The Demon’s Gold Volume 2: Mongolia – By Lele Vianello – Ed. (…)

The title of this second and final opus is programmatic: our adventurers are indeed in touch with occult forces that exceed them.

The Baron who thought he was the reincarnation of Genghis Khan haunts this story which denounces the greed of the various protagonists in search of the treasure hidden by this mystical madman in the mountains before his death.

The story begins in Tibet where we find the Dalai Lama who has just had a bad dream…

The whole album can also be seen as a nightmare from which the reader will wake up.

We follow the journey of the formidable warrior-monks Dob-Dobs responsible for escorting the English engineer Gordon to recover the cursed treasure.

Alas, a one-eyed Russian spy stole the plans at the end of the previous volume. We find her as cynical as ever in search of a new alliance which involves the Russian Communist Party and the highwayman Ever Khan. As for the convoy of warrior monks, the encounter with an English patrol will provide them with involuntary and unexpected help…

Viannello is a complete author whose scenario refers to the character of Roman Von Ungern-Sternberg, nicknamed the “Mad Baron”, discovered in the episode Corto Maltese in Sibérie on which he collaborated with Hugo Pratt .

Vianello leads us to the end of the race with a gallery of lawless characters without giving the leading role to any of them. They seem to be the puppets of a prankish and nihilistic destiny. Should we see this quest as a process of collective exorcism, as the enigmatic ending which evokes a flight of crows echoing the beginning of the story suggests?

Vianello’s graphic style is as striking as ever, mixing realism and abstraction, scenes of explanatory dialogue and scenes of contemplation. He knows how to play with chiaroscuro and never overloads his settings, achieving a certain purity by alternately favoring black and white backgrounds. The desert scenes are particularly successful, often with the moon in the background, like an evil deity who will weigh on the destiny of the treasure seekers.

Mongolia is a story which is held from start to finish in a historical-fantastic register, a quest without heroes, a journey to the heart of the human soul deserted by the sense of the sacred.