By Hervé St.Louis
December 9, 2004 - 08:56
The Hardy Boys are the sons of world–class detective Fenton Hardy. Trained crime fighters, the Hardys are more than your typical All-American teens. Clever, successful, and surrounded by girls, the Hardys are fair and helpful to all their friends. Lobdell adapted this series from a series of novels and is a perfect read for young and older readers alike.
The story starts with the boys on a stolen racing horse case showing their worth and ingenuity. Later, we follow them in their daily lives and get to understand them better by meeting their family and friends. The scenes are brief and well plotted. The one problem with the boys, besides the fact that they are genuinely too good to be true, is that they are virtually exchangeable.
Hernandez is known for her Manga-like illustrations that mix Japanese shapes with American inking and storytelling. Just like the boys’ personalities, their looks are virtually the same, save for their hair colour. One has black hair, the other, blond hair. Hernandez uses Japanese tricks to age older characters, while keeping their slender looks.