The Black Order Brigade

{{short description|1979 Graphic novel by Enki Bilal}} {{Infobox graphic novel |image=Black-Order-Brigade-EN.jpg |caption=Les Phalanges de l'Ordre Noir |title=The Black Order Brigade |foreigntitle=Les Phalanges de l'Ordre Noir |series=Fins de Siècle<br/>The Chaos Effect |writers=[[Pierre Christin]] |artists=[[Enki Bilal]] |publisher=[[Dargaud]]<br/>[[Les Humanoïdes Associés]] |origlanguage= French |origdate=1979 (Dargaud) |origisbn= 2-205-01569-9 |transpublisher=[[Catalan Communications]]<br/>[[Humanoids Publishing]] |translator=[[Frank Wynne]] |}}

'''''The Black Order Brigade''''' (1979; also published as '''''The Ranks of the Black Order'''''; {{langx|fr|Les Phalanges de l'Ordre Noir}}) is a French [[political thriller]] [[graphic novel]] written by [[Pierre Christin]] and illustrated by [[Enki Bilal]].

==Plot outline== A [[fascist]] organization with roots in the [[Spanish Civil War]], The Black Order Brigade, commits an act of terror in a small [[Aragon|Aragonese]] village. All villagers are executed. The English journalist Pritchard, who once fought against the [[Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War)|rebel faction]] during the civil war, decides to take revenge. He succeeds in assembling nine of his former comrades from the [[XV International Brigade|15th International Brigade]]. One of them is now working for the [[Mossad]] in [[Tel-Aviv]], another one is a rich screenwriter in [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]], another is a former member of the [[French Resistance]]. There is an Italian judge, a famous Polish writer, a Philosophy teacher in Germany and a priest in Spain, among others. They all meet again after so many years; they are old, sick and weak, but full of passions and memories of the past.

The chase starts in Spain, where the local contact is killed in a bomb attack (attributed to the infamous Brigade). The group then travels around Europe trying to locate the fascist paramilitary old-timer gang. A small group of elderly people hunts another group of people at the same age, and it unravels a showdown with the past and the present.

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20050322004838/http://www.humanoids-publishing.com/news/news.php?id=124&idx=0 Preview from Humanoids Publishing] *[http://www.artbomb.net/detail.jsp?gid=12&tid=52 Review on artbom.net]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Order Brigade, The}} [[Category:1979 graphic novels]] [[Category:1979 in comics]] [[Category:Comics by Enki Bilal]] [[Category:Graphic novels set in the 1930s]] [[Category:Comics about politics]] [[Category:French graphic novels]] [[Category:Spanish Civil War in popular culture]] [[Category:Les Humanoïdes Associés titles]] [[Category:Graphic novels set in Europe]]