Jacques Tardi's "New York Mon Amour"

Jacques Tardi is pure gold.  I almost want to say he's my favorite filmmaker, but he's not a filmmaker, he's a graphic novelist/artist. He has done everything from turn-of-the-century Paris noir to classic crime noir, to this book "New York Mon Amour," a snapshot of 1980's New York...that is noir.  One feature length story and three short one's - and what he captures is the foreigner's on their last legs looking at NYC as an exit to even maybe even a worst world out there. 

The first (and the most longish) narrative "Cockroach Killer" (written by Benjamin Legrand) is about a refugee from World War Two, who lives and works in NYC as a bug exterminator.  Which means he travels through out the city going for the dirt and the inner-lives of its citizens.  A sort of 'another take' on the William Burroughs exterminator character, but this character is not as tough, he's just surviving on the filth that was (or is) NYC.   On one of his jobs he visits the 13th floor of a Manhattan building, because normally there isn't a 13th floor - nevertheless he comes across a school of mysterious  assassins. For a brief moment his life is thrown into a world of a haunted and chased man.  The narrative being used to examine the inner-life of New York as it is being slowly destroyed.

What's left is two short stories by Dominique Grange, who is married to Tardi, that examines the life of a troubled assassin who couldn't complete his mission and the other on a woman from Vietnam who is tracking down someone from her past in Manhattan.  And again, both stories are snapshots taken from a foreigner's point-of-view of going through hell, and that state of mind is the landscape of New York.  

Tardi's own story "Manhattan" is nothing but that.  Probably the most ultimate alternative view of a tourist coming to NYC to ....  well you should just read it.  Nevertheless, Tardi has a master's touch in capturing the coldness in life and I really feel he's a master in his field.

Excerpt from "New York Mon Amour"

Jacques Tardi

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec Volume 2" by Jacques Tardi

"The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec comes back!   Volume 2: "The Mad Scientist" and "Mummies  on Parade."   Jacques Tardi is my favorite living comic book artist from France,  and of course I have favorites in Japan, but let's not confuse categories and things.  Volume 2 is more mood narratives that fall in the French pulp genre then anything else.  Things can happen any moment and time - and our hero Adele seems to never have a night's sleep - with assassins  breaking into her apartment, and strange phone calls in the middle of the night.

Jacques Tardi

Adele is a Detective of sorts who studies the occult and secret organizations and has a thing for mummies.  She and a group of individuals and creatures make strong impressions on the landscape of turn of the century Paris.  And it is Paris that is really the star of the series.  Always mysterious and dangerous (especially in the middle of the night) and yet hauntingly beautiful.  And with the addition of a tight narration makes this series into a graphic novel masterpiece.   Volume 3 is coming out in 2013, and that is the only tragic part of the series.  The waiting...

Jacques Tardi's "The Extraordinary Adventures of ADELE BLANC-SEC

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec by Jacques Tardi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jacques Tardi, I think, is quite remarkable.  While everyone is singing the praises of other graphic novelists, Tardi is focused on having one foot in the past and the other foot in the contemporary world.   This is a very elegant edition of his two graphic novels which is part of a series called "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec."  Both stories connect to each other in a 1930's style of serialization.  


Very pulpy, with Victorian overtones, but with a wit and a great sense of charm.  And I love Tardi's drawings.  Extremely detailed and a magnificent tribute to one of the main characters in the story - Paris.  Mysterious pathways, the always haunted vibe of Jardin des Plantes (I stayed across the street, its a scary place), and characters that are a mixture of criminals and heroes at the same time.  Love it.


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