New York Mon Amour

by Jacques Tardi, Jacques Tardi, Benjamin Legrand

Many years ago, Jacques Tardi was introduced to American audiences with “Manhattan,” a grim and grimy story of depression, madness and suicide in New York City whose appearance in the premiere issue of RAW magazine was instrumental in defining both that magazine’s virtuoso aesthetic and its dark sensibility. Three decades later, New York Mon Amour collects “Manhattan”and three other tales of the Big Apple — rendered by Tardi with just as much panache and you-are-there detail as Paris or the trenches of World War I in his other books — in one spectacular volume.

Aside from “Manhattan,” the center piece of the book is the graphic novel “Cockroach Killer,” written by Benjamin Legrand. This violent, surreal conspiracy thriller, starring a hapless exterminator named Walter, features a striking two-color black-and-red technique unique in Tardi’s oeuvre, and remains one of the cartoonist’s most startling, confounding works. New York Mon Amour is rounded off with two short stories written by Dominique Grange: “It’s So Hard” (starring John Lennon — but not that John Lennon — and never before published in English) and “The Killing of Hung” (a story of revenge and redemption).


New York Mon Amour is a crucial and unique addition to Fantagraphics’ acclaimed Tardi collection.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Crime, Bande Dessinée, Fiction, Comic Book, Short Stories

82 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Jacques Tardi is a French comics artist, born 30 August 1946 in Valence, Drôme. He is often credited solely as Tardi.

After graduating from the École nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris, he started writing comics in 1969, at the age of 23, in the comics magazine Pilote, initially illustrating short stories written by Jean Giraud and Serge de Beketch, before creating the political fiction story Rumeur sur le Rouergue from a scenario by Pierre Christin in 1972.

A highly versatile artist, Tardi successfully adapted novels by controversial writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline or crime novelist Léo Malet. In Malet's case, Tardi adapted his detective hero Nestor Burma into a series of critically acclaimed graphic novels, though he also wrote and drew original stories of his own.

Tardi also created one of French comics' most famous heroines, Adèle Blanc-Sec. This series recreates the Paris of early 20th century where the moody heroine encounters supernatural events, state plots, occult societies and experiments in cryogenics.

Another graphic novel was Ici Même which was written by Jean-Claude Forest, best known as the creator of Barbarella. A satire, it describes the adventures of Arthur Même who lives on the walls of his family's former property.

Tardi has produced many antiwar graphic novels and comics, mainly focusing on the collective European trauma of the First World War, and the pitfalls of patriotism spawned several albums (Adieu Brindavoine, C'était la guerre des tranchées, Le trou d'obus, Putain de Guerre...). His grandfather's involvement in the day-to-day horrors of trench warfare, seems to have had a deep influence to his artistic expression. He also completed a four-volume series on the Paris Commune, Le cri du peuple.

Fantagraphics Books translate and publish in English a wide range of Tardi's books, done by editor and translator Kim Thompson.[3] The books released so far are West Coast Blues (Le Petit bleu de la côte ouest), You Are There (Ici Même), and It Was the War of the Trenches (C'était la guerre des tranchées); a single album collecting the first two Adele Blanc-Sec volumes has also been published.

->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_...

Reviews

[George K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Η συγκεκριμένη ανθολογία ιστοριών αποτελεί τη δεύτερη επαφή με το σχέδιο του Tardi, μετά το πολύ ωραίο και ιδιαίτερο "Ομίχλη στη γέφυρα του Τολμπιάκ", που διάβασα το 2012. Εδώ, το επίπεδο μου φάνηκε λιγάκι ανώτερο, τόσο σχεδιαστικά, όσο και σεναριακά. Η πρώτη και μεγαλύτερη σε μέγεθος ιστορία, με τον τίτλο "Cockroach Killer", είναι ένα πραγματικό μαύρο αριστούργημα, εφάμιλλο αρκετών θρίλερ εκεί έξω. Περίεργη, σκοτεινή, ιδιαίτερη, μελαγχολική, κλειστοφοβική, είναι μερικές λέξεις που μου έρχονται εύκολα στο νου, για να περιγράψω και να χαρακτηρίσω την ιστορία. Σεναριογράφος και σχεδιαστής μου δημιούργησαν μια παράξενη αίσθηση και κατάφεραν ως ένα βαθμό να με αγχώσουν. Το σχέδιο φοβερό, αποτυπώνει με ρεαλισμό τη μαυρίλα, την ηθική κατάπτωση, τη μιζέρια των χαρακτήρων που πρωταγωνιστούν στην όλη ιστορία. Επίσης, εξαιρετική μου φάνηκε η έμπνευση με το κόκκινο χρώμα. Από κει και πέρα, ακολουθούν τρεις σύντομες ιστορίες, με τους τίτλους "It's So Hard...", "Manhattan" και "Hung's Murderer", που ασχολούνται με θέματα όπως η μοναξιά, η μελαγχολία, η κατάθλιψη, η εκδίκηση, η βία, γενικά το σκοτάδι που μπορεί να κρύβει μια ανθρώπινη ύπαρξη. Πολύ ενδιαφέρουσες και με μπόλικο ψωμί οι πλοκές τους, ενώ το σχέδιο παραμένει φοβερό και τρομερό, αλλά σίγουρα ιδιαίτερο και μάλλον όχι για όλα τα γούστα. Γενικά, δηλώνω λάτρης των δραματικών ιστοριών νουάρ αισθητικής με στοιχεία εγκλήματος (που συνήθως ασχολούνται με δύσκολα και "ενοχλητικά" θέματα), και το συγκεκριμένο κόμικ με ικανοποίησε σε πολύ μεγάλο βαθμό. Ουσιαστικά για λεπτομέρειες δεν του βάζω πέντε αστεράκια στο Goodreads. Η σκληρόδετη έκδοση της Fantagraphics μου φάνηκε άψογη, οπότε χαλάλι και τα σχεδόν εικοσιένα ευρώ που ξόδεψα για να την αποκτήσω.

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume is comprised of one lengthy work, Cockroach Killer, and three shorter pieces. The longer piece is rich and complex, the flavour of a noir-ish thriller set in New York, and the three shorter pieces pale in comparison.

Themes are alienation, displacement, ennui — all the regular smorgasbord filtered through a cinematic lens with movie references as necessary, particularly those famously set in New York, such as Midnight Cowboy and Taxi Driver.

It is interesting how well European collaborations able to portray the U.S., although perhaps it is a reflection of the export of American cinema, regurgitated like Miller High Life. This French team of artists and writers is well-known and well-respected.

[Marika Oksa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hienosti piirretty, mutta liian synkkiä ja ahdistavia New York -tarinoita minun makuuni.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tardi first got the attention of American audiences re: noir with a short story, "Manhattan," which was published in Raw, and which is included in this collection of New York tales. And that's a good one which he wrote and drew, though it is not THAT great. Two other shorts are included, that are less good, in my opinion, and all those three shorts are black and white.

The centerpiece of the collection is "The Cockroach Killer," written by Benjamin Legrand and drawn (beautifully) by Tardi. Make no mistake, Tardi is a terrific artist, and here he reveals his love of gritty NYC noir and it's pretty good. The story becomes sort of surreal and creepy on the topic of cockroaches. And pretty engaging on the subject of a loser exterminator who gets in over his head with a gang. But I have to say, Tardi's art is better than any of the writing in this volume. I enjoy his work on the whole, though, quite a bit. I liked LIke a Sniper Lining up His Shot maybe best of his stuff so far, though he is great in his work on WWI, too.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection of stories by the French master of suspense, monsieur Tardi. Here we have 4 stories with scripts by LeGrand/Tardi/Grange and design by Tardi. Noir stories mostly, where Tardi uses one or two colors to highlight the main character or points of interest in the progress of the album. Personally, "The cockroach killer" is, if not the best, on top.3 of everything Tardi made up to this day.

Of course i have yet to read milestones like "it was the war of the trenches", "run like crazy run like hell" and "The Arctic Marauder" giving myself the benefit of a doubt about that top.3 changing in the future.

Edit: I've read this in 2026, almost 10 years later. It'still one of the best tardi-drawn comics, the "Cockroach killer" is a small sized noir masterpiece.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Hamish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic. I first got into Tardi through his story "Manhattan" that was in Read Yourself RAW. I have a fascination with the decaying New York of the 70s and 80s, and in that piece Tardi was able to perfectly capture the feel of that time and bring it to life for the reader. Granted a story needs much more than a strong setting, no matter how evocatively done, but that little tale succeeded on a few other levels too. So naturally I was very, very excited when Fantagraphics put out this volume of all of his NYC-centered work.

The centerpiece here is Cockroach Killer, a lengthy piece about an exterminator caught in an assassination plot. I was preparing myself for a predictable, by-the-numbers thriller, but instead Tardi and writer Benjamin Legrand brought in some...unexpected elements. I don't want to spoil anything, but there's a pretty brilliant connection of themes at one point and an out-of-left-field mindfuck towards the end. It's an incredibly well done and beautifully drawn piece, and one that should probably have a more prominent place in the cannon than it does.

"Manhattan" is present here too, and it's as effective as ever. The other two stories, written by Tardi's wife, aren't quite as strong, but they're still impeccably drawn.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collecting four graphic short stories from one of the most influential French artists. I have to assume that the title is ironic considering the New York City as depicted in these tales is anything but romantic. Taking place in the late 70s - early 80s, New York, with all of that era’s decaying infrastructure, grime, moral lapses, and crime. The City that Never Sleeps here is a cesspool and the art reflects that. Drawn in black and white, with various shades of grey, the art itself seems slimy, as if handling it could give you a tapeworm. This reflects the tenor of the stories perfectly.

The first tale, Cockroach Killer, is the longest, taking up fifty of the eighty one pages. It is a paranoid tale, centering on an exterminator who may or may not have overheard details of a worldwide conspiracy, and who may or may not have ended up an unwilling assassin in that conspiracy’s unfolding. It is a near hallucinatory tale and, like all good stories in this vein, it is open to interpretation.

The next three are considerably shorter. It’s So Hard (no it’s not pornographic) deals with the trials of a hunchbacked man in the early 80s who otherwise looks like John Lennon. He spends his days in seclusion waiting for the day that the singer falls out of the public eye, so that he can live his life not being mistake for him.

Manhattan deals with a depressed man who travels to the borough from France for unknown reasons. I think it was just an excuse for the author to draw the city as it features quite a lot of the old New York landscapes in the background. It is a simple tale, told well.

The last, Hung’s Murder, deals with a mother who comes to New York from a small village in Vietnam to track down and kill the marine who killed her son and raped her. It is an emotionally brutal tale and does end as you would expect.

Tardi’s work is inspirational, even if grimy. It simply is more proof that the French are always ahead of us in artistic forms. Not enough of this stuff gets translated into English. This is the reason I’m relearning the language, because of all of the great material I’m missing out on.

[Yofish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just an unpleasant book. I suppose it should get points for creating an interesting world (and using the graphic part of graphic novel well), but the story and characters were too icky for me.

There is one basic story, and then three short stories at the end. The basic story follows an exterminator who’s kind of losing his mind. Maybe he witnesses something on a job (because he noticed there was a 13th floor, and went there to see, just out of curiosity). Then he gets chased, goes to a buddy for protection, has sex with buddy’s sister, is part of a prisoner’s exchange that goes badly. Or maybe he just imagines those things.

Interesting feature of the art is that most of it is black and white, except the main guy’s uniform, van, and various other things related to cockroaches and killing them. But mostly it was confusing and unpleasant.

The short stories were more interesting, but very short. Kinda liked the one about the woman who immigrated from Vietnam to the US for the express purpose of finding the GI who had raped her and killed her child (as part of a massacre by American soldiers that killed most of her village).

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four short stories, mostly about immigrants living in New York. All of them are bleak. I really enjoyed the longest story "Cockroach Killer", but had trouble discerning reality. I shouldn't worry about it as that was the point. Couldn't help but think about Naked Lunch, while reading this. Only Burrough's own version of a bug-infested nightmare can be explained by the use of heroine. This story doesn't really give the reader a good reason why the narrator is insane. Maybe it's loneliness. I don't know. Anyway, the other stories in the collection are good as well, but much shorter, my favorite is "Hung's Murderer."

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gritty stories of dirty old New York, as viewed through Tardi's jauntily noirish lens. The stories reflect some of the prejudices and shortfalls of their times, but squalor has never looked so engaging.

[Louis Corsair · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually read this Tardi book before that last one I reviewed. It must have slipped that I finished it. But, in my opinion, the short stories at the end of this GN are more interesting than the main story. To be sure, Jacques Tardi gives you an uncensored look at urban situations.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ambivalent. I Want to like it; everything points to this being a good literary work, and yet... I feel nothing for this work.

[Karrie Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

A raw look at New York in the 80's. Tardi's art really brings the stories alive.

[Amanita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cockroach Killer:
2 ⭐

It's So Hard
1 ⭐

Manhattan
2 ⭐

Hùng's Murderer
2 ⭐

[John Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good art, enjoyed the stories

[Jing Zhang · Rating 2 out of 5]

bad reading experience, DNF

[Seven Pesos · Rating 4 out of 5]

War; trauma; mental-illness; grime; poverty. The city is dirty place filled with lonely people. I really liked all the stories, but they're all pretty sad. "Cockroach Killer" is the obvious standout of the bunch.

[William Holm]

Another Tardi volume from Fantagraphics. This one collects four hard boiled stories set in New York during the early eighties. Two of them reference the killing of John Lennon.
The longest piece in the book is called "Cockroach killer", written by Benjamin Legrand. It is in black and white except for the main characters uniform, the blood and some other stuff that are in red. This color setting (black, white, and red) was used quite a lot in Sweden during the sixties and seventies and was called "lingonsylt" (lingonberry jam). This was a cheap and simple way to add color. The effect here is striking, the red really stand out. The story is accompanied by a few pages of photographs with drawings of the main character superposed. I have read this story in Swedish but have not seen the accompanying before. It is possible that these were created for the French version of this collection published in 2008.
The volume ends with three shorter pieces in black and white of which two are written by Tardis' wife Dominique Grange. The final story "Hung's murderer" is a very strong story about a young woman seeking revenge, although it is only eight pages long it manages to convey lots of moods and feelings.
The art is fabulous as always when it comes to Tardi. I am already looking forward to the next volume from this master artist.

[David Gallin-Parisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sleazy times square, New York Cit-ay rendered in Jacques Tardi's hyper-realistic and hyper-mediocre ways. Captures all the everyday grime in scabby, scraggly, lovingly, strikingly black and white. And sometimes red too. I used the think Frank Miller was the best noir comic maker with his very first Sin City. Now I think it's mostly bullshit macho postureing. Instead Tardi's work has way more heart, soul, grit, funk, and human empathy. Compassion shines through all the dirtbags' conflicting emotions and explanation of events. These stories are short, and the perfect length actually. I have no idea how they could possibly be longer, the brevity suggests all the detail was fleeting. Recommended for noir addicts, and people who need to see quite possibly the best renderings of 1980s times square New York.

[Zac · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in the library while I was killing some time yesterday. 4 short stories by 3 different authors (one of them by the illustrator of the collection, Jacques Tardi). Aside from sharing an artist, the stories are all fairly similar in that they have first-person narration, perhaps reminiscent of a hard-boiled noir detective, and all have satisfying endings (though 'Manhattan' was pretty grim). Also, most focus on foreigners in New York, with the possible exception of the hunchbacked Lennon lookalike of 'It's So Hard'. The art captures the scummy, steamy, dirty and damp streets, bars, and dwellings of that city in great detail, while the human figures are a little more caricatured. I probably liked this book more than the Adèle Blanc-Sec volume I read, perhaps because it was a bit less rambling.

[Miss Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't figure out the point of this book.

For me, a successful book either has to teach me something or make me feel. This did neither.

The last story was the only one that came close? I could feel more for Loan then I did any of the other protaganists. Wasn't best pleased by the ending though; I didn't necessarily require Loan to get her vengeance and kill Brixton but if she was going to change her mind I wanted to hear it from her not Jerzy.

I don't know, I'm still trying to figure out if the author had something to say that I missed or the whole thing was just an exercise in aesthetic. They're both valid options, the second just doesn't do much for me. 2 stars

[Josephus FromPlacitas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous work, weird overlay of the unlovable sadsack exterminator cartoonily rendered against a detailed, almost separate NYC. A little silly in the ultra-violent fantasy, but a neat use of the overblown stereotype of bankruptcy-era New York as a place of total paranoia and absolute criminality and racial-cultural-economic swampiness. Sort of Taxi Driver hanging out with Kafka and Burroughs. I wish I could have read it twice so I could have understood it better, but the library recalled it before I could really sink down into the content, especially the split between the supposedly linear plot of the main section and the impressionistic moments of the coda.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be fair, it's tough for anyone to top the intensity and raw, disturbing beauty of Tardi's WWI books, so to compare this with his best stuff almost isn't fair. But even without that, this is still a middle-of-the-road collection. The feature story "Cockroach Killer" is somewhat intriguing, but it was a little too abstract by the end for me to be able to get my hooks into it. I liked the use of red in an otherwise black-and-white tale, though. Striking and unusual. My favorite story, primarily for its theme, was "Hung's Murderer." I'm a sucker for revenge stories with a twist.

[Ctgt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed several of the earlier Tardi books, but this one didn't grab me. I still love his art but the stories didn't move me like It Was the War of the Trenches or The Arctic Marauder.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decently-presented graphic novel. The main story, featuring a haunted, mentally ill exterminator (perhaps inspired by Naked Lunch) could get rather jumbled and difficult to follow as the story went on. The three short stories were much more intriguing (especially the last two) and could become promising full-length graphic novels on their own if the author should so choose.

[Jason Furman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Frenchman's vision of New York in the 1980s captured in noir--with splashes of red. This collection features one longer main story which is a thriller with tinges of nightmarish fantasy. The other three are short stories, including an extremely good one about a Vietnamese woman who seeks revenge on a GI--only to eventually find him as a completely washed out alcoholic.

[Oward Bodie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collection of pulp short stories set in NYC in the early 1980's. Kinda interesting to get a French perspective on the time and place but this isn't a travelogue: it's stylized pulp fiction. It's a bit too short, and the offerings mostly don't go anywhere (really, the only one worth reading was "Hung's Murderer"). Not recommended as the book to start checking out Tardi's work.

[Dan K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could tell from reading a few pages that this wouldn't be a masterpiece, but compelling enough that I bought it to finish anyway.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but not written to make you give a shit about the protagonists, exception of last story. Creepy art, violent, yadda, yadda. Could have been better.