The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

NPR recently re-aired Rosecrans Baldwin‘s “My Guilty Pleasure” – a great segment on All Things Considered. Mr. Baldwin was recommending The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec: Pterror over Paris and the Eiffel Tower Demon – the first in a series of graphic novels by legendary French comics artist Jacques Tardi. The series came out in France in 1976, but has received a fresh new English translation from Fantagraphics Books.

The plot of the first volume is absolutely nuts: Paris at the turn of the Century is being attacked by a revived pterodactyl and the only one who can save the city is a cynical popular novelist: Adele Blanc-Sec. Think of her as a sort of Belle Epoque Lara Croft. The story pinballs from hard-boiled thriller to murder mystery to science fiction — complete with mad scientists, bumbling policemen and disloyal henchmen — and Adele rolling her eyes and shooting at bad guys throughout. It’s completely wonderful and hilarious and I’m still not sure I know exactly what happened. But the main attraction is the stunningly gorgeous artwork – intensely detailed, beautifully atmospheric. As Mr. Baldwin says “The sublime value … is exploring Tardi’s re-creation of Paris at the turn of the 20th century. We see, for example, the orientalism craze that occupied the city before World War I. Or we trip down the stairs of a secret cult’s hideout that has been constructed underneath the Pont-Neuf. This is Paris not only as it existed, but as it might have — the real and the imagined vigorously combined.”

Fantagraphics says they are planning to bring out all ten volumes in the series. After gulping down the first two, I can’t wait.

By the way, the trailer for Luc Besson’s film is here. It was released in France in 2010, but as far as I can find, there is no date set for a US release. Pourquois pas?