“Bebe,” one of our two protags, is sort of a ‘celebrity flight-attendant,’ who is in fact a fashion model in high demand. She’s temporarily moved to NYC to get away from various distractions and unwanted suitors, such as “Massimo,” an Italian nobleman endlessly in pursuit of her.

(right-click as needed)

In the above page, he’s managed to track her down to her apt in Greenwich Village. Finally, they can get hitched! (whether or not Bebe has the slightest interest, which she mostly doesn’t) But he’s a powerful man, who can make her life hell if he chooses.

In that first page above, she blurts out that she’d already gotten married a few days prior. Enraged, he doesn’t believe her, and now she’s on the spot, needing to produce a proxy. Fortunately, her neighbor and fellow protag “Norman,” a strapping young journalist, fits the bill rather well. In the second page we see him going about his day, in his office-apt.

The story is a classic, surely right out of the golden-age Hollywood playbook. I found it fun to read, and not too taxing on my modest ‘A1/A2’-level French. Most of all, I really dig Italian Lapone’s art, which I find to be a sort of jet-set, googie, retro-futuristic variant of late-stage LC art.

More on the book: (oh, is it a series?)
https://www.bedetheque.com/serie-48979-BD-Greenwich-village.html

And more on Lapone:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/l/lapone_antonio.htm

Btw, I’ve only read ~3 of his works so far, but found his “Adam Clarks” spy/heist-thriller to be a modern BD masterpiece. I hope to share more on that one… er, one of these days! 😅