From Eroica With Love, manga by Aoike Yasuko. Discussions, fan fic (hosted elsewhere) and fic recs.
Re-readings - Interlude #1
Let's take a break from re-readings this weekend and have a look at some of the artwork from the first eight stories. All the artwork is by Yasuko Aoike, and the snips have been taken from scanlations at mangafree.me - translations by Kx, photoshop work by Margaret Price.
This is how we first see Dorian, on the cover of Volume I. (In my view, this picture doesn't do him justice. He's a much better looking man than this!)
... and here's his first entrance in A Thousand Kisses!
Throughout A Thousand Kisses, Dorian is drawn with big-eyed dreamy expressions on his face, no doubt to emphasise his exceptional good looks.
Aoike's depiction of Dorian settles down over the next few stories, becoming more consistent.
Love in Greece:
Dramatic Spring:
Insha'allah:
Hallelujah Express:
Veni Vedi Vici:
We first meet Klaus is in Iron Klaus, when he reports to the Chief at the beginning of his mission.
I think he looks quite stiff and cardboard-cut-out-ish. However, within a few panels, Aoike-san gives us a close-up of his lovely eyes.
SELF INDULGENCE WARNING for the following snips! The images of Klaus I like best are the ones that show us Klaus in action. Such as....
... from Dramatic Spring:
... from Love in Greece:
... from Hallelujah Express:
... from Veni Vedi Vici:
The man is inseparable from his gun.
Speaking of guns, it's well known in both canon and fanon that Dorian is a klutz when it comes to firearms. That doesn't mean he's scared of them, though. We've seen Dorian using a gun in a number of these first eight stories:
... Iron Klaus:
... Achilles Last Stand :
... Insha'allah:
... Hallelujah Express:
... Veni Vedi Vici :
They're both pretty unshakeable in a tight situation. As we can see in this stand-off in Veni Vedi Vici:
Equally matched, you might say. Which is a good thing, because Klaus begins a personal vendetta against Dorian in Iron Klaus, when they first meet ...
... and by the time we've read Veni Vedi Vici we find he's still as determined as ever:
I wonder whether Dorian regards that as a threat or a promise?




Throughout all the stories, there are examples of the "staring contest" - where we see Dorian and Klaus glaring at each other. Moments of sexual tension? Or simply annoyance, frustration, and rage? Some examples:
Iron Klaus
Achilles Last Stand
Love in Greece
Insha'allah (weapons-enhanced!)
Hallelujah Express (hands-on!)
Veni Vedi Vici
I'm not so keen on the softer-looking, more stylised artwork in the first volume. It evolves into something more familiar pretty quickly, but I think it's not till about Veni Vidi Vici or Alaskan Front that it fully settles into what I consider the real 'Eroica' style, and stays more or less consistent until the hiatus. That's the style I like best, too: the characters are a bit more solid and less stylised than in the early volumes, but not as overly chunky and muscular as they become after the hiatus. (I'm really not a fan of the post-hiatus art at all.)
Like you, I'm not keen on the soft-and-pretty early versions of Dorian and Klaus. These guys are tough cookies: a hard-arsed spy with a military background, and a top level thief with wide-spread criminal connections. When the artwork shows them as more masculine, it works for me.
I think most of us like this "middle period" style best. I, too, think it was the perfect balance between the early art which was way too feminine and the post-hiatus art which is a bit more macho than I care for.