Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant

Delilah Dirk has three glaring weaknesses: character, paneling, and story. For a comic, that's fatal.The male protagonist is dull: he makes tea, claims not to want adventure, goes on adventure anyway. Those are the things about him. The female protagonist is dull: she can beat crowds of armed soldiers in a fight, is sassy, and wants the male protagonist around to make tea and be yelled at. Those qualities wouldn't be bad if we understood why the characters are doing what they're doing, but we don't. They're "adventuring", and that's it. It's just not enough.The art itself isn't my cup of tea, but that's a subjective matter. What's not subjective is that there are too many words and panels wasted. The paneling is done like a storyboard, with lots of small panels of reaction shots, faces pulled, and dialogue delivered. There is way too much dialogue for an adventure story that has so little to say. There are some good panels, mostly shots of characters looking at some nice background, but most of what you get is talking heads being choked by word balloons and unnecessary narration.Finally, the story is spoiled by the fact that there are no stakes beyond the fate of our two adventurous characters, who we see many times are invulnerable to falling from great heights, unbothered by swords, and unthreatened by hordes of cronies of any size or number. Having two characters who abide by cartoon logic would be a challenge to any story, but it leaves the reader with nothing to pay attention to except their dull banter, which is mainly about how they're saving one another's lives or how they've put each other in danger. It all falls flat because there's no peril. Beyond that, there's really no story. They want adventure, usually in the form of a yellow clump of gold which is guarded by easily dispatched henchmen, and there's a very bad guy far away who is unhappy with them and whom we occasionally cut to so he can frown and say the protagonist's name.In short, this is another comic by a man who can draw (and draw backgrounds well) but not tell a story well or write entertaining dialogue. Those skills can be learned, and maybe in future volumes of this series they'll be in evidence. Making a comic is difficult, and always an achievement in itself; however, not every comic is worth publishing and buying. This one is not.

Meet Delilah Dirk – a globetrotting troublemaker, daughter to an English ambassador father and famous Greek artisan mother. Delilah was trained by the best marksmen in France, lived in the jungles of India, the beaches of Indonesia, and a Japanese monastery. She is extremely deadly, capable and chaos-incarnate.Delilah meets Erdemoglu Selim, lieutenant in the Turksih Janissary Corps (and amateur tea-brewer), when she attempts to steal some ancient scrolls from his Majesty’s palace. Selim is sent to interrogate Ms Dirk, but somehow gets caught up in her (inevitable) escape plan – and even accused of being her accomplice!Now Selim finds himself unwittingly along for Delilah’s wild new escapade – stealing from the Evil Pirate and Captain – Zakul (the Terrible).‘Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant’ is the first book in a new graphic novel series by Tony Cliff for First Second Books.I have had this book waiting in my TBR pile for months. First recommended to me by Adele (Persnickety Snark) back in 2013, Tony Cliff’s ‘Delilah Dirk’ was named a Publishers Weekly Best Children's Book of 2013 and a Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2013. And let me tell you … it deserves all that praise, and more.Tony Cliff has created an acerbically witty, charming and ferocious heroine in Delilah Dirk – at once an accomplished (ass-kicking) swordswoman, and member to three royal families. She seemingly traipses the world looking for mischief and doing whatever tickles her fancy; whether it be stealing gold from a terrible pirate or breaking into the Great Palace of Constantinople. She’s like a cross between Adèle Blanc-Sec and Indiana Jones – and utterly, utterly wonderful. I also appreciated that Tony Cliff didn’t sexualise Delilah; she’s definitely not the type of comic-book action heroine we’ve seen too much of lately.Readers are seeing this story through Lieutenant Selim’s eyes – we meet Delilah at the same time he does, and we hear his conflicting interiority about her actions and his participation in them. Selim is a great sidekick for Delilah; waylaid by a strong moral compass and utterly horrified by Delilah’s easy brutality. They are a great double-act balance, and by the end of the book readers can rest assured that they have the beginnings of a beautiful friendship.‘Delilah Dirk’ is also a very exotic, historic story – we traipse with Delilah from 1807 Constantinople (Istanbul) to the wilds of Asian Turkey and a trip over to Greece. The locations are stunningly drawn, and it’s wonderful to get lost in such exotic locales. I can’t wait to travel with Delilah and Selim, wherever her fancies take them next!‘Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant’ is one of the best graphic novels I’ve read, and easily makes its way onto my favourites list. It’s funny and lushly drawn, Delilah is a worthy heroine and Selim a fantastic narrator. I can’t wait for more adventures with these two.

This is an unexpectedly subversive plot, gently poking holes in gender stereotypes. Some of the plot elements are rather over the top (flying boat?!?) but that adds to the fun. So give this a try and enjoy the ride.

I had very high hopes for this book and it didn't disappoint. We need more adventure stories like this. You can't possibly be disappointed.

Delilah Dirk is a creation of the author Tony Cliff that started out as a webcomic. The webcomic was beautiful in its approach to that genre, pages were laid out a way that drew you in as if you were reading it in glorious print. Now, the story has finally been printed as a 'real' book. It works even better on paper than on the screen.Cliff has done a lot of research into the background of this story set in Ottoman Turkey and Greece. Clothing, nature, city scapes are all dawn in a very loving and respectful manner. The protagonists are what really makes this comic work. Selim a Jannisary that loves his tea more than his career and Delilah a tomboy diplomats daughter stumble from adventure to adventure as two children running through their world. Although the adventures give Cliff the chance to illustrate some truly wonderful action-scenes, I could read a book about these two bickering on whether tea was better than coffee.Finally, it has to be said that this edition is of a very high quality. Colours are deep and rich, the paper is of a think quality. As TPB's go, this is definitely one of the better ones out there.Five Stars, buy this comic if you love adventure books and films and interesting characters.

The comic is wonderfully drawn and has a great story.But the printed TPB is tiny, only ~14×21 cm big. Compare that witha US comic that has ~16×26 cm and an European album ~22×30 cm. Andthe pages are so detailed that you definitely need the 20×30 cm.So I bought the Kindle comic instead. But on the tablet it insistson showing *two* pages in landscape mode, so it is tiny, too. Andthere is no way to turn that off. And the comic did not appear inComixology as my other Kindle comics did, so I can't read itthere, either.At least my monitor is big enough that I can read it there.So please, republish it in a decent size either on paper orelectronically, so that I can read it in the sofa withoutstraining my eyes.

The book is fresh and well drawn. I liked it enough that I read all the other Delilah Dirk stories I could get hold of.