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Streets of Paris, Streets of Murder #4

Run Like Crazy Run like Hell

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Un excéntrico millonario contrata como niñera de su sobrino a una mujer recién salida del psiquiátrico. Esta decisión tan poco ortodoxa tendrá consecuencias inesperadas cuando niño y niñera sean víctimas de un secuestro.

104 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2011

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About the author

Jacques Tardi

296 books209 followers
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_...

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5 stars
42 (18%)
4 stars
97 (42%)
3 stars
66 (28%)
2 stars
15 (6%)
1 star
9 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
Profile Image for Jan Philipzig.
Author 1 book311 followers
February 24, 2016
I loved the unconventional, abysmal characters, as well as the patient and seamless way they were introduced. Loved the contrast between mundane situations and sudden explosions of violence. Loved the gorgeous, fluid yet very stylish artwork… to the point that I often had to glance over the visuals of a double spread before reading any of the words: not because the words were not interesting, but because the page compositions were simply irresistible. Loved the assured and lively storytelling and how it plays with reader expectations, twisting them in meaningful ways. Most of all, though, I loved Tardi's subtle, wise, humane sense of humor - the very glue that holds the story together. Seriously, folks, there aren’t many cartoonists around who have mastered the medium to the degree Tardi has – a must-read for any fan of the art form!
Profile Image for George Ilsley.
Author 12 books316 followers
January 20, 2023
The French artist Jacques Tardi is justifiable well-regarded. This book is based on a novel by French neo-noir writer Jean-Patrick Manchette, who was apparently very popular in France and in translation.

This is a gritty, twisty, unusual graphic novel and one that has an actual ending! Can't say too much for fear of spoilers, but expect the unexpected.
Profile Image for Gideon.
50 reviews
February 26, 2023
Wel oke, maar de verhaallijn vond ik wat rommelig en niet zo overtuigend. Andere boeken van deze auteur vond ik veel indrukwekkender, zoals zijn boeken over de eerste wereldoorlog.
Profile Image for Dave Schaafsma.
Author 6 books32.1k followers
July 1, 2015
Based on Jean-Patrick Manchette's The Mad and the Bad, a classic violent crime noir published in 1972. In Tardi's rendition, it is taut, non-stop action, with great black and white action-filled drawing with a style somewhat reminiscent to me of Joe Sacco's journalism. A lot of noir is meant to mimic classic black and white journalism, of course, so that would make sense. And Tardi himself tacks back and forth between his WWI historical stories and noir.

The main character, a Scotch-drinking tough girl just let out of a psych hospital is hired to nanny a tough little boy by a wealthy businessman. She is kidnapped but escapes from a team of (tough, natch) hit men led by Thompson, a Brit contract killer with a bad stomach (and a physical need to kill humans, animals, anything, which annoyed me because it was never fully explained and edged the story into the supernatural for no apparent reason). It's not particular original, otherwise, but if you like this kind of thing, hey, it's fun visually satisfying. This is very bloody, very violent, but the typically serpentine noir plot is entertaining. I like Tardi a lot.
Profile Image for Alex.
787 reviews37 followers
April 22, 2018
Another great adaptation by Tardi, his third on Manchette's works and fourth collaboration with him altogether (he'd done "Griffu" with Manchette being the writer). It's bleak, it's fast-paced, it's chilling, it's a noir graphic novel that won't let you put it down. Inspite of it being gruesome and full of gore and hack'n'slash scenes, there are panels (mostly with Thompson and Peter/Julie) that are hilarious and incredibly funny.

Tardi never dissapoints. Next stop, "like a sniper lining up his shot".
Profile Image for paper0r0ss0.
651 reviews58 followers
February 8, 2022
La trama non e' particolarmente originale ma la bella sceneggiatura e i disegni solo apparentemente morbidi rendono giustizia a un buon fumetto.
Profile Image for StrictlySequential.
3,949 reviews20 followers
December 12, 2021
Story: ****
The description gives too much away which angered me because I would've liked the surprise of who was behind it all. I would've almost certainly guessed correctly and felt good about myself.

The action is paramount and interesting despite being heavily genre entrenched in it's content. The way people died was excellent, interesting, original and made this very exciting reading.

The prose that this French bd was adapted from must have rounded the characters perfectly but it's transition to ninety-two pages still captured them all definitively. The career hitman, Thompson, is the star and shines brilliantly while all of the others lack very little.

Art: ***
My eyes see Tardi as very overrated. His line seem palsy addled and his detail suffers tremendously. Still, it serves well enough and adds a certain griminess that compliments the plot and characters. He was definitely the man for the job.
Profile Image for Milisnail.
20 reviews1 follower
February 26, 2016
Voici un exemple d'adaptation qui surpasse l'original! Tardi a parfaitement réussi à traduire les lieux, les décors et les motivations des personnages apparaissent plus clairement dans cette adaptation graphique. Une belle réussite.
Profile Image for MechaComicReviews.
146 reviews1 follower
May 23, 2020
In the adaptation of a Jean-Patrick Manchette novel, Jacques Tardi has the issue of not knowing when to leave out certain aspects of the original material. In this instance, the first page features a gay man being murdered and is absolutely unnecessary. The original book was written in the 70s, so it’s not as much of a surprise that there’s a scene murdering a gay man, but Tardi had the option of removing it.

Once you move past some of the original material and dig into Tardi’s art, pacing, and overall construction of the narrative, you’re thrown into a thrilling crime story involving murder, betrayal, and pushing the characters to the absolute limit. I did not know what was coming next in the story, and it was absolutely enthralling. Turning the page led to yet another surprise in this noir-esque tale. Tardi’s artistic chops are also at full spectacular display with his black and white narrative using that iconic bandes dessinées style. I also appreciate that Tardi draws real looking people in all of their imperfections and slight ugliness.

Tardi is one of my favorite creators, and Run Like Crazy Run Like Hell is yet another great entry into his oeuvre once you ignore some of the dated material.
521 reviews3 followers
September 2, 2020
I came to this after seeing the movie “April and the Extaordinary World” and being told that it is based on Tardi’s work. This book is nothing like that. (Well, maybe the art is similar, and Tardi is, after all, the artist here, not the writer.)

We mostly follow a woman hired as sort of a nanny-type for a rich kid. He’s an orphan, taken in by his uncle (who is rich only because his brother died). The uncle is sort of weird in that he only hires… folks with either physical or mental handicaps. Our heroine is just out of an asylum. We also follow an older gentleman, who is a fairly violent hitman. Well, he kidnaps the girl and the kid.

It’s all rather violent---that’s not a bad thing, just a true thing. The story feels very well-told. The art is interesting. No color, all black-and-white.
Profile Image for Thurston Hunger.
833 reviews14 followers
May 1, 2022
Library had three Tardi collections that read well together.

This and "Run Like Crazy, Run Like Hell" paired exceptionally well together, both being drawn from Jean-Patrick Manchette novels. An every person is thrust into a life-or-death situation, the graphic (all definitions of graphic apply) nature helps with an implausibility bypass. Drop in a couple of cool cubes of noir and stir until a solution develops. Refrigerate in an austere remote location as the plot thickens, then finally serve cold with a thin slice of justice.

Drink briskly, observe the sketchiness of both the heroes and villains, drawn in what seems to be quick detail. Was Tardi a police sketch artist on the side?

This one features a bad-ass babysitter. A sterling example for the overworked underpaid working class.
198 reviews1 follower
August 22, 2025
This was a really fun adaptation of a Manchette story (novel?)! Just filthy, vulgar, unapologetic, with people, not necessarily GOOD people, but not always bad people either, put into awful situations they don't always know how to get out of.

It's pretty brutal and uncompromising, and I love how much of Manchette's style slips in, his specificity, his turn of phrase, his details. Just a really fun kidnapping/blackmail/murder story.
Profile Image for Sasha Boersma.
821 reviews33 followers
January 17, 2017
This was fun!
Being a comic adaptation of a novel (which I haven't read) the story is a little choppy. I wish that Julie was drawn out (pardon the pun) more as character because she's fascinating. End motive of the characters not terrible clear/detailed.

Artwork is very European in style. Interesting raw feeling to the drawings.
219 reviews1 follower
July 27, 2018
This turned out to be a graphic novel of Jean-Patrick Manchette's Three to Kill. I have read graphic novels in the past by Jacques Tardi dealing with World War I and found much to like, though graphic novels are a genre I mostly stay away from. This is a much to be admired adaptation of a book I really enjoyed. Tardi does a superb job of losing little of the essence of the novel.
Profile Image for Alberto.
Author 7 books168 followers
March 6, 2019
Tardi, adaptando a Manchete, teje una historia de engaños y disparos de una calidad supina. Sin embargo el aspecto más destacado es su representación de la violencia. La presenta torpe, brutal, sangrienta e irracional. Lejos del cómic americano Tardi explora las causas y las consecuencias de la violencia para dejar un aspecto claro, su futilidad.
Profile Image for Sandy McFadyean.
51 reviews
January 3, 2025
French noir in comics form. It was pretty good, but a bit pulpy. Characters weren’t at all developed and it was a bit of a violent chase caper. Beautifully presented, but not a patch on the ww1 books in the series. Don’t know if this was worth the money or if I’ll buy the other 2 volumes of the Manchester / Tardi trilogy.
Profile Image for Ben Humeniuk.
Author 22 books5 followers
June 29, 2019
Tardi pulls off another compelling adaptation of a blackly comedic crime tale. The pace is propulsive and the characters are engaging, with Tardi's staging and command of environments coming second to none. This is hard one to put down, and it'll pull out a few darkly humorous grins along the way.
Profile Image for Vittorio Rainone.
2,082 reviews33 followers
September 27, 2017
Un bel thriller, rapido come una coltellata al cuore, con momenti violentissimi e personaggi inquieti o inquietanti. Davvero piacevole, come lo sono i disegni del maestro francese.
Profile Image for E.
504 reviews14 followers
May 7, 2018
Real good Cohen Bros.-esque noir. Feels evocative of a movie or the novel it's based on. Tardi is the boss
Profile Image for Louis Corsair.
Author 14 books14 followers
January 12, 2019
A wild and chaotic crime story! Julie must protect young Peter as hitmen suddenly target them. Her actions are as violent and as unpredictable as the ending.
Profile Image for Joyce.
813 reviews21 followers
November 29, 2024
has a man's head exploding ever been drawn so beautifully?
Profile Image for Ian Carpenter.
729 reviews12 followers
March 5, 2017
As great as the art is the translation here feels awkward and stilted.
Profile Image for Ollie.
456 reviews30 followers
April 16, 2015
Jean-Patrick Manchette may be a celebrated and sought-after noir crime-novel writer, but you wouldn't know it from Run Like Crazy Run Like Hell. Based on Manchette’s 1972 novel The Mad and the Bad, Run Like Crazy Run Like Hell is the comic book adaptation (I reject the bourgeois term “graphic novel”) illustrated by the award-winning Jacques Tardi. The plot involves a woman named Julie who is hired by a man named Hartog to be his nephew Peter’s new nanny. However, when Peter and Julie are kidnapped by contract killers, it’s up to her to outsmart the kidnappers and find a way to safety for the both of them.

It’s hard to properly express my disappointment with this book. Where to start? Well, why not at the beginning. From the first page, it becomes apparent that either the dialogue is awkward and off or something went awry in the translation of this book as it’s littered with poorly conjugated and heavy-handed sentences like “The man THOMPSON had come to kill, a pederast who had seduced some businessman’s son, walked into his bedroom."

Yes, you read that right.

This is just one of the many things that don’t work in Run Like Crazy Run Like Hell, as the story is also boring and predictable, and the characters one-dimensional and unlikable.

Run Like Crazy Run Like Hell has its highlights, and these exclusively involve the art, as Tardi provides a clean and polished look to the story that at the same time seems raw and fitting to a noir story. Unfortunately, these highlights in no way make the book worthwhile. Run Like Crazy Run Like hell just starts off so poorly that it makes the reader hope things will pick up at some point, and when that doesn't happen, it’s just plain frustrating. Months later, I still have that bad taste in my mouth.
Profile Image for Dan.
254 reviews15 followers
Read
May 30, 2015
Read the translation "Run Like Crazy, Run Like Hell." I need to meet someone whose French is good so they can let me know if the title translates accordingly.
Tardi illustrates, and I love his work, so I'm deeply biased. I ended up studying it for my own benefit, hoping to see how pages and panels are composed to such effect. I tend to like how the Europeans do their comics better than Anglo-American contemporaries.
What's funny to me is when I searched for the Fantagraphics edition, I found out that it's known as "Mad and the Bad" in a translation published by NYRB Books. I had bought the book at a local store on a whim--then bought a companion translation at the behest of the daughter of a different bookstore. As is my nature: I still have yet to read both.
Profile Image for William Holm.
129 reviews2 followers
Read
April 26, 2015
Tardi delivers fantastic art as usual. His use of black fits perfectly for this hard-boiled story. Unfortunately this book suffers from a common problem with adaptions; too much text. Especially the first 10-20 pages feels more like text with illustrations. Once the story gets on its way the characters are caught in a crazy action packed sequence they just cannot get out of. It is not entirely clear why the main villain wants to kill his nephew but once the plan is set in motion an evil demise is certain for almost all involved.
Fantagraphics has given us another lovely volume of Tardi's work. I do hope they will continue to do so despite the loss of their editor Kim Thompson in 2013.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews

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