La Frontière de la vie (On the Edge of Life) is the seventh book from Yoko Tsuno

Yoko Tsuno

Yoko Tsuno is a comic book series created by the Belgian writer Roger Leloup published by Dupuis and in Spirou since its debut in 1970. Through twenty-five volumes, the series tell the adventures of Yoko Tsuno, a female electrical engineer of Japanese origin surrounded by her close friends, Vic...

 comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 series written by Roger Leloup

Roger Leloup

Roger Leloup is a Belgian comic strip artist, novelist, and a former collaborator of Hergé. He is most famous for the Yoko Tsuno comic series.- Biography :...

 and published in 1977. (ISBN 2-8001-0672-7)

Story

Ingrid, the German organ player who is Yoko's friend, has succumbed to an unknown disease similar to anemia

Anemia

Anemia is a decrease in number of red blood cells or less than the normal quantity of hemoglobin in the blood. However, it can include decreased oxygen-binding ability of each hemoglobin molecule due to deformity or lack in numerical development as in some other types of hemoglobin...

. As Yoko visits Ingrid in Rothenburg

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a town in the district of Ansbach of Mittelfranken , the Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany, well known for its well-preserved medieval old town, a destination for tourists from around the world. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City...

, Ingrid's cousin Rudy, a biologist

Biologist

A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...

, soon reveals that a strange, vampire

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

-like apparition has been visiting Ingrid regularly at night.

Yoko keeps watch, but the same night the 'vampire' appears again after stunning the young women with knockout gas. Yoko regains consciousness in time to chase her off. Yoko chases the 'vampire' through half of Rothenburg, but the antagonist gets away - with a promise not to bother Ingrid again. Nevertheless, Yoko decides to go after her all the same. Later, she and Rudy discover that the 'apparition' is a renegade medic

Medic

Medic is a general term for a person involved in medicine, especially emergency or first-response medicine, such as an emergency medical technician, paramedic, or a military member trained in battlefield medicine. Also the term is used toward a Nurse in pre-hospital care and/or emergency...

 using Ingrid as a test subject for a kind of artificial blood.

Vic and Pol arrive, and they soon discover a huge underground medical lab under the direction of Dr. Schulz, the doctor who has been treating Ingrid for her illness. The lab is dedicated to keeping a girl - his daughter Magda - in suspended animation

Suspended animation

Suspended animation is the slowing of life processes by external means without termination. Breathing, heartbeat, and other involuntary functions may still occur, but they can only be detected by artificial means. Extreme cold can be used to precipitate the slowing of an individual's functions; use...

 by induced hypothermia

Hypothermia

Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...

 as she sustained fatal injuries at the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. The 'vampire', in truth Dr. Schulz's niece Eva Werner, tested the artificial blood on Ingrid for Magda's sake, as they share the same blood type. After discovering Magda's absence in the Schultz family crypt on the local cemetery and forcing Eva to come out of hiding, Eva explains the reasons for her nocturnal visits and takes Yoko to the underground lab, where she comes face to face with the still suspended Madga.

When the procedure to resuscitate Magda is inexplicably started ahead of schedule, Yoko, Vic, Pol and Rudy quickly offer their help to the scientists. But as it turns out, one of the lab workers wants to use the revolutionary processes for his own gain, and it takes a nearly fatal sacrifice from Yoko to bring the story to a good end.