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An astonishing icepunk adventure by the great French cartoonist Jacques Tardi is coming in March from Fantagraphics. It looks truly neat-o.

Bonus: editor/translator Kim Thompson tells why it was chosen:

Three reasons. First, I like the idea of picking from all periods of Tardi’s career and this, being just his third graphic novel, nicely extends the range. (The one after that will be literally his most recent book.) Second, I like the fact that it’s so visually distinctive, and I like its historical importance as an early steampunk — or “icepunk” as I like to call it — work of comics. And third… well, the third reason I can’t actually tell you. It will become clear eventually.


Click for larger versions — you’ll want to!
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1 COMMENT

  1. Not to spoil it, but I suspect the third reason is that this story feeds into the Adele Blanc Sec continuity (it feels so weird to use that word in regards to Jacques Tardi books).

  2. I’m looking forward to this! I just read Tardi’s WW I graphic novel, It Was The War of the Trenches (which was released here in the U.S. last April by Fantagraphics) the other day and it was amazing – one of last year’s very best!

  3. this is before Adele Blanc Sec, Robert.

    Also a point of interest: Tardi drew this on scraper board in the mannerof the lost art of the old 19th century engravers.
    In fact he bought the engraving tools from an old engraver to make this comic which took him well over a year to draw.

  4. Oh, you spoilin’ bastards, you! Yes, Robert and Ben are correct, all the characters from THE ARCTIC MARAUDER suddenly pop up in the fourth ADELE book (therefore the second half our our second ADELE book),complete with an in-page plug for the book itself — a joke that would not have worked nearly as well if THE ARCTIC MARAUDER hadn’t been released beforehand. An amusing and delightful surprise for those Tardi fans who avoid this spoilerrific thread, ahem.

    For similar reasons, we’ll have to do ADIEU BRINDAVOINE before we move on to the first post-WWI Adele stories (i.e. our third book), since HIS continuity then feed into ADELE.

  5. Thanks for posting this, Heidi. I got turned on to Tardi (say that three times fast) vie The Beat, and just bought You Are There last weekend at the very excellent Fantagraphics Bookstore here in Seattle. Can’t wait to pick this one up.