TARDI, ENTRETIEN AVEC NUMA SADOUL

by Jacques Tardi

Cette fois, tout est dit sur Tardi. Le père d'Adèle Blanc-Sec se dévoile dans un livre d'entretiens menés par Numa Sadoul, spécialiste de l'interview de grands noms de la bande dessinée. En dix chapitres, Jacques Tardi raconte son enfance, retrace les étapes successives de sa carrière, aborde les questions techniques qui l'assaillent chaque jour, fait le point sur quelques-unes de ses convictions intimes. Le tout agrémenté d'illustrations inédites, de bouts d'essai, de dessins de couvertures de livres ou d'affiches. Le livre montre un Tardi passionné par son travail d'auteur de bandes dessinées, en quête permanente de la perfection :

Tu as parfois l'impression d'approcher du but, mais c'est un leurre. (...) Et ton image "idéale" n'est toujours pas sur le papier... C'est cette recherche, je pense, qui est le moteur de mon acharnement à faire de la bande dessinée.

Un ouvrage porté par l'exigence absolue d'un authentique créateur. --Gilbert Jacques

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Jacques Tardi is a French comics artist, born 30 August 1946 in Valence, Drôme. He is often credited solely as Tardi.

After graduating from the École nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris, he started writing comics in 1969, at the age of 23, in the comics magazine Pilote, initially illustrating short stories written by Jean Giraud and Serge de Beketch, before creating the political fiction story Rumeur sur le Rouergue from a scenario by Pierre Christin in 1972.

A highly versatile artist, Tardi successfully adapted novels by controversial writer Louis-Ferdinand Céline or crime novelist Léo Malet. In Malet's case, Tardi adapted his detective hero Nestor Burma into a series of critically acclaimed graphic novels, though he also wrote and drew original stories of his own.

Tardi also created one of French comics' most famous heroines, Adèle Blanc-Sec. This series recreates the Paris of early 20th century where the moody heroine encounters supernatural events, state plots, occult societies and experiments in cryogenics.

Another graphic novel was Ici Même which was written by Jean-Claude Forest, best known as the creator of Barbarella. A satire, it describes the adventures of Arthur Même who lives on the walls of his family's former property.

Tardi has produced many antiwar graphic novels and comics, mainly focusing on the collective European trauma of the First World War, and the pitfalls of patriotism spawned several albums (Adieu Brindavoine, C'était la guerre des tranchées, Le trou d'obus, Putain de Guerre...). His grandfather's involvement in the day-to-day horrors of trench warfare, seems to have had a deep influence to his artistic expression. He also completed a four-volume series on the Paris Commune, Le cri du peuple.

Fantagraphics Books translate and publish in English a wide range of Tardi's books, done by editor and translator Kim Thompson.[3] The books released so far are West Coast Blues (Le Petit bleu de la côte ouest), You Are There (Ici Même), and It Was the War of the Trenches (C'était la guerre des tranchées); a single album collecting the first two Adele Blanc-Sec volumes has also been published.

->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_...