Jacques Tardi

A highly versatile artist, Tardi has managed to successfully adapt controversial novels by French writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline (infamous for his anti-semitic views) or Anarchist crime novelist Léo Malet as well as create French comic-strips' most famous heroine in the shape of Adèle Blanc-Sec. This series recreates with great style the Paris of the early 20th century where the moody heroine manages to get mixed in with supernatural events, state plots, cults and cryogenics.

His obsession with the First World War and the pitfalls of patriotism have spawned many albums (Adieu Brindavoine, C'était la Guerre des Tranchées,Le Trou d'Obus...) and was brought on by his inability to believe that his grandfather could have been involved in the day-to-day horrors of trench warfare.

His style can at times seem to be similar to Hergé's ligne claire style (clear line), paired with meticulous research and an asexual hero (Adèle Blanc-Sec is quite a misandrist at times) but Tardi's work endlessly satirises the concept of the flawless hero by using a series of inept, naive or anti-heroic as main characters and his readership seems to mainly be a literary, French-speaking adult public.

Selective Bibliography

• Adieu Brindavoine (1974)
• Le Démon des Glaces (1974)
• Le Trou d'Obus (1984)
• Tueur de Cafards (1984)
• Jeu pour Mourir (1992)
• C'était la Guerre des Tranchées (1993)
• Varlot Soldat (2002)

Adèle Blanc-Sec series

• Adèle et la Bête (1976)
• Le Démon de la Tour Eiffel (1976)
• Le Savant Fou (1977)
• Momies en Folie (1978)
• Le Secret de la Salamandre (1981)
• Le Noyé à Deux Têtes (1985)
• Tous des Monstres! (1994)
• Le Mystère des Profondeurs (1998)

Louis-Ferdinand Céline adaptations

• Voyage au Bout de la Nuit (1988)
• Casse-Pipe (1989)
• Mort à crédit (1991)

Léo Malet adaptations

• Brouillard au Pont de Tolbiac (1982)
• 120 rue de la Gare (1988)
• Casse-Pipe à la Nation (1996)
• M'as Tu Vu En Cadavre (2000)

External Links

• Official site (in French) (http://www.casterman.com/adele/index.htm)