Cedric is an eight-year-old boy who is desperately in love with Chen but too shy to let her know. Between school, rowdy friends, nosy parents and an insufferable cousin, little Cedric has a lot to deal with. Thankfully, his grandpa is always there to help, no matter how much mischief Cedric makes...
A quiet day in the Union Army ... Soldiers are resting, Blutch and
Chesterfield are arguing, and the generals are plotting strategy.
Things change suddenly with the arrival of a new regiment, sent as
reinforcements to counter the imminent arrival of the Confederates.
With them is a young dog, Sallie, who's been on every battlefield
with her uniformed masters, and who takes an immediate liking to
Chesterfield, to the point that she accompanies him on a dangerous
scouting mission ...
Cedric is a little 8-year-old boy, a grumbler with a big heart, who shares his life with his parents, his grandpa, his school, his mates, and Chen, the love of his life, to whom he doesn't dare declare his feelings. It's not easy being a little boy! But Cedric works hard to preserve the peace. Luckily, Grandpa is always there for the hard knocks and the blue moods...
"The Bluecoats" is a humorous comic-book series starring Sergeant Chesterfield and Corporal Blutch, soldiers in the Union army during the Civil War. Our two heroes are captured by the Confederates and taken to Robertsonville prison camp, from which Blutch and the Sergeant try to escape five times. The camp commandant despairs, and Chesterfield and Blutch make a final attempt...
Robertsonville Prison was inspired by the Andersonville prison camp situated in Georgia, which operated from mid-1863 to mid-1864.
A new recruit makes the mistake of asking Blutch to tell him about
the infamous battle of Bull Run ... in public! The hostility of the
other Union soldiers is immediate, yet Blutch eventually explains the
reason for it. That battle, the first major one of the war, which had
seemed to the North like such an inevitable victory that masses of
civilians had gone to watch it as spectators, ended in a complete
rout. And Blutch and Chesterfield were there ...
Cedric's school is electing class representatives for the first time. A prospect that appeals to the boy, but also several others children - including Chen, the little girl he's got a crush on. Difficult for Cedric to reconcile his feelings and his desire to win, especially since Chen is a strong-willed young lady who, story after story, shows a definite lack of interest for being window dressing! Fortunately there's Grandpa, his advice ... and his own blunders!
Cedric's life is a series of triumphs and disasters. If one day he manages to impress his sweetheart Chen, the next his own obsessive jealousy will earn him a mighty slap. He can surprise his parents with tender, generous gestures, then bring them on the verge of a heart attack with his calamitous school reports. As for his grandfather, he's built along the same lines. The trick is to enjoy the good parts - and weather the rest!
Two companies are competing to build the intercontinental railway. When one sends saboteurs to intercept the powder needed to pierce tunnels through the mountains, the other calls upon Lucky Luke to protect a last chance convoy. The problem is, it's not powder that gets loaded onto the train this time - it's nitroglycerin! And as if that wasn't enough, the saboteurs are still around ... and the Daltons are convinced the train is full of gold!
Being a kid can be confusing. The grown ups parents and especially grandparents get up to the craziest antics. School can be counted on to complicate one's life. And then there are the mysteries of love... Trying to court Chen is a constant struggle for Cedric, who has to contend with shyness, misunderstandings, his own jealousy, poachers... Still. Confusing or not, it's so much simpler when you're nine! At least, that's something his grandad would say...
There's home, and Dad's work, and the parents fighting sometimes. There's school, annoying friends, and the beautiful, unattainable Chen. There's life and its milestones: your first communion, your first dance, your first pet... It's difficult sometimes, for a child. Fortunately, Cedric can always count on his Granddad's wisdom-and occasional partnership in crime-to help him see the brighter side of things and discover what's truly important.
This humorous series on the American Civil War centres around two cavalrymen in the Unionist Army: Cornelius Chesterfield, a zealous and devoted sergeant and Corporal Blutch, a reluctant soldier, highly critical of authority and who always tries to eschew yet another senseless battle. This highly comical duo does what it can to escape the often obtuse military mindset, absurd orders and the madness of war.
In this volume, the Sergeant obeys the Captain for the first time and ends up in the Marines...
Sent to scout the enemy, Blutch and Chesterfield are chased by a Confederate patrol and forced to cross the Rio Grande to safety. But that safety is relative: stuck between Apache bandits and Mexican outlaws, our two Bluecoats have no choice but to disguise themselves as civilians - Blutch as a peasant, Chesterfield as a monk. But the nearby village is eagerly awaiting its new `padre', and the villagers aren't fooled by the deception...
Stark's constant, reckless charging has once again depleted the 22nd
Cavalry. Faced with an understandable dearth of volunteers, the
Army's brass drafts - without telling them - some freshly arrived
immigrants. And Blutch and Chesterfield are tasked with instructing
them in the art of riding down the enemy. But there's a problem: the
new recruits only speak Russian! And while those Cossacks are already
fantastic riders, they have no desire to die for the glory of the
Union...
Even as the sea blockade by the Union Navy slowly strangles the South, the picket ships begin to mysteriously blow up one after another. Lincoln, worried that the war could stretch on too long if the Rebels are resupplied, orders that the Confederates' secret weapon be identified. That means sending spies to Charleston, though, in the heart of the enemy's territory. And who will be the two unlucky fools the brass entrusts with such a dangerous mission ... ?
Childhood is a time to learn about life. We discover love, but also
such things as disease and death. We learn to share and be generous,
but we also learn about the dangers of excesses, greed and gluttony.
In other words, every day is a new adventure - especially when, like
Cedric, you have a somewhat clumsy father, a grumpy but loveable
grandfather ... and a strong-willed almost-girlfriend with an
occasionally volatile temper!
After an even bloodier battle than usual, the Union army is out of men. But so are the Rebels, and General Alexander decides to retreat and come back with reinforcements quickly before the enemy can do the same. To move faster, he leaves his wounded-including Stark and Chesterfield-behind in the nearby town of Rumberley, in the care of its inhabitants and Corporal Blutch. But Rumberley's a Rebel village...
General Alexander's Union army is out of horses, and it is now facing none other than Robert E. Lee himself. To rebuild the Northern Cavalry before the coming battle, Blutch and Chesterfield are sent to buy new mounts, with the help of legendary horse trainer Ben "Bronco Benny" Wilcox. But, first, they'll have to cross Rebel lines, face angry Indians, and deal with Benny's fascination with a very special horse named "Traveller"...
While out on patrol, Blutch and Chesterfield encounter an unusual soldier: a woman wearing a Union uniform, who has come to join the army to look for her brother and uphold the family's honour. Blutch is unconvinced, but the sergeant, won over by the combination of bravery and a pretty face, agrees to help her. That, however, means taking her along for Captain Stark's demented charges - a prospect that could drive anyone to shirk their duty or desert...
After another long day of charging, Blutch and Chesterfield make the acquaintance of Matthew Brady, a professional photographer dispatched by President Lincoln to document the ongoing historic struggle. Photography, still a new invention, together with Brady's talent for capturing the moment, are met with great enthusiasm by both the rank and file and the top brass. Inevitably, it's not long before Blutch and Chesterfield are ordered to act as the artist's protective detail - much to the sergeant's disgust...
War rages on, and the wounded pile up - including Blutch, courtesy of
Confederate artillery. The Union Army doctors are swamped. In order
to address his shortage of healers, General Alexander brings in a
quartet of female nurses. But while he did also recruit a foul-
tempered `matron' of sorts to discourage anyone more interested in
flirting than doing their duty, he may not have planned for the
possibility of one of the nurses falling for a certain small, unruly,
bald corporal ...
Blutch and Chesterfield get away from the 22nd Cavalry and go spend some R&R at... Fort Bow, their old posting on the frontier. That's where Chesterfield's flame Amelia lives-the daughter of Colonel Appleton. But when the cavalrymen arrive, they find the young lady dancing with a dashing young lieutenant. When a young Native American boy gets mixed up in it by mistake, it doesn't take long for the situation to spiral out of control.
"The American Civil War has never been so amusing. Raoul Cauvin and Willy Lambil have a knack for turning the miseries of war into a slapstick routine." Penny Kenny (Comicsbulletin.com)
In this volume, Blutch and Chesterfield go up in an observation balloon in order to spy on the Confederate troops. But the plot thickens when our heroes crash land on their superiors. The generals send them behind enemy lines to try and free Stark who has been captured on a previous sortie. A tricky mission, not only for our heroes, but also for the other side.
"The American Civil War has never been so amusing. Raoul Cauvin and Willy Lambil have a knack for turning the miseries of war into a slapstick routine." Penny Kenny (Comicsbulletin.com)
Het verhaal begint als een Zuidelijk schip de Noordelijke barricade nadert. Als de Noordelijken het schip willen tegenhouden, vliegt hun schip zomaar in de lucht. Aan land is korporaal Blutch de vele aanvallen die ze moeten uitvoeren, zat. Omdat hij dienst weigert, zal hij gefusilleerd worden. De executie wordt uitgesteld en op dat moment krijgt de Generale Staf het bevel om twee soldaten het geval van de ontplofte boot te laten onderzoeken. Die twee soldaten zijn Blutch en Chesterfield.
Kolonel Appeltown gaat een paar weken op familiebezoek en laat het fort onder leiding van Kapitein Joyce. Deze windt er geen doekjes om en zet iedere soldaat die ongehoorzaam is in het gevang. Uiteindelijk worden vijf ongehoorzamen in het gevang gezet en moeten Blutch en Chesterfield hun bewaken, echter hebben alle soldaten hun bedenkingen over de methodes van kapitein Joyce. Uiteindelijk deserteren de vijf en de kapitein gaat samen met Blutch en Chesterfield achter ze aan.