Jacques Tardi

Jacques Tardi is a French comic strip artist born in 1946 in Valence. Often credited solely as Tardi.

Contents

1 Biography 2 Bibliography 2.1 Scenario and artwork 2.2 Artwork 2.3 Scenario 2.4 Illustrated novels 2.5 Novel 3 External links

Biography

After graduating in the École nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and in the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris, he started writing comics in 1969, at the age of 23, in the Pilote magazine. His very first album is Rumeur sur le Rouerge, published in 1971 in Pilote, on a scenario by Pierre Christin.

A highly versatile artist, Tardi successfully adapted novels by controversial writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline or crime novelist Léo Malet. He also created French comic-strips' most famous heroine Adèle Blanc-Sec. This serie recreates with great style the Paris of the early 20th century where the moody heroine encounters supernatural events, state plots, cults and cryogenics.

His obsession with the First World War and the pitfalls of patriotism have spawned many albums (Adieu Brindavoine, C'était la Guerre des Tranchées, Le Trou d'Obus...) and was brought on by his inability to believe that his grandfather could have been involved in the day-to-day horrors of trench warfare. He also began a serie on Paris Commune, Le cri du peuple.

His style can at times seem to be similar to Hergé's ligne claire style (clear line), paired with meticulous research and an asexual hero (Adèle Blanc-Sec is quite a misandrist at times) but Tardi's work endlessly satirises the concept of the flawless hero by using a series of inept, naive or anti-heroic main characters and his readership seems to mainly be a literary, French-speaking adult public.

Bibliography

Scenario and artwork

• Adieu Brindavoine followed by La fleur au fusil (Casterman, 1974)
• le Démon des glaces (with characters by Léo Malet) (Casterman, 1974)
• la Véritable Histoire du soldat inconnu (Futuropolis, 1974)
• Mouh Mouh (Peperland, 1979)
• Déprime (Futuropolis, 1981)
• le Trou d'obus (Imagerie Pellerin, 1984)
• Mine de plomb, Chiures de gommes (Futuropolis, 1985)
• Tardi en banlieue (Casterman, 1990)
• Jeux pour mourir (based on a novel of Géo-Charles Véran) (Casterman, 1992)
• C'était la guerre des tranchées (Casterman, 1993)
• les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec (Casterman, 1976-1998)
  1. Adèle et la Bête (1976)
  2. le Démon de la tour Eiffel (1976)
  3. le Savant fou (1977)
  4. Momies en folies (1978)
  5. le Secret de la salamandre (1981)
  6. le Noyé à deux têtes (1985)
  7. Tous des monstres ! (1994)
  8. le Mystère des profondeurs (1998)
• Nestor Burma, based on novels of Léo Malet (Casterman, 1982-2000)
  1. Brouillard au pont de Tolbiac (Casterman, 1982)
  2. 120, rue de la Gare (Casterman, 1988)
  3. Une gueule de bois en plomb (Casterman, 1990)
  4. Casse-pipe à la Nation (Casterman, 1996)
  5. M'as-tu vu en cadavre ? (Casterman, 2000)
• Carnet (L'Association, 2001)
• le Cri du peuple, based on a novel of Jean Vautrin (Casterman, 2001-2004)
  1. les Canons du 18 mars (2001)
  2. l'Espoir assassiné (2002)
  3. les Heures sanglantes (2003)
  4. le Testament des ruines (2004)

Artwork

• Rumeur sur le Rouergue (scenario by Pierre Christin) (Gallimard, 1976)
• Polonius (scenario by Picaret) (Futuropolis, 1977)
• Griffu (scenario by Jean-Patrick Manchette) (Square then Dargaud then Casterman, 1978)
• Ici Même (scenario by Jean-Claude Forest) (Casterman, 1979)
• Tueur de cafards (scenario by Benjamin Legrand) (Casterman, 1984)
• Grange bleue (scenario by Dominique Grange) (Futuropolis, 1985)
• le Sens de la houppelande (scenario by Daniel Pennac) (Futuropolis, 1991)
• Un strapontin pour deux (scenario by Michel Boujut) (Casterman, 1995)
• Presque tout Tardi (scenario by Olivier Maltret) (Sapristi, 1996)
• Tardi par la fenêtre (scenario by Michel Boujut) (Christian Desbois, 1996)
• l'Évasion du cheval gris (scenario by Verrien) (Sapristi, 1996)
• Sodome et Virginie (scenario by Daniel Prevost) (Casterman, 1996)
• le Der des Ders (scenario by Didier Daeninckx) (Casterman, 1997)
• Varlot soldat (scenario by Didier Daeninckx) (L'Association, 1999)
• la Débauche (scenario by Daniel Pennac) (Futuropolis, 2000)

Scenario

• le Voyage d'Alphonse (artwork by Antoine Leconte) (Duculot, 2003)

Illustrated novels

Céline adaptations :

• Voyage au bout de la nuit (Futuropolis, 1988)
• Casse-pipe (Futuropolis, 1989)
• Mort à crédit (Futuropolis, 1991)

Jules Verne adaptations :

• Un Prêtre en 1839 (Cherche Midi, 1992)
• San Carlos (Cherche Midi, 1993)

Novel

• Rue des Rebuts (Alain Beaulet, 1990)

External links

• Official site (in French) (http://www.casterman.com/adele/index.htm)de:Jacques Tardi

fr:Jacques Tardi