authors, after a long break caused by Charlier's death.
Tanguy et Laverdure has been translated into languages such as Italian, German, Dutch, Danish, Indonesian, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Serbocroatian. It was adapted into the televised series Les Chevaliers du Ciel, initially broadcast 1967–69 and 1988–91, and additionally adapted into the 2005 film Les Chevaliers du Ciel.
English publications
The comic has been published in English in the British comic magazine Lion between April and September 1966 under a different title, The Flying Furies. The main characters were renamed with English names, Tanguy became Jim 'Jet' Power and Laverdure, Terry Madden. "Flying Furies" was the translation of the first Tanguy et Laverdure adventure "L'Ecole des Aigles". There was also a hardcover annual published in 1972 with the title The Aeronauts, the same title as the TV series broadcast in Britain. This annual publication was a slightly edited compilation of two original albums, 11. Destination Pacifique and 12. Menace sur Mururoa, and used the characters' French names.
Story
Tanguy and Laverdure are two friends from the flying school with opposite personalities. While Tanguy is serious, honest and obedient, Laverdure is eccentric, blundering and awkward, as well as an irredeemable skirt-chaser. However, Laverdure is a strong teammate for Tanguy in difficult situations. Dangerous missions and spying are everyday tasks for the two pilots, who are flying aces and efficient defenders of their homeland.
Leaving the Salon-de-Provence Air School, they are sent to the Meknès Air School to improve their knowledge. Just arrived, they search through the snowy Anti-Atlas to retrieve a lost warhead with confidential information. Later, Michel Tanguy and Ernest Laverdure join the Cigognes squadron, (which once included such flying aces as Georges Guynemer) where they pilot the Mirage III plane. Their adventures lead them to Dijon air base, Tel Aviv and Greenland.