Reminded me of a cartoon from the 1950's. It's about two spies in Venice in the 1600's. They hate each other instantly in their public identities but are immediately attracted to one another in their secret identities of the Black Scorpion and the Eagle. Too goofy and farcical for my enjoyment.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this ebook.

Venezia was a good book but it wasn't meant for me. Kudos to the author and the illustrator for their hard work.

I did not finish this, and will not be reviewing it on my blog. I found the bickering to be too much, and the graphics left much to be desired. I loved the idea and premise of the story, but it just fell flat for me. I appreciate being given this opportunity to read and review!

Some of the humor doesn't quite come off and I'm not sure this is as romantic as the marketing would like you to think, but it's a perfectly fine way to spend an hour if you like the artwork.

Great graphic novel. One of the few that has a truly enjoyable romantic story. It's fun and light and not filled with zombies. I really felt like it could be critiqued as a story on its own and when you add the appealing illustrations, you have something I feel good in recommending. It has strong characters, especially the male and female leads, and cultural references mixed with witty dialogue used for emotional sparring. And no decapitation is involved!

Not for young children but okay for preteens and above, I recommend this graphic book for those who like a clever romance with likable characters.

However, (here it comes) it does lack flow and focuses a lot more on the relationship than action and moving the story along. But I have the reputation of not liking the Romance genre in general, so I suspect this is more just a subjective me-thing. But since I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review, then that is what you will get. And why I took away one star in my rating.

Sincerely, Laura-Lee

A gorgeously drawn graphic novel with an interesting narrative, plot, and concepts. Definitely recommended for fans of this genre.

Two spies from two France and Spain are sent to Venice in the 16th century. The two spies are Giuseppe and Sophia, who also go by the alteregos “the Eagle” and “the Black Scorpion.” They hate each other, but they keep turning up at the same places on the same missions, so they have to figure out if they want to keep fighting or work together.

This was a funny graphic novel. It had a spy versus spy storyline, where they kept meeting each other and trying to foil each other’s plots. There was the added humour of their alter ego disguises, who didn’t know each other. They would change into their disguises at the same time, but they didn’t realize that they were still the same person.

I found the beginning of this story a little complicated because there were so many characters from different countries. I didn’t understand the politics of it at the beginning, because many characters seemed similar. The graphics were very detailed, but that meant that sometimes the jokes were subtle. There was one part where Giuseppe lost his fake mustache and it landed on another character, but I didn’t notice it at first because the illustrations were so small.

This was an entertaining graphic novel!

Thank you Europe Comics for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If Kate and Petruchio were spies, and lived in Venis instead of Padua, they would be these two goofs. The book takes us through two adventures undertaken by the Eagle and the Scorpion, hired spies whose day jobs are as a painter and a singer in 1500's Italy. Of course, when they meet in their nornal identities, they loathe each other, when they meet as spies, they have the massive hots for each other.

One interesting read, though a bit jumbled, about two spies who had to spy for 2 different nations. Two spies who possess same skill of spying, who got at each others' throat when disguising as normal people, and flirted to each other while being spies,

This was a lot of fun to read. Mixing renaissance era with a mystery espionage plot, The artwork was fun and exciting. The characters were entertaining and I had a great time reading this.

My thanks to Europe Comics for a digital edition via NetGalley of ‘Venzia’ by Lewis Trondheim with art by Fabrice Parme in exchange for an honest review. It was translated from the French by Jessie Aufiery and published in November 2019.

This is a romp played very tongue-in-cheek set in Venice during the first half of the sixteenth century. Two spies find themselves travelling to Venice on assignments that overlap. After their first encounter on the road, Giuseppe, who works for Charles Quint (Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor) and Sophia, employed by Frances I of France, hate one another with a passion. Yet both have a secret identity that allows them to conduct their investigations incognito.

Once Giuseppe abandons his wig and false moustache, he becomes “the Eagle.” Sophia transforms into “the Black Scorpion” by donning black tights and hood. The Eagle and the Scorpion immediately feel a powerful attraction for one another…

This originally was a two volume comic. The first part, ‘Triple Cross’ introduces the characters and has them seeking to disrupt a trade deal between Venice and the Mamluks. The second part, has them tracking down the mysterious ‘Codex Bellum’ created by Da Vinci.

This was a total delight from start to finish. The banter between Giuseppe and Sophia both in and out of their secret identities was so funny. I was almost weeping with laughter as they bounced over the rooftops and canals of Venice.

The artwork was colourful and playful and complimented the text perfectly. I especially felt that the architecture of Renaissance Venice was beautifully rendered.

It was pure entertainment and wonderfully distracting.

This really nails the screwball, it has to be said. Two people involved in espionage, a catty young slip of a thing and a big lumpen brute of a bloke, evidently hate each other and want nothing more than the death of their opponent. But, when they're in disguise… This seems to also quite swiftly and eloquently encapsulate Venice's more wacky history, as well, so it's all good – isn't it? Well, for one, some of the idiotic side-characters are far too idiotic, and unfunny with it. Also, the artwork is heinously cartoonish at times, unapologetically Saturday morning TV fare. Things can get rather confusing as to who's who and on what side and why. But there is still enough going for this to make it a flippant entertainment, and the canon of truly great love/hate relationships has a new couple to knock on the door for entry. And the messenger pigeons provided a real laugh. Perhaps the second story here isn't as strong as the first (the novelty wears thin), but it's all of a reasonable standard, and worth checking out. Three and a half stars.

I really enjoyed Lewis Tronheim's Bourbon Island 1730, the versatile writer of the Lapinot series, autobiographical strips and long-running Donjon/Dungeon unconventional heroic fantasy series turning his hand to longer-form historical fiction with wonderful results and still retaining his own blend of absurdist humour. His anthromorphised characters don't suit every story that the prolific writer creates, so often he enlists or is teamed up with other artists, collaborating with the greats of the French indie scene like Blutch, Sfar, Blain and Larcenet among others on the various Donjon series spin-offs.

The same principle applies to his work on lighter mainstream comedy series, and for the historical spy comedy Venezia created in 1999, Trondheim's witty, twisty espionage plotting benefits from the elegant, dynamic cartoonish artwork of Fabrice Parme. The series appears to only have run to two standard French 48-page volumes - both are collected together for this eBook edition from Europe Comics - before the duo went on to work on the similarly themed Tiny Tyrant (Le Roi Catastrophe) series, which appears to have offered more scope for their comic collaboration.

Set in 16th Century Europe is in a period of great political turmoil, with wars and alliances going on and Venice is there as an important centre of trade, commerce and political intrigue. And spies. In the first part of the Venezia storyline, Triple Cross, the Doge of Venice, Grimani is planning on doing business with the Mamluk Sultanate, welcoming their aide de camp Tufu to discuss a trade route to the Indies, so Charles Quint, the Holy Roman Emperor of Austria and Francis I of France have sent two spies to Venice to find out what is going down.

Crossing paths before they even have hired a gondolier to take them into the centre of Venice, Sophia Cantabella and Giuseppe Pintorello very quickly develop a deep animosity to each other. Cantabella is there incognito as a singer putting on a recital for the Doge, while Pintorello is there ostensibly as an artist painting a portrait of the Doge. They quickly take to calling each other the Pest and the Prig, but the delight they take with putting each other down suggests that there's an underlying attraction there that they won't acknowledge. That attraction becomes even more evident when they adopt their secret spy identities, Sophia transforming into the Black Scorpion, Giuseppe becoming the dashing Eagle.

Since we're in Italy on the 16th century in the second adventure Codex Bellum, it's only right that out two competing spies get involved in a Da Vinci Code intrigue of their own. Being retained in Venice, the Black Scorpion and the Eagle catch wind of a transaction that the Doge's assistant Carpaccio is carrying out to obtain a secret artefact, but the rival spies have to still come up with some tricks and ingenuity to find out what exactly this mysterious object is. That ingenuous Leonardo Da Vinci has however left clues to the whereabouts of his Codex Bellum tattooed onto the heads of three prisoners housed in the dungeon during Da Vinci's time there in 1500.

What they even do with the Codex Bellum when they find it is of little concern, since they don't even know what it contains, the two quarrelling rivals really more interested in showing who is cleverest, bravest and the natural leader. The love/hate relationship between Black Scorpion and the Eagle is mirrored in their everyday Hate/Love relationship between them in their disguised everyday identities as Pintorello and Cantabella.

The limitations of the Venezia setting begins to show by the end of the first volume Triple Cross, merely repeating the formula in Volume Two. There's certainly no lessening in the quality of the plotting or artwork in Codex Bellum however, which if anything is even slicker than Volume One. Trondheim's script is playful and witty in the traded insults between the two spies, managing also to keep the plot entertaining with twisty developments. Fabrice Parme's cartoony style - a blend of 90s period Disney (Hercules, Mulan), US Golden Age Tex Avery animation and latter-day Goscinny Asterix - is simply gorgeous, capturing a real sense of the character of Venice.

An Amusing "Spy v. Spy" Set in Venice

The Black Scorpion, a charming, skilled, and beautiful woman, and The Eagle, a self-assured, dashing, and slightly pompous charmer, are agent-spies competing in Renaissance Venice. Surrounded by colorful and goofy characters, they scheme, cheat, and trade bon-mots as they race each other on identical missions.

The whole thing is colorful, energetic, and sly. It's a love/hate romantic comedy that offers few surprises, but delightful banter, silly scenes, and clever set pieces. There is a nice satirical edge, but that never overwhelms the fun energy of the madcap romance.

The art is sharp and colorful, with an exaggerated cartoony look that serves the story well.

The plot didn't break any new ground, and some of the hi-jinks got repetitive, but that doesn't seem to be the point of a battle of the sexes rom-com. This was a bright, fresh charmer.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

This was an interesting concept. The beginning of an enemies-to-lovers story, but there were some flaws. I'm giving it a 3.5 and rounding down to 3 for GR's full-star rating system. While it had a few flaws, it also had potential and there were some funny moments. I'm not one for slap-stick comedy, but it reminded me of the old Carry On style and M.A.S.H. humour; it just took it a little too far, for me to give it the bonus points that could have bought it.

From the concept and blurb, I assumed this would be a YA-appropriate book, but it really isn't. There is definite adult humour, and while there is no swearing (the worst is Prig) it's due to the timeline of the story rather than an inability to use it. This is 1700s era, so you're unlikely to get anything much worse than what's in a Shakespeare play, so this makes sense. But the humour is definitely adult - hints of artistic pornography, Carry-On style jokes that are now borderline (or not so much) sexual harassment, and a lot of suggestive comments.

The story is a bit slow and repetitive, at times. The jokes are often repeated. And there are so many panels and so much included on a single page that it was hard to read on my tablet without constantly zooming in. Which got annoying and frustrating, after a while. The "you're in my way" by day, as they hate each other, and "let me save you" by night, as their alter-ego's got a little old after a while, because it was just so constant. The jokes of the name being some form of Italian food were also shticky and repetitive. And Tufu was a stereotypical barbarian pig.

Overall, if the comic had come out about 5-10 years ago, it would have been a big hit. Very reminiscent of old-school humour. However, this stuff isn't P.C. anymore and really doesn't pass by most audiences. The constant sexual harassment jokes, in particular, were my pet bug. Being a woman, the threat of being kidnapped or held captive is not - has never been, and will never be - funny. Not even in the hay-day of 80's comedy. For that reason, I had to round it down rather than up. But the story had potential. If it had just focused on the Spy-Game, the Will-They/Won't-They and the intrigue, it would have been better. The illustrations were great and the colouring perfect for the style and time of the story. But the humour, for me, let it down. And it took a long time to get to the point. Unfortunately, I won't be reading the next issue.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the graphics, it was well illustrated, but the story was a typical espionage trope set in the renaissance era...I wasn't surprised or really entertained by it.

I cannot say that I enjoyed this one. Unfortunately, neither the characters nor the story nor the art style clicked with me.

This was so much fun!
The snarky comments and the dry humor were dosed out in the perfect blend. It made me smile, it made me laugh. It was exactly what I needed to brighten up this rainy day.

In the first few pages I didn’t think I would like this one. But Giuseppe and Sophia quickly changed my mind. Their rapid bickering is o, so childish; but o, so much fun!
The Romance between “the Eagle” and “the Black Scorpion” is so adorable and delightful. I was rooting for them to kiss already!

I must confess I like the Second Part of this comic more than the first part. It was more action packed and less political. All together FUN!

wo stories in this comic book set in Venice in the 16th Century where this city state is keen for allies and political edge. Amid this intrigue it is not surprising that spies are sent to see what is afoot and keep their governments informed of any strategic advantage Venice may accrue.
On to this stage sleuthing rivals enter in their undercover guises Signorina Sophia Cantabella and Signor Giuseppe Pintorello who immediately loathe each other. Their alto egos are the the exact opposites, being brave and resourceful, Sophia transforms into “The Black Scorpion” while Giuseppe becomes the dashing “The Eagle”. When their paths cross there is an immediate chemistry and while they are competitors naturally untrusting of each other they seem to be falling in love.
The stories are well plotted with action, tension and believable twists. The drawings capture the spirit and sense of place of this special location and the writing is clear and tries to be witty to push the story and develop the characters.
For me it is quite repetitive, and the vying for top spy works well for a time. The sense of ‘will they won’t they kiss’ a running theme that may maintain interest for some. Yet it doesn’t leave me gasping for more, and while I enjoyed the reading process, perhaps this graphic novel didn’t hit the spot for me.
I’m sure it will please most who like their comic books. It is original and creative with a thrilling mystery at its heart.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I've always wanted to read a book where two regular people hate each other but then in their hidden identities they fall in love because they don't know it's really the person they hate. I saw a story prompt similar to that before and I'm glad Trondheim decided to write a story like that. I found the dialogue between the two main characters to be really witty and entertaining. I got a little bit confused sometimes with all the different political characters so it was harder for me to be truly immersed in the story and I also found the last couple pages confusing so that's why I rated this book a 4/5. I just really loved the interactions between the two main characters and the art style was really well done too!