The fourth volume of Yoko Tsuno, Aventures Electroniques was never published in English, and is a different beast: a collection of six previous short stories, Hold-up in hi-fi, L’ange de Noël (“The Christmas Angel”), La belle et la bête (“The Beauty and the Beast”), Cap 351, Du miel pour Yoko (“Honey for Yoko”) and L’araignée qui volait (“The Thief Spider”). The style varies from full blown, cartoony Marcinelle Style, to a more stylized, more “adult” Ligne Claire. Two of the stories feature texts by M. Tillieux.

The common element in the stories is the use and abuse of technology: a gang of criminals use a cinema-style hi-fi systen to rob a bank; a mysterious beast-man is revealed to be a man with a exoskeleton; a rocket is hijacked to attack some economic talks between East and West Germany; bees carrying microfilms are used in an espionage plot; a robot-spider is used to nefarious purposes. Only a short Christmas story is free of hi-tech criminals and spies.

All in all a fine volume, and one that does make the most of the engineering job of Yoko – even if initially limited to stereo repairs – and of Roger Leloup high skills as at drawing technology. As usual the stories are a trifle too verbose, but I’m reading then to learn French, so it might be a bonus of sorts.