Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko - #1

The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko is a comic book series created by Hergé in 1930's decade. The heroes of the series are two young children 'Jo' and 'Zette Legrand' and their pet monkey 'Jocko'.

In 1935, six years after Tintin had first appeared in the pages of Le Petit Vingtième, Hergé was approached by Father Courtois, director of the weekly French newspaper 'Coeurs Vaillants' (Valiant Hearts). Coeurs Vaillants also published Tintin's adventures, but while Father Courtois enjoyed Tintin, he wanted a set of characters that would embody classical family values — a young boy, with a father who works, a mother, a sister and a pet — in contrast to the more independent Tintin who, the whole of his career, has had no mention of relatives at all.

Inspired by a toy monkey called Jocko, Hergé created Jo Legrand, his sister Zette and their pet monkey Jocko as well as their engineer father, Jacques, and housewife mother. Their first adventure, The Secret Ray, appeared in the pages of Coeurs Vaillants on January 19, 1936 and ran until June 1937.

Between 1936 and 1957, three complete Jo, Zette and Jocko adventures would be published, spread across five albums. Hergé however often felt restricted by the family set-up: whereas the older, more independent Tintin could just head off on any adventure, either alone or with Captain Haddock or Professor Calculus, this was not possible for Jo, Zette and Jocko whose parents had to figure large in any adventure — usually to act as their rescuers. 

The stories, kind of lacked the social and political messages of the Tintin stories. In the end, these constraints led him to eventually abandon Jo, Zette and Jocko in the late-1950s.

Plot:                             

Billionaire John Archibald Pump is killed in a car accident, in his luxury super-modern sports car. In his last will and testament, Pump bequeaths the sum of $10 million dollars to the builders of the first aeroplane to succeed from flying non-stop from New York to Paris, or vice versa, within one year. Engineer Monsieur Le Grand is commisoned to build the aeroplane to do it, for SAFCA.

There are those in whose interest it is to stop the flight, including Pump's nephews, William and Fred Stockrise who stand to gain the fortune, should nobody make the flight within one year. The villains begin their work-first Mr Legrand is injured after his car is sabotaged, then Jo is hurt after being shot,and then little Zette is kidnapped.

But the family Legrand are made of sterner stuff and are soon re-united. From there, their wits a re pitted against the relentless vilains, and much action and adventure takes place to see if the flight will succeed.

Mr. Pump's Legacy (1935)

(Note: The credit goes to the unknown, original uploader who uploaded this beautiful story on Net long time back).