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Nestor Burma #1
Dödens adress
Vad betyder den mystiska adressen som den namnlöse lägerfången flämtar fram innan han dör? Tardi har här gjort en enastående atmosfärrik roman från andra världskrigets Frankrike. Serien pendlar mellan det s.k. Vichy-Frankrike, som leddes av Frankrikes Quislingar under marskalk Pétain, och den av de tyska nazisterna ockuperade delen av Frankrike.
En mörk, mångbottnad politisk deckare efter en Nestor Burma-roman av Léo Malet, en av Frankrikes stora deckarförfattare, vars något surrealistiska och anarkistiska inställning passar väl ihop med Tardis teckningsstil och världsåskådning.
Tardi var banbrytare för serien som konstnärligt uttryck på 70-talet. Han är en av de moderna seriernas stora stilbildare. Hans kompromisslösa världssyn speglas i hans personliga teckningar.
En mörk, mångbottnad politisk deckare efter en Nestor Burma-roman av Léo Malet, en av Frankrikes stora deckarförfattare, vars något surrealistiska och anarkistiska inställning passar väl ihop med Tardis teckningsstil och världsåskådning.
Tardi var banbrytare för serien som konstnärligt uttryck på 70-talet. Han är en av de moderna seriernas stora stilbildare. Hans kompromisslösa världssyn speglas i hans personliga teckningar.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
6 people are currently reading
377 people want to read
About the author
Jacques Tardi
296 books210 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 - 30 of 50 reviews
October 6, 2017
Malet wrote a series of mysteries set in each of the 20 Parisian arrondissements featuring a French answer to Philip Marlowe, "dirty flat-foot" Nestor Burma. This one is set in Nazi-occupied Paris in the early forties, and is illustrated as several of the Malet adaptations are, by the celebrated Jacques Tardi. Tardi does adventure stories, he does war stories, and he does mysteries, and they are all amazing in their own ways. Tardi, as Art Spiegelman makes clear in his introduction, is a classic cartoonist with a reputation for making place and time come alive.
In this one, Burma, a hard-boiled detective in the noir tradition follows up a mystery man who died in the stalag (based on some of Malet's actual experience), and the shooting of an old friend he meets by chance in a train station. There are twists and turns and false leads and lovely French women (right, they are generally just lovely and mysterious in this story), and a big reveal party in the best Christie tradition. Most of these Malet adaptations are shorter, and this one suffers from being a little long at 190 pages, but I would check out one of these Tardi classics, for sure.
In this one, Burma, a hard-boiled detective in the noir tradition follows up a mystery man who died in the stalag (based on some of Malet's actual experience), and the shooting of an old friend he meets by chance in a train station. There are twists and turns and false leads and lovely French women (right, they are generally just lovely and mysterious in this story), and a big reveal party in the best Christie tradition. Most of these Malet adaptations are shorter, and this one suffers from being a little long at 190 pages, but I would check out one of these Tardi classics, for sure.
December 16, 2022
I read this in English, and a hardcover, an excellent comics adaptation of a fifties Leo Malet noir detective novel featuring Nestor Burma, part of a series. Set in the Occupation in Paris in 1941-45, one of the worst periods in twentieth century French history. Malet and Tardi keep the mystery action firmly central but the Nazi actions also always present. For instance, Burma was in a concentration camp (though this was not depicted with as much horror as determination--the idea is that the Nazis may occupy the land but never take the soul of Paris) .
Tardi always lets us know that the Nazis are in town through posters on the walls, the suggestion of dwindling supplies, the threat in certain areas, but as Malet has it, there is room to maneuver within the constraints. The action takes place, as other Malet stories, in one of the Parisian arrondissements, this time the 120th, which comes up on the dying lips of a man in the POW camp, and then again in the last words of a friend whom Burma sees shot, and then is periodically mentioned by various seemingly unrelated characters throughout.
This repetition of this puzzling clue is sort of echoed in the repeated image of a (beautiful) film actress who looks very much like a woman seen with a gun at the site of the train shooting. We meet her periodically as Burma comes to slowly unravel the various interlocking mysteries in a Poirot-worthy roll-out of the resolution to the crime. . . though Burma is no dandy; he's unshaven, hasn't slept, chain smokes and drinks constantly throughout. It's a noir detective series; alluring women, fine wine, fast action. A dizzying array of characters, an almost maniacally conceived plot, but I think it is just terrific, a classic, with a balance of humor and suspense and a political backdrop.
Tardi always lets us know that the Nazis are in town through posters on the walls, the suggestion of dwindling supplies, the threat in certain areas, but as Malet has it, there is room to maneuver within the constraints. The action takes place, as other Malet stories, in one of the Parisian arrondissements, this time the 120th, which comes up on the dying lips of a man in the POW camp, and then again in the last words of a friend whom Burma sees shot, and then is periodically mentioned by various seemingly unrelated characters throughout.
This repetition of this puzzling clue is sort of echoed in the repeated image of a (beautiful) film actress who looks very much like a woman seen with a gun at the site of the train shooting. We meet her periodically as Burma comes to slowly unravel the various interlocking mysteries in a Poirot-worthy roll-out of the resolution to the crime. . . though Burma is no dandy; he's unshaven, hasn't slept, chain smokes and drinks constantly throughout. It's a noir detective series; alluring women, fine wine, fast action. A dizzying array of characters, an almost maniacally conceived plot, but I think it is just terrific, a classic, with a balance of humor and suspense and a political backdrop.
September 19, 2017
Graphic novel adaptation by Jacques Tardi of Malet's mystery, set in occupied France and starring that dirty flat-foot Nestor Burma.
May 23, 2025
How do you try to solve a crime when your country has been taken over by criminals? Detective Nestor Burma will have to answer that question quickly as he tries to identify who he can trust in Nazi occupied Paris. He will find that criminals often hide behind the crimes of other criminals...and that a crime is often the first sign of a much deeper social issue.
January 5, 2020
Quatre étoiles et demie en fait, mais j’y viens à la fin.
J’adore Jacques Tardi et surtout ses adaptations de Léo Malet. De tous les mystères que Nestor Burma met K.O., 120 rue de la gare est le plus lugubre et compliqué : le fond de guerre et d’occupation donne à Tardi l’occasion de déployer son formidable talent de documentariste. Les images sont pleines de motifs d’époque : publicité, panneaux installés par la Wehrmacht, affiches de propagande Vichyste et nazie.
Mais histoire de ne pas trop s’emmerder à recopier des trucs, il met des gags dans ce décor : une affiche de sa propre condamnation à la mort, ou un journal qui s’appelle « La Gerbe ». Des détails qui justifient bien de relire la bédé plusieurs fois, et on remarque une certaine auto-ironie qui tombe très bien, et qui me fait basculer entre quatre et cinq étoiles...
Car ça montre que Tardi est bien conscient du point faible : trop de fois, l’explication prend le dessus sur l’action, dans les récits passionnants mais assez tordus de Léo Malet. Et le dessinateur doit alors meubler des pages et des pages pleines de texte avec des illustrations qui souvent sont réduites à la mine crispée de notre Nestor qui se torture la cervelle.
Donc Tardi, entre des paysages urbains fidèlement reproduits à partir de photos d’époque, se met à faire le guignol. Il insère des portraits de gens réels : Marc Covet à l’air d’un autoportrait, mais beaucoup de personnages et de comparses sont bien trop réels pour être inventés. D’autres détails comme une lectrice de Mickey qui apparaît une seule fois semblent signifier quelque chose... on aimerait presque une édition commentée qui mette lecteur au parfum de l’origine de ces petites innovations qu’on devine délicieuses.
A lire et à relire absolument.
J’adore Jacques Tardi et surtout ses adaptations de Léo Malet. De tous les mystères que Nestor Burma met K.O., 120 rue de la gare est le plus lugubre et compliqué : le fond de guerre et d’occupation donne à Tardi l’occasion de déployer son formidable talent de documentariste. Les images sont pleines de motifs d’époque : publicité, panneaux installés par la Wehrmacht, affiches de propagande Vichyste et nazie.
Mais histoire de ne pas trop s’emmerder à recopier des trucs, il met des gags dans ce décor : une affiche de sa propre condamnation à la mort, ou un journal qui s’appelle « La Gerbe ». Des détails qui justifient bien de relire la bédé plusieurs fois, et on remarque une certaine auto-ironie qui tombe très bien, et qui me fait basculer entre quatre et cinq étoiles...
Car ça montre que Tardi est bien conscient du point faible : trop de fois, l’explication prend le dessus sur l’action, dans les récits passionnants mais assez tordus de Léo Malet. Et le dessinateur doit alors meubler des pages et des pages pleines de texte avec des illustrations qui souvent sont réduites à la mine crispée de notre Nestor qui se torture la cervelle.
Donc Tardi, entre des paysages urbains fidèlement reproduits à partir de photos d’époque, se met à faire le guignol. Il insère des portraits de gens réels : Marc Covet à l’air d’un autoportrait, mais beaucoup de personnages et de comparses sont bien trop réels pour être inventés. D’autres détails comme une lectrice de Mickey qui apparaît une seule fois semblent signifier quelque chose... on aimerait presque une édition commentée qui mette lecteur au parfum de l’origine de ces petites innovations qu’on devine délicieuses.
A lire et à relire absolument.
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May 2, 2011Magritte avrebbe potuto dire "questo fumetto non è un fumetto". E avrebbe avuto ragione perché questo fumetto è la dimostrazione di cosa si può fare con le "vignette" quando sono supportate da un soggetto d'eccezione. Certo, alla base del libro c'è l'omonimo romanzo di Léo Malet (pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1943), uno dei più importanti della storia del noir il cui protagonista, il detective privato Nestor Burma, è sicuramente "il" personaggio della vita di Malet (un po' come Maigret per Simenon), quello che gli diede la notorietà presso il pubblico dei lettori dell'epoca...
http://ghettodeilettori.blogspot.com/...
http://ghettodeilettori.blogspot.com/...
July 23, 2017
Ortak geçmişleri olan Stalaglar'ın kazanlarında yitirmiş oldukları yakınlarına ve yoldaşlarına adamış oldukları bir polisiyede buluşmuş Malet ve Tardi bir kez daha. Biri yazmış, öteki çizmiş. Tolbiac Köprüsünde Hava Puslu'dan sonra Türkçeye çevrilmiş olan ikinci ortak çalışmaları çok yakın bir tarihte çıktı piyasaya Aylak Çizgi Yayınlarınca. Uzun soluklu bir diziye de ismini veren, gizemlere son veren, dinamit dedektif, bir anti-kahraman, amansız hafiye Nestor Burma'nın 1940 sonbaharında Stalag XB'de karşılaştığı, hafızasını yitirmiş, pörtlek gözlü mahkumun dizanteriden ölmeden hemen önce nefes aldığı son saniyelerde kulağına fısıldamış olduğu isim ve adres doğrultusunda olayı çözmek üzere Fiat Lux hafiyelik şirketinin başına geçtikten sonra önüne çıkan ve yolunu kesmeye çalışan cesetlere aldırmadan, adım adım sis perdesini nasıl araladığına şahit oluyoruz yaptığı sorgulamalar sayesinde. Alman savaş esirleri kampında başlayan macera, Lyon'dan sonra Paris'te nihayetleniyor. Dedektifimizse bu esnada bolca sigara dumanına ve içkiye maruz kalıyor isteyerek. Son sayfalara geldiğimizde ve tüm şüpheliler, aynasızlarla beraber Burma tarafından bir odada, bir araya toplandığında Agatha Christie romanlarını andıran bir çözümleme çıkıyor meraklı okuyucunun karşısına. Düz bir anlatım fakat uzuun konuşma balonlarıyla okuyucuya aktarılan sade bir grafik roman var karşımızda. Biraz da türün meraklısına.
February 27, 2017
The Nestor Burma series is an excellent detective story in the 50s complete with lots of cigarette smoke and buxom ladies and confusing mysteries. They are based on Leo Malet's books which take place in each of the 20 Parisian arrondissements. This one happens in the 12th around gare de Lyon and actually talks about Burma's arrival in Paris after WWII. The artwork by Tardi is amazing and the story is both funny and dark.
September 18, 2018
This might be my favorite of Tardi's crime novel adaptations. The plot is perhaps a bit pat, but Tardi's impeccable art and storytelling elevate the material. It also feels substantial in a way that his other, shorter adaptations do not. And, as always, his art wonderfully evokes a sense of time and place.
April 14, 2019
Well-written graphic novel mystery set in Nazi occupied France during World War II. The story has a noir feel, with a complex plot and great atmospheric black and white art work. This worked especially well as a graphic novel, because the illustrations helped me keep all of the characters straight in my mind. Especially recommended for fans of 1940s noir mysteries.
May 22, 2012
Very different, reading a mystery in pictures. There were a lot of characters to keep track of. Liked the setting and time, the grittiness.
July 20, 2024
Zderzenia z klasyką bywają skomplikowane. Z jednej strony to gęsty od treści kryminał, narysowany świetną grubą kreską z karykaturalnym zacięciem, jaka jest znakiem firmowy Tardiego, kapitalnie wpisującym się w tę detektywistyczną konwencję; z drugiej uderza ilość tekstu i skomplikowana fabuła, która przy często bardzo podobnych wizerunkach licznych postaci staje się łamigłówką. Wiem, że to ma być intelektualna rozrywka, ale jest cienka granica między mądrą zabawą, a męczeniem buły. Szczególnie w komiksie, gdy nagle tekst zaczyna dominować nad grafiką. Zdaję sobie sprawę, że to adaptacja, ale na tym właśnie polega ta zabawa, by nie przepisywać zbyt wiele. Autor stara się nadać bohaterom charakteru, więc podejmuje próby okraszenia całości humorem, lecz ginie on niestety w gąszczu znaków, a całość sprawia wrażenie dosyć statycznego przedstawienia złożonego z gadających głów.
Nie mam sumienia, by źle oceniać. Myślę, że szczegółnie warstwa wizualna i francuskie realia czasów wojennych (wraz ze szczegółowym odtworzeniem konkretnych ulic czy budynków) mogą część czytelników oczarować, ale przed lekturą lepiej brać poprawkę na dosyć niedzisiejszą formę, wtedy nie powinno być rozczarowania.
Nie mam sumienia, by źle oceniać. Myślę, że szczegółnie warstwa wizualna i francuskie realia czasów wojennych (wraz ze szczegółowym odtworzeniem konkretnych ulic czy budynków) mogą część czytelników oczarować, ale przed lekturą lepiej brać poprawkę na dosyć niedzisiejszą formę, wtedy nie powinno być rozczarowania.
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April 6, 2025schwer
December 30, 2015
Licht aus in Paris
Ich mochte diese alten Krimiromane nie besonders. Und die Art von Krimis, auf denen Jacques Tardi seine Comicreihe basiert, ganz besonders nicht: Ultrakomplizierte Geschichte, der man vor lauter Verwicklungen kaum folgen kann, und die voller plötzlicher Enthüllungen und seltsamer Wendungen schon etwas abstrus wirkt. Erneut zeichnet Tardi kein Comic für zwischendurch, sondern eine hochkomplexe Geschichte über viele Jahre und mehrere Städte.
Doch Tardi wäre nicht Tardi gäbe es nicht etwas, was den für mich obskuren Plot ausgleicht: Er erschafft nicht nur eine bebilderte Story, sondern eine Atmosphäre, die Geschichte, Architektur und Psychologie förmlich mit jedem Panel atmet. Nie waren das verdunkelte Lyon und ausgangsgesperrte Paris, das Stalag und das besetzte Frankreich des Vichy-Regimes, der Bahnhof und die Kneipe lebendiger und gleichzeitig drückend trist wie hier.
Ein Comic zum Eintauchen und Versinken.
Ich mochte diese alten Krimiromane nie besonders. Und die Art von Krimis, auf denen Jacques Tardi seine Comicreihe basiert, ganz besonders nicht: Ultrakomplizierte Geschichte, der man vor lauter Verwicklungen kaum folgen kann, und die voller plötzlicher Enthüllungen und seltsamer Wendungen schon etwas abstrus wirkt. Erneut zeichnet Tardi kein Comic für zwischendurch, sondern eine hochkomplexe Geschichte über viele Jahre und mehrere Städte.
Doch Tardi wäre nicht Tardi gäbe es nicht etwas, was den für mich obskuren Plot ausgleicht: Er erschafft nicht nur eine bebilderte Story, sondern eine Atmosphäre, die Geschichte, Architektur und Psychologie förmlich mit jedem Panel atmet. Nie waren das verdunkelte Lyon und ausgangsgesperrte Paris, das Stalag und das besetzte Frankreich des Vichy-Regimes, der Bahnhof und die Kneipe lebendiger und gleichzeitig drückend trist wie hier.
Ein Comic zum Eintauchen und Versinken.
March 4, 2019
Una clásica historia de detectives protagonizada por Néstor Burma le sirve a Tardi para reflejar la Francia ocupada de 1941 y 1942, tanto la zona controlada por Petain como la zona anexionada al Reich con especial detalle a París. Una obra magnífica con una gigantesca capacidad de detalle y recreación que logra atraparte desde el primer momento. Una lectura apasionante que nos muestra la realidad de la extraña guerra franco-alemana con sus luces, la Resistencia, y sus sombras, el colaboracionismo y el antisemitismo francés.
April 9, 2025
Les + :
- Une intrigue vraiment bien ficelée
- Une représentation historique de la guerre très intéressante, du point de vue des années 80 !
Les - :
- Ça parle... Beaucoup. Et c'est une lecture assez défiante, qui m'a mis un peu à mal.
- Mais c'est aussi my bad alors bon...
- Une intrigue vraiment bien ficelée
- Une représentation historique de la guerre très intéressante, du point de vue des années 80 !
Les - :
- Ça parle... Beaucoup. Et c'est une lecture assez défiante, qui m'a mis un peu à mal.
- Mais c'est aussi my bad alors bon...
March 28, 2023
Çetrefilli bir dedektiflik hikayesi Tardi'nin ustaca çizgileriyle birleşince ortaya keyifli bir okumalık çıkmış... Savaş yılları ve işgal Fransası fonu da görselliği güçlendiriyor... İlgiyle okudum.
August 5, 2025
Ne yazık ki Türkçe çevirisi çok özensiz ve hatalar içeriyor.
September 17, 2013
Having just re-read Read Yourself Raw, I was under Spiegelman's influence and thought I'd pick this up from the library to experience a little more Jacques Tardi. This turned out to be a mistake, and has kind of soured me to Tardi, at least for now.
Why he felt the need to 'adapt' this story is beyond me, as his adaptation of Malet's detective story 120 Rue de Gare (for my money a much cooler title) doesn't really do much to extend it past a text narrative. Sure, there are some nice pictures now, akin to Herge's Tintin (though here in black-and-white): fully realised and handsome backgrounds, with largely cartoony characters. But page after page is bogged down by text, and little attempt seems to have been made to add anything beyond the occasional tear or sweat droplet (though, admittedly, I'm assuming alot as I've never read the original). So, what we get is kind of a Classics Illustrated approach to comic adaptation.
As for Malet's story...I can't say I understand him being a long-standing writer of a popular character, as this tale is unnecessarily complicated and tedious. His lead, Nestor Burma, seems to have been intended in the vein of Hammett or Chandler, but most of the time comes off as a petulant man-child, prone to fits of pique and wild lurches from one emotion to the next. Not what one would hope for in a man, much less a crime protagonist.
I'm sure there are readers who'll love this book (Dean Motter, for instance, offers a jacket blurb suggesting this just may be comics' Citizen Kane), but me, I'm just glad it's over.
This edition adds a brief foreword by Art Spiegelman, and a thoroughly interesting preface by the publisher which lays groundwork and contextualisation for where and when the story happens.
Why he felt the need to 'adapt' this story is beyond me, as his adaptation of Malet's detective story 120 Rue de Gare (for my money a much cooler title) doesn't really do much to extend it past a text narrative. Sure, there are some nice pictures now, akin to Herge's Tintin (though here in black-and-white): fully realised and handsome backgrounds, with largely cartoony characters. But page after page is bogged down by text, and little attempt seems to have been made to add anything beyond the occasional tear or sweat droplet (though, admittedly, I'm assuming alot as I've never read the original). So, what we get is kind of a Classics Illustrated approach to comic adaptation.
As for Malet's story...I can't say I understand him being a long-standing writer of a popular character, as this tale is unnecessarily complicated and tedious. His lead, Nestor Burma, seems to have been intended in the vein of Hammett or Chandler, but most of the time comes off as a petulant man-child, prone to fits of pique and wild lurches from one emotion to the next. Not what one would hope for in a man, much less a crime protagonist.
I'm sure there are readers who'll love this book (Dean Motter, for instance, offers a jacket blurb suggesting this just may be comics' Citizen Kane), but me, I'm just glad it's over.
This edition adds a brief foreword by Art Spiegelman, and a thoroughly interesting preface by the publisher which lays groundwork and contextualisation for where and when the story happens.
December 12, 2010
I am not a big reader of graphic novels, but I had read about Tardi, and one blurb on this book called it the Citizen Kane of graphic novels. I don't get that reference at all. It's a old-fashioned, coincidence-filled detective novel that even ends when the detective invites all the suspects to a party where he will reveal the killer. What carries the narrative is the setting in WWII France, moving from the free to the occupied zones. Tardi's drawings depict Lyon as a city of constant fog and rain. The Nazi presence in Paris is never belabored, but shows up in signposts in German, a theater featuring an anti-Semitic exhibition, bread lines, and liquor free days in the bars.
Nestor Burma, the detective hero of the Leo Malet novels that Tardi adapts, never emerged as much of a character for me. Possibly for an audience familiar with the novels he comes more alive. And although I don't pretend to know what a French private eye in 1941 should look like, Tardi's rendering kept reminding me of a Iowa farm boy wearing a trench coat and smoking a pipe.
Nestor Burma, the detective hero of the Leo Malet novels that Tardi adapts, never emerged as much of a character for me. Possibly for an audience familiar with the novels he comes more alive. And although I don't pretend to know what a French private eye in 1941 should look like, Tardi's rendering kept reminding me of a Iowa farm boy wearing a trench coat and smoking a pipe.
August 12, 2018
Quel plaisir de lire et d'apprécier les dessins de Tardi. Tardi l'auteur qui m'avait fait comprendre quand j'étais plus petit l'atrocité de la premiere guerre mondiale. Son dessin percutant se marrie bien avec les récits policiers tel que celui de monsieur Malet dans cette bande dessinée. Je ne suis pas un branché des romans série noir mais quand Tardi se met a nous illustrer tout cela: comptez sur moi pour m'ouvrir.
April 26, 2017
Ce n'est pas cette édition que j'ai lue, et j'ai bien lu le roman, pas la BD, mais Goodreads ignore l'existence de l'édition numérique issue par Fleuve Noir: ISBN 9782265093614 (6,99 € chez Kobo).
https://www.kobo.com/fr/fr/ebook/120-...
https://www.kobo.com/fr/fr/ebook/120-...
January 31, 2008
Classic noir with superb graphics
April 7, 2010
Bloody wonderful! Historical fiction thriller mystery in graphic novel form...oh, the glory and the beauty!
September 21, 2014
A very noir adaptation. The art works with the tale.
December 8, 2025
120 Rue de la Gare is the high point of Tardi’s Nestor Burma adaptations - the moment everything snaps perfectly into place. It’s an impeccably constructed crime mystery set in France under German occupation, where everyone has something to hide and the weather is never cooperating.
Atmosphere, characters, artwork, humor - Tardi fires on all cylinders here. The streets drip with menace, the suspects ooze attitude, and Burma stumbles through it all with his usual mixture of cynicism and reluctant competence. It’s noir at its finest, drawn by an artist who seems genuinely happiest when depicting rain, shadows, and people smoking indoors.
In short: Jacques Tardi in peak form. If Burma himself had read it, he might even have allowed himself a smile - before lighting another cigarette and complaining about the paperwork.
Atmosphere, characters, artwork, humor - Tardi fires on all cylinders here. The streets drip with menace, the suspects ooze attitude, and Burma stumbles through it all with his usual mixture of cynicism and reluctant competence. It’s noir at its finest, drawn by an artist who seems genuinely happiest when depicting rain, shadows, and people smoking indoors.
In short: Jacques Tardi in peak form. If Burma himself had read it, he might even have allowed himself a smile - before lighting another cigarette and complaining about the paperwork.
March 22, 2023
Jacques Tardin "120, Rue de la Gare" (Jalava, 1989) on sarjakuvasovitus Léo Malet'n samannimisestää dekkarista, jossa tavataan yksityisetsivä Nestor Burma ratkomassa kimuranttia rikosvyyhteä saksalaisten miehittämässä Ranskassa toisen maailmansodan aikana. En tainnut itse pysyä ihan kärryllä monimutkaisen juonen ja lukuisten henkilöhahmojen suhteen, mutta taidetta oli kiva ihastella.
February 18, 2025
Relectura. Nestor Burma desentraña el asesinato de su ayudante Bob Colomer, en una trama que transcurre entre un campo de prisioneros alemán, el Lyon del régimen de Vichy y el París ocupado por los nazis. Casi doscientas páginas de Tardi en estado de gracia compitiendo en tamaño de los bocadillos con Edgar P. Jacobs. Fue el primer tebeo que leí de Tardi y ya vi que le iba a seguir toda la vida. Monumental.
January 25, 2023
True noir.
June 19, 2012
This book is Jacques Tardi's love letter to Dashiell Hammett.
Clearly a positive nod to Hammett's, Thin Man series, The Bloody Streets of Paris is complete with a motley cast of characters all set within, surprise, the streets of Nazi occupied France.
Tardi does a masterful job of differentiating the look and appearance of each character which can't be overlooked as the list of characters is impressive and varied. As with most Tardi works, the backdrop of WW2 France is as important a character as is any other of the protagonists. Beautifully rendered, Tardis plunges the reader into the environment with wonderful skill. One can nearly smell the cigarettes, printers' ink, and cheap coffee.
A slow burn in terms of plot and story reveals, it still manages to keep focused and doesn't meander too much, revealing just enough to maintain the reader's interest and not forcing any unnecessary details for plot pacing's sake. Eventually, all is revealed at the conclusion as each character is invited to all things, a cocktail party, ala Dashiell Hammett's, Thin Man.
Overall, a great noir tale, masterfully told by Jacques Tardi.
Clearly a positive nod to Hammett's, Thin Man series, The Bloody Streets of Paris is complete with a motley cast of characters all set within, surprise, the streets of Nazi occupied France.
Tardi does a masterful job of differentiating the look and appearance of each character which can't be overlooked as the list of characters is impressive and varied. As with most Tardi works, the backdrop of WW2 France is as important a character as is any other of the protagonists. Beautifully rendered, Tardis plunges the reader into the environment with wonderful skill. One can nearly smell the cigarettes, printers' ink, and cheap coffee.
A slow burn in terms of plot and story reveals, it still manages to keep focused and doesn't meander too much, revealing just enough to maintain the reader's interest and not forcing any unnecessary details for plot pacing's sake. Eventually, all is revealed at the conclusion as each character is invited to all things, a cocktail party, ala Dashiell Hammett's, Thin Man.
Overall, a great noir tale, masterfully told by Jacques Tardi.
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