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Adèle Blanc-Sec #7
Tous des monstres!
Avec les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle, Jacques Tardi rend hommage à la grande tradition de la littérature populaire. Rebondissements, coups de théâtre, intrigues alambiquées, savants fous, personnages fourbes et traîtres tous plus affreux les uns que les autres... Tardi joue avec jubilation de tous les ingrédients du roman-feuilleton, s'amuse à brouiller les pistes pour mieux dérouter le lecteur, tenu en haleine d'un épisode à l'autre. Son héroïne est un personnage doté d'une véritable épaisseur : ni potiche ni vamp, Adèle est une femme moderne et indépendante, en prise avec le réel. Et le trait de Tardi recrée à merveille l'ambiance du Paris du début de siècle. Une série créée en 1976.
Pocket Book
First published January 1, 1994
2 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
Jacques Tardi
294 books212 followersJacques 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_...
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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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 10, 2021
"Man saugt uns aus! ...
Man narrt uns! ...
Man verkleidet uns ...
einen Tag als Soldat ...
als Clown ...
den nächsten als Leiche!
Eine abscheuliche Arena voll Blut...
ein Zirkus!!
Und es amüsiert sie ...
sie verfügen über uns ...
sie haben Macht und wir sterben für nichts ...
eine Farce. Alles Monster!"
Adele wurde ermordet und war sechs Jahre tot. Als sie erwacht, stellt sie fest, dass sie den ersten Weltkrieg verschlafen hat. Es ist der 11. November 1918, der Tag des Waffenstillstandsabkommens.
Aber was wäre das für eine Welt, wenn auf den einen Wahnsinn nicht gleich der nächste folgen würde?
Eine Leiche mit zwei Köpfen, ein Riesenkrake, ermordete Clowns, und die gerade wieder erwachte Adele Blanc-Sec mittendrin!
Tardi legt hier ein düsteres Abenteuer vor, zynisch, dadaistisch, anarchistisch. Der Staat Frankreich mit seinen Einrichtungen, Polizei, Militärs: ihnen gilt Tardis Wut, vielleicht auch Herablassung und Enttäuschung; einem System, das über Menschenleben verfügt, sie in den Krieg ziehen und sterben, vielleicht aber auch als Krüppel zurückkehren lässt:
"Nichts als Schrecken! und das nach vier Jahren Krieg ... als ob das nicht reichen würde!"
Böse und spitz heißt es an anderer Stelle:
"Wenn Sie gar nichts verstehen, ist Ihr Platz in der Verwaltung ... im Ministerium ... Bewerben Sie sich, mein Freund! Wagen Sie den Sprung! Erleben Sie das aufregende Abenteuer des Bürolisten ... die Intrigen in der Kantine."
Wer sind die wahren Monster, Riesenkraken oder der Staat? Wer sind die Täter?
Ein ungewöhnliches Abenteuer, eine großartige Graphic Novel!
Und wem die Reihe oder gar der Autor gar nichts sagt, mag hier weiterlesen:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adeles_...
April 5, 2023
***SPOILERS***
Monsters everywhere! The monsters referred to in the title are childhood nightmares. Fia, the man who, after a traumatic event during the war, began to materialize tentacles, has his abilities transferred to Dieuleveult, but with the latter, the tentacles crawl out of his own body openings, and the monsters that people see are from their childhood, delightfully illustrated by a number of French cartoonists.
The story is densely packed and densely populated, like the previous chapter it takes place over the course of one day, November 12th 1918. And like the previous one, it is not always so easy to keep up. But Dieuleveult at least meets his end, he cannot bear the sight of what he thinks is a dead Adèle. His heart bursts. Dieuleveult is the character that has been around the longest, since album 2, and his only driving force has really been that he's hated Adèle the whole time, ever since he first saw her.
Otherwise, this story is closely connected to the previous one, but it is perhaps even more loose and humorous. Groups of people rush here and there in search of each other and they all meet in the end in the Buttes-Chaumont park. There the ultimate monster manifests.
Once again Tardi refers to his own book “Demon of the ice”, Fia's tentacles are inspired by images from there, images that gave him nightmares as a child. Tardi also doesn't shy away from a few kicks to the publishing industry. Adèle has evidently published books about her experiences that correspond to the books in this album series.
Do I need to say it's fun? And well drawn? The first few times I read this I found it a little confusing, but it's really not that complicated.
Monsters everywhere! The monsters referred to in the title are childhood nightmares. Fia, the man who, after a traumatic event during the war, began to materialize tentacles, has his abilities transferred to Dieuleveult, but with the latter, the tentacles crawl out of his own body openings, and the monsters that people see are from their childhood, delightfully illustrated by a number of French cartoonists.
The story is densely packed and densely populated, like the previous chapter it takes place over the course of one day, November 12th 1918. And like the previous one, it is not always so easy to keep up. But Dieuleveult at least meets his end, he cannot bear the sight of what he thinks is a dead Adèle. His heart bursts. Dieuleveult is the character that has been around the longest, since album 2, and his only driving force has really been that he's hated Adèle the whole time, ever since he first saw her.
Otherwise, this story is closely connected to the previous one, but it is perhaps even more loose and humorous. Groups of people rush here and there in search of each other and they all meet in the end in the Buttes-Chaumont park. There the ultimate monster manifests.
Once again Tardi refers to his own book “Demon of the ice”, Fia's tentacles are inspired by images from there, images that gave him nightmares as a child. Tardi also doesn't shy away from a few kicks to the publishing industry. Adèle has evidently published books about her experiences that correspond to the books in this album series.
Do I need to say it's fun? And well drawn? The first few times I read this I found it a little confusing, but it's really not that complicated.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 9, 2025
See volume one for comments on the series.
I asked rhetorically if things could get any weirder at the conclusion of the previous episode … and they can! In spades! However, this episode also somehow ties together all of the themes and threads and motifs and recurring jokes of the Brindavoine crossover episodes - and plenty more from the previous episodes too - into a palpable whole which does not make *sense* as such but has an internal coherence and consistency according to a nebulous logic. Things click into place and are not random any more. It’s really quite impressive to see how much grasp the author has of his wild menagerie. This now makes me want to reread the whole series and see it in a new light. Hence the improved score.
As previously, this episode has a good deal of political anger simmering under the surrealism and the humour. There’s poignancy here and pathos as well as whimsy. The theme of childhood terrors underlying the traumas of the adult world is getting into deep philosophical and psychological debate. Surrealism is being used here as it should, to probe and interrogate society’s norms. It’s clever stuff.
I asked rhetorically if things could get any weirder at the conclusion of the previous episode … and they can! In spades! However, this episode also somehow ties together all of the themes and threads and motifs and recurring jokes of the Brindavoine crossover episodes - and plenty more from the previous episodes too - into a palpable whole which does not make *sense* as such but has an internal coherence and consistency according to a nebulous logic. Things click into place and are not random any more. It’s really quite impressive to see how much grasp the author has of his wild menagerie. This now makes me want to reread the whole series and see it in a new light. Hence the improved score.
As previously, this episode has a good deal of political anger simmering under the surrealism and the humour. There’s poignancy here and pathos as well as whimsy. The theme of childhood terrors underlying the traumas of the adult world is getting into deep philosophical and psychological debate. Surrealism is being used here as it should, to probe and interrogate society’s norms. It’s clever stuff.
May 9, 2021
In which we learn that the tentacled monster in the previous volume arose, in a superhero origin story kind of way, from the trench war trauma of one of Brindavoine’s comrades. It’s more satisfying than the previous few volumes, partly because the events don’t seem so arbitrary, and partly because of the irruption of Freudian concepts into material form.
(Spoiler alert.) Adele’s nemesis, Dieuleveult, has used his position as a WWI army doctor to kidnap and experiment on Fia, whose trauma has left him subject to a kind of involuntary metamorphosis, triggered by war memories. This causes his head to sprout the enormous red tentacles which caused havoc in the previous volume. Moreover, those witnessing the transformation are overwhelmed by their worst childhood nightmares. Meanwhile, Brindavoine is reunited with Chalazion, another former comrade, and they and the clown troupe manage to rescue Fia and Adele from Dieuleveult and his police allies.
(Spoiler alert.) Adele’s nemesis, Dieuleveult, has used his position as a WWI army doctor to kidnap and experiment on Fia, whose trauma has left him subject to a kind of involuntary metamorphosis, triggered by war memories. This causes his head to sprout the enormous red tentacles which caused havoc in the previous volume. Moreover, those witnessing the transformation are overwhelmed by their worst childhood nightmares. Meanwhile, Brindavoine is reunited with Chalazion, another former comrade, and they and the clown troupe manage to rescue Fia and Adele from Dieuleveult and his police allies.
October 8, 2018
He tenido dos problemas con este cómic: la tipografía que me costaba leerla y que los personajes hacían referencias a historias anteriores que me dejaban algo confundida. Luego logré seguir la pista de la historia pero la tipografía no dejo que la disfrute tanto.
A veces pasa cuando sucede.
A veces pasa cuando sucede.
January 7, 2025
(PT) 12 de novembro de 1918. Paris. A guerra acabou no dia anterior, mas num parque da cidade, um monstro ataca um bebé. Ao ler as noticias, Adele Blanc-Sec acredita que é um velho pesadelo que está a reaparecer... e é verdade.
March 14, 2022
No entendí nada, quizá sea bueno leer los 6 tomos anteriores... Igual es muy lindo ver el mambo que tiene Tardi en esto.
October 21, 2022
Very enjoyable! I bought the entire collection when I visited Paris in september.
November 10, 2008
Hypercool!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews