Zagor LU #99: Lanci

In Lanci, Zagor continues helping Toby, a man who has escaped from a plantation and hopes to rejoin his wife and daughter. His chance of freedom lies aboard Lazarus Baxter’s riverboat, which is supposed to carry fugitives towards the free North. Between that promise and actual liberation stand pursuers determined to return the escapees to their enslavers.

Set in the slaveholding American South, the adventure pits the right to freedom against a system that treats people as property. Zagor confronts more than individual acts of cruelty: he must assist people endangered by the social order itself. Toby’s determination to reunite his family gives the story a personal and emotional focus.

Moreno Burattini combines pursuit and rescue with themes of racism, dignity and solidarity. The journey remains uncertain, and Zagor’s willingness to defend the persecuted provides the adventure’s moral centre.

Michele Pepe illustrates the conclusion of the two-part story begun in Ludens #98, Bijeg u slobodu. It was his final Zagor adventure and was published posthumously. Reading both issues provides the complete development of Toby’s flight and Zagor’s involvement.