This is the sort of artful comic that Raymond Chandler might have drawn, with brutal gangsters, vain politicians and a bumbling, power-hungry police officer named Inspector Caponi, who resents a busybody female journalist meddling on his turf.īut the story, for me, takes a back seat to the atmosphere. She's one of the good guys, but of a darker, idiosyncratic shade, and in that way, she's a lot more gumshoe than superhero, more Philip Marlowe than Marvel Girl. Rosecrans Baldwin is also the author of You Lost Me There. Here is Paris in its authentic beauty: rainy, crowded and bristling with characters who wear their neuroses like carnival masks. And the artwork is striking, paneled like a comic but with historical grit. They're terrific whodunits that conjure up all the precise atmospheric detail of, say, a Georges Simenon novel, but with twice the plot. The books are part adventure comic, part hardboiled fiction. I'm not much for graphic novels, but this series by the great French comics artist Jacques Tardi has become an infatuation of mine. Thus begins Volume 1 of The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, recently translated and printed in fine editions by Fantagraphics Books. Her name is Adèle Blanc-Sec, and she won't take non for an answer. The prime minister is outraged.Īnd the only person who can save the French capital is a young writer with the brains of Sherlock Holmes, the body of Angelina Jolie and the stoic fortitude of the Marlboro Man. Pharmacists, widows and house painters are being murdered. World War I hasn't begun, but the city is being attacked - by a bloodthirsty pterodactyl controlled by a scientist endowed with supernatural powers. It's Paris during the Belle Epoque, the city's golden age. Most of what you read about contemporary Paris is pretty cliched stuff - baguettes, cigarettes and the cast of Gossip Girl drinking white wine on the Seine.īut if you like your Francophilia with a bit more punch, imagine stepping back into the early 20th century: 1911. Rosecrans Baldwin's latest book is Paris, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec Subtitle Pterror over Paris and The Eiffel Tower Demon Author Jacques Tardi and Kim Thompson
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