Blake and Mortimer by Edgar P. Jacobs
Published 1946 · 72 pages · 10,000 words · about 1 hour at an average pace · Graphic Novel, Science Fiction
How hard is Blake and Mortimer to read?
Blake and Mortimer scores 33 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 40 out of 100
- Technical vocabulary from science, Egyptology, and Cold War politics. Jacobs explains as he goes. The vocabulary is specialized but accessible.
- Sentence structure: 35 out of 100
- Expository dialogue, clear narration. Comics keep syntax manageable. The complexity is in density of information.
- Abstraction: 35 out of 100
- Concrete adventure with scientific speculation. No philosophical pretensions. Ideas appear as plot elements.
- Information density: 55 out of 100
- Dense panels, detailed backgrounds, explanatory dialogue. Jacobs packs information into every page.
- Narrative indirection: 32 out of 100
- Mysteries unfold through investigation. Blake and Mortimer explain as they go. Little is hidden from the reader.
- Symbolic density: 28 out of 100
- Genre adventure without symbolic apparatus. The pyramids are pyramids; the time machine is a time machine.
- Ironic distance: 30 out of 100
- Jacobs plays his adventures straight. The earnestness is part of the charm.
- Resolution withholding: 22 out of 100
- Each album resolves its mystery. Genre demands answers. Jacobs delivers.
- Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
- Album format with clear three-act structure. Multi-part stories are clearly segmented.
How Blake and Mortimer is regarded
Blake and Mortimer holds a literary regard score of 56 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.