Jacques Tardi
With the possible exeption
of Robert Crumb, no contemporary cartoonist has succeeded in applying as serious,
as personal a vision to as wide a variety of locales and as diverse a range
of subjects as Jacques Tardi.
The 20 graphic albums Tardi has drawn (and, for the most part, written) are
like 20 chapters is some gigantic, ongoing epic of human cruelty, treachery,
and misery. Even as Tardi shifts from sardonic humor to gruesome realism, from
historical drama to genre fiction, from parody to reportage - even from original
work to adaptions of pre-exesting genre fiction - his themes, his obsessions
have remained constant. His passion, his intelligence, and his craftsmanship
make him, along with Munoz/Sampayo, Claire Bretecher, Hugo Pratt, and Moebius,
one of the dominant figures in European comics of the '70s and '80s.
Jacques
Tardi was born in 1946 in Valence, France. The son of a career army officer
and the grandson of a World War I veteran, Tardi spent his early years in post-war
Germany - a sojourn that allowed his to witness first-hand the devastation caused
by the world-wide conflagration.
Like most Frenchmen, Tardi read comics avidly in his youth. He was specially
enamored of the works of such classic "clear line" virtuosos as Herge
("Tintin"), Jacques Martin ("Alix"), and E.-P. Jacobs ("Blake
and Mortimer"). These pioneers' sober, meticulous approach to storytelling
and graphics would eventually contribute to molding his own comics work.
After fine art studies in Lyon, Tardi moved to Paris in 1967 to continue his
education, where he met some of the cartonists for "Pilote". At the
time, the weekly comics magazine was, under the creative aegis of "Astérix"
creator René Goscinny, at the very height of its creative and financial
success. Its pages included such series as Goscinny & Underzo's "Astérix",
Jean-Michel Charlier & Jean Giraud's "Blueberry", and Pierre Christin
& Jean-Claude Mezieres's "Valerian", as well as a wave of bold
new talent, including Philippe Druillet, Claire Bretécher, Enki Bilal,
and many others.
Tardi eventually became an occasional contributer to "Pilote". He
debuted in 1970 with the short story "Un Cheval en Hiver" ("A
Horse in Winter"), written by Giraud. Shortly thereafter , he was tapped
by Pierre Christin to illustrate the first of his "Legendes d'Aujourd'hui"
("Contemporary Legends") albums, Rumeurs sur le Rouergue.(1)
Tardi found his definitive style with his second album length serial - the first
to feature his own writing - "Adieu Brindavoine", a loopy sf period
piece set in the early part of the 20th century. Despite the fact that a succesful
continuing character was (and is) a virtual prerequisite for a career in European
comics, Tardi did not immediatly seize upon Brindavoine. He did, however, keep
a soft spot for both the time period and the character, later on, he would choose
the same setting for his first major series, Adèle Blanc-Sec, and would
eventually integrate Brindavoine into Adèle's continuity.
Tardi became part of the "Pilote" diaspora of the early '70s, leaving
both magazine and its parent company Editions Dargaud (which had published his
first two albums) in 1974. Like most former "Pilote" creators, he
went through a period at the newly-formed underground/alternative "Metal
Hurlant", where he published several short stories as well as, with writer
Picaret, the album-length historical drama "Polonius". He followed
this up with a foray into hard-boiled detective stories, "Griffu"
(written by privaty-eye author and comics aficionado Jean-Patrick Manchette),
which was serialized in the short-lived magazine BD.
At this point of his career, Tardi decided to return to his beloved pre-War
Paris, for the occasion, he created a new heroine: the acerbic, cynical, but
essentially admirable "Adèle Blanc-Sec".
Conceived
as a parody of the early 20th century French adventure serials, "Adèle
Blanc-Sec" was deliberately episodic and implausible: the heroine was to
confront the most unlikely adversaries, including mad scientists, scheming politicians,
evil dwarves, and a battery of monsters and grotesques. Moving at a breakneck
pace, with event piling upon event, Adèle Blanc-Sec succeeds both as
a recreation of the spirit of ealy 20th century feulletons and as an arch commentery
on same; Tardi has never been looser nor funnier than he is in the best episodes
of Adèle. (It's also one of the few major color works of his career)
Adèle Blanc-Sec also began Tardi's long relationship with Editions Casterman
(who had published the complete works of two of his childhood idols, Jacques
Martin and Herge). Unlike most other comics publishers, Casterman did not at
the time have its own magazine in which to "pre-publish" graphic albums(2),
as a result, the first several Adèle stories were released directly in
album format - at the time, a fairly unusual practice - from 1976 to 1978.
When Casterman finally did take the plunge and created a house publication,
(A Suivre) (i.e., "To Be Continued"), it instantly became Europe's
best comics magazine, effortlessly plucking the torch from such relative burnouts
as "Pilote" and "Métal Hurlant". While the meticulously
produced monthly provided a spectacular context for Tardi's worl, the benefits
were mutual: there can be no doubt that (A Suivre)'s preminence was due in no
little part to Tardi, who in the very fist issue turned in the initial chapter
of "Ici Même", an enormously long (163 pages), baroque, somewhat
abstruse fantasy written by "Barbarella" creator Jean-Claude Forest.
Published as a graphic album in 1979, "Ici Même" would become
one of the touchstones of the decade: one of the first serious, literary, novel
lenght comics stories to completely eschew the conventions of genre fiction.
(In a poll conducted earlier this year among European comics professionals,
"Ici Même" was ranked as the second Most Significant Graphic
Album of the years 1978 - 1988, behind Moebius's "The Airtight Garage";
Tardi himself garnered a landslide victory in the "Most Significant Author"
category.)
Since then, Tardi has serialized seven major works in (A Suivre), including
two more Adèle Blanc-Sec stories; Benjamin Legrand's New York-based,
Martin Scorsese-inspired political/psychological thriller "Tueur de Cafards"
("Cockreach Killer"); the as-yet unfinished World War I comics documentary
It Was the War of the Tranches; and three serials starring the latest major
figure in Tardi's personal mythology, Leo Malet's private eye "Nestor Burma".
While Adèle
Blanc-Sec dominated Tardi's drawing board for the latter half of the '70s, Burma
essentially took over in 1981. Adèle is still very much alive (Tardi
has insisted in recent interviews he plans to continue the character indefinitely),
but that series' rhythm has been cut away down (only two books in a decade)
to make way for Nestor Burma. This is in some respects a peculiar development,
since Tardi did not create Nestor Burma, nor was he even involved in the conception
of the character.
Burma is the star of a series of novels by Leo Malet, a French hard-boiled crime
writer. Malet is completely unknown in America, even among devoted mystery aficionados.
(There is no evidence that any of his work has been translated to English.)
Yet he is a major star in France, having written a shelf-ful of books (including
29 "Nestor Burma" novels, three of which have been made into movies).
For the first two stories in the series, Tardi chose to adapt existing works
in the Malet canon: "Brouillard au pont de Tolbiac" (which begins
on the next page) and "120, rue de la Gare". Having familiarized himself
with the characters and the style, he has now begun to write his own Burma material(3):
The first all-Tardi story, "Une Gueule de Bois en Plomb" ("A
Lead Hangover"), was serialized in (A Suivre) earlier this year.
Meanwhile,
Tardi (who has won every major and minor award given to cartoonists in Europe)
continues to surprise. He recently illustrated a best-selling edition of Celine's
"Voyage to the End of the Night"; several books devoted to his career
have been published in Europe, including an analysis of his second Burma adaption;
a monograph on his career; and a superb set of two hardcovers reprinting his
various commercial and illustrating work.
On this side of the Atlantic, Tardi was first printed in "Heavy Metal",
which serialized "Polonius" in its early issues (to crashing indifference
from the readership). Tardi was first really noticed when he appeared in RAW
magazine, beginning with "Manhattan" in the second issue.(4) A subsequent
issue reprinted the first episode of "It Was the War if the Trenches,"
and next years edition, Vol 2 No. 2, will feature a lenghtly Tardi piece "La
Bascule a Charlot" ("Basket Case"). Tardi's Adèle Blanc-Sec
is now also being serialized in Dark Horse's "Cheval Noir" magazine.
It's a shame it's taken this long for Tardi to gain substantial recognition
among American readers; we believe that with the publication of "Fog Over
Tolbiac Bridge" in these pages, his obscurity is about to end.
- KIM THOMPSON
(1) Bilal
would illustrate most of the later albums, whose titles include "Phalanxes
of the Black Order" and "The City That Didn't Exist", both available
in English through Catalan.
(2) cf. "Spirou magazine" for Editions Dupuis; "Tintin magazine"
for Edition du Lombard; and "Metal Hurlant" for Les Humanoides Associes
(3) A decision partly brought about by the fact that all the other 27 Burma
stories are owned by Malet's publisher. Rather than getting involved with negotiations
with the publisher (for whom, incidentally, Tardi has been drawing covers for
the Burma re-issues), the decision was made for Tardi to inherit Burma and three
major supporting characters (only one of whom is actually seen in Tolbiac) and
continue with his own stories.
(4) Also available in Read Yourself RAW.
Cet article a été publié comme introduction à "Fog over Tolbiac Bridge" ("Brouillard au Pont de Tolbiac") dans le magazine américain "Graphic Story Monthly", numéro 1, pages 2-4, 1990.