I found La vengeance du Comte Skarbek to be a nifty story by Belgian Yves Sente, with painterly art by Polishman Grzegorz Rosinski. They're both major players in BD of course, with Sente working on titles like Blake & Mortimer, XIII, and Thorgal, and Rosinski working on Buddy Longway, Ballad of the Lost Moors, Chninkel, and... Thorgal.
A Parisian street scene.
The story itself is a clever riff on The Count of Monte Cristo, set in 1843. Here, a young Polish artist named "Skarbek" is forced to flee to Paris, where he takes on the name "Paulus," and meets a beautiful young model who becomes his muse. His paintings become known to a prominent art dealer who contracts him, and all seems well until he realises he's been entrapped by the duo. Things take a turn when the model falls in love with him, followed by Paulus becoming outraged when he discovers that the art dealer's been sexually and mentally abusing her. They fight, a bystander gets accidentally killed, and unfortunately Paulus looks for all the world like the guilty party.
As is often the case, I'm a sucker for tall ship shots.
And so he flees by ship! Which, wouldn't you know it, gets attacked by "Alexander," the pirate master. Alexander's lieutenant "Violette" notices that he's an artist, and persuades the pirate-master to spare him. From there, he's installed as a prisoner and resident painter at Alexander's island retreat.
And there was a trial.
Paulus eventually returns to Paris, looking for his revenge, and persuades two prominent, aggrieved patrons of the art dealer to sue him. What follows is a sprawling, highly entertaining courtroom trial, which features much of the island and pirate backstory, helping to explain why these panels cut back and forth.
Those red sails against the harbor colors really send me(!)
Note: Rosinski is one of those who seems to tailor his style to each particular work. In this two-tome series, I guess he's using gouache (opaque watercolor) to simulate oil painting (which he does in some other series), in this case using a loose, but effective style as I found it.
More island shots.
I've given you the broad strokes of the storyline, but what really makes this story work is a triple plot-twist that works beautifully with the trial setting and dramatic story ending. Besides the clear Dumas reference, this story has also been cited as being distinctly Hugo-esque. Other than the seeming absurdity of a prominent pirate operating in the Mediterranean in the mid-1800's, I found this quite satisfying historical fiction.
More:
https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-8289-BD-Vengeance-du-Comte-Skarbek.html
As I recall, the French navy was seriously weakened by their revolution of the late 1700s because many of the officers were nobles, and then the British kicked them while they were down at Trafalgar in 1805, so they had to rebuild after that. I know a lot less about the north African pirates, but I think they were based in lands protected by the Ottoman Empire, which was declining but still somewhat powerful. There were various expeditions against the pirates though, and a lot of times they could be "paid off." Anyway, once the Europeans defeated Napoleon and adopted a "balance of power" approach at the Congress of Vienna, they started colonizing Africa, and France grabbed most of modern Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, which I think is where most of the pirates were based. (Shamefully, the French also commited many atrocities while doing so.) The pirates in Libya I think were mostly reined in when the Ottoman Empire took direct control (instead of allowing them autonomy) around that time.
Fascinating stuff, Rolando. Thanks for adding on.
Most of the pirate stuff I've read tends to be Caribbean-based, but I'd like to read more about those N. African coast Barbary pirates, as well as Ching Shih, the famous Chinese pirate queen.
I did start a list at the evil empire, and hope to read more of those over time, as well as expand the list.