Bob Morane is a series of adventure books created by Belgian author Henri Vernes. It features the eponymous protagonist Robert "Bob" Morane and his Scottish friend William "Bill" Ballantine
Initially an adventurer and freelance agent, Bob Morane over the course of his adventures finds himself in more complex and fantastical plots.
Since its debut in 1953, the series has produced over 200 novels, 80 graphic novels, a live action series on the ORTF channel and an animated series.
Tropes:
- Breakout Villain: Mr Ming, introduced in 33th story ‘’The Crown of Golconda’’, quickly became the most popular villain and took over Roman Orgonetz’ role as Bob Morane’s Archenemy. Many adaptations and reboots give him Adaptational Early Appearance.
- Crossover: The short story "Quand le chauve sourit" ("When the bald one smiles") is one with Batman. Bob Morane and Bill Ballantine are magically transported to Gotham City. It turns out that Mister Ming teams up with the Joker in order to defeat Bob, Bill, Batman and Robin.
- Comic-Book Time: Played Straight. Ever since 1953, Bob perpetually remains 33 years old and no one ever ages over the course of the long-running series.
- A Day in the Limelight: The Conviction of The Yellow Shadow exclusively follows Bill as he seeks revenge for Bob's presumed death.
- Don't Call Me "Sir": A recurring playful banter between the two heroes. Bill always calls and refers to Bob as "commander". Everytime Bob asks Bill to stop calling him that because the war is long over, Bill replies "Yes, commander."
- Genre Roulette: The series started as straight adventure fare before quickly including elements of espionage, crime fiction, science-fiction and fantasy.
- Grandfather Clause: The Yellow Shadow is based on very dated Orientalism and Yellow Peril tropes but since he's the Archenemy and a popular villain, he still appears in recent reboots and adaptations.
- Girl of the Week: Many stories feature one-off love interests for Bob Morane.
- Heterosexual Life-Partner: Bob Morane and Bill Ballantine whose friendschip started when they were soldiers during WWII.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every book involving Ming - except for his first appearance (The Crown of Golconda)- has "Yellow Shadow" in the title, often like "X of the Yellow Shadow"
- Innate Night Vision: Bob is noted for his ability to see in the dark.
- Intrepid Journalist:
- Bob himself is occasionally a freelance reporter for ‘’Reflets’’ magazine.
- Sophia Paramount is a British journalist who’s also an expert in martial arts.
- National Stereotypes: Being Scottish, the red haired Bill is naturally hot-tempered, alcoholic and superstitious.
- No Hugging, No Kissing: In spite of the numerous girls of the week, the series rarely gives more than a few Ship Tease between them and Bob because the publisher aims for a young audience. It's sometimes implied that Bob goes further with the lady after the end of the adventure.
- Novelization: Some of the novels are
adapted from the original comics. - Our Hero Is Dead: At the end of Revenge of the Yellow Shadow, Bob is fatally shot by Mr Ming and falls off a bridge. Conviction of The Yellow Shadow reveals that Bob survived thank to a talisman in his jacket then decided to fake his death and secretly help Bill to find Ming.
- Repetitive Name:
- Ylang-Ylang who's actually named after an Indonesian tree also known as cananga tree.
- The Villain of Island of the Past is named Evariste Evaristos
- Revenge of the Sequel: We have both Revenge of the Yellow Shadow and Return of The Yellow Shadow.
- Spoiler Cover: One of the covers
◊ of Revenge of the Yellow blatantly spoils the penultimate chapter where Bob is shot by Ming. - Time Police: The Time Patrol, lead by Colonel Louis Graigh, is a brigade from the distant future that protects the timeline from . They occasionally employ Bob and his friends in their missions.
- Trapped in Another World: The Ananke Arc, spanning over 5 novels and a short story, features Bob and his friends stranded in the fantastic and hostile world of Ananke.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Bob Morane strongly believes that life is sacred and refrains from killing his enemies. On a few occasions, he reluctantly has to kill out of self-defense.
- Yellow Peril: Mr Ming is a cruel and inhumane Mongol who calls himself "The Yellow Shadow". It's worth to note that he took that moniker because of his creed that "The yellow of light will come from the shadow" and not because of his skin color.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Bill exclusively calls and refers to Bob as "commander". When Bob is seemingly killed by Ming, he swears "I will avenge you, Bob!".
