Blueberry 1: Chihuahua Pearl

In the first volume of a projected series, set in America of the late 1800s by a French artist/writer team, U.S. cavalry officer Lieutenant Blueberry stumbles upon the secret of a lost fortune in Confederate gold and a conspiracy to finance a new Civil War. Drafted, to his chagrin, as a kind of James Bond on a horse, Blueberry is stripped of his rank and enters Mexico as a spy, hoping to locate a jailed former Confederate officer linked to the mystery. The core of Charlier's story of espionage in the Old West, an unusual treatment for a western when this first appeared in a French magazine in 1970, will seem familiar to contemporary readers. But his ability to complicate the plot, unexpectedly adding new conspirators, infuses the narrative with fresh blood. Although grittier than his science fiction work, which is better known in the U.S., ``Moebius'' Giraud's drawings here display his characteristic penchant for detail and expressively beautiful line work. The coloring, however, is disappointingly muted and muddy. (June)