The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec 1: Pterror Over Paris/The Eiffel Tower Demon by Jacques Tardi
My rating: 3/5 cats
if wishes were horses, i would be riding a five-star cat review right here, instead of writing a three-star cat one.
this is a reissue of the 1976 printing, and one which combines two “extraordinary adventures:” pterror over paris and the eiffel tower demon. of course it is gorgeous—fantagraphics doesn’t make junk. i like the artwork, i like the colors, but some of the characters get muddled up in my mind because they seem to all come from the same general gene-pool and sometimes they are wearing disguises.
which brings me to that. it is very confusing. my understanding is that it is meant to be, being a parody of these very popular adventure comics that frequently relied upon implausible outcomes and the understanding that the reader would be assisting by suspending disbelief throughout. but lacking a background in the thing that is being parodied, this did not push enough of my “ah-ha!” buttons. it just kind of gives me a headache after a while, trying to remember who was being double-crossed by whom and who was shot and who was accused and how is this mind-control over a pterodactyl even happening—ahhhh never mind.
i still think it is beautiful.
i have the first part of this volume in french, which i actually prefer reading, because the guns go “pan” and the pterodactyl goes “croak,” and if i don’t understand what is happening, it is easier to mark it down to “those crazy french…” and my wavering fluency.
the next two have also been published in a single volume, and at some point, i am going to get those, too, but this time i will not have any of the benefit of having the french version at my elbow for laughter, so i am hoping that by then, the laughter will be supplied by adele blanc-sec herself.
if not…pan!
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