ADIEU BRINDAVOINE SUIVI DE : LA FLEUR AU FUSIL

by Jacques Tardi

Deux histoires folichonnes situées à la Belle Epoque dans le style et la manière de l'auteur d'"Adèle Blanc-Sec".

Genres: Comics, Bande Dessinée, Graphic Novels, Historical, Adventure

Pocket Book

First published January 1, 1974

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_...

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first graphic novel from Tardi, in 1974, with lots of late sixties/early seventies vibe: Road trip to Istanbul, lots of drugs--a full two-page drug-induced psychedelic trip, assassins, with very little plot continuity leading to a set up for two linds of Tardi works: Adventures and anti-war tales. Gprgeous Fantagraphics production about this scrawny guy, anarchist Brinavione, visited by an insistent guy who tells him to drop everything and go by plan, train, automobile and camel for reasons never quite clear. A little like Kerouac's On the Road but with more of a steam punk, fantasy edge, "decadent" art, and dream logic.

Like, cool, man. I dunno what it's about, exactly, but in this early work you see themes he develops in longer series. Good for Fantagraphics for honoring one of the greats!

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really could not get into this one. The action was often incomprehensibly fast, with too many things happening in one panel or being skipped altogether, pace all over the place - and at the opposite end, too many walls of text trying to get across what's going on. Too fast and too slow at once, I was torn between two extremes and as a consequence could never really see what was in the middle. Decent enough art, though, but then, this is Europe.

Half star for the art, another half for benefit of the doubt - that there'd have been something real here had I simply gotten it.

[Hamish · Rating 2 out of 5]

I need to stop buying these early Tardis (or better yet, read Tardi's crime stuff only). The art is great, though a bit less refined than his later stuff, but man is it a slog to read. Like with the Adele Blanc-Sec series, it can't seem to decide if it's a Tintin-style adventure strip or a parody of one, and so it fails at being either.

[Adrián · Rating 3 out of 5]

STEAMPUUUUUNK

[RoseBlight · Rating 4 out of 5]

I totally understand why this doesn't work for most, it's an odd mix of 30's pulp adventure stories with 60's/70's Psychedelia storytelling. The whole thing is told at a breakneck pace, feels like someone recalling a dream they once had. The characters all speak either in a sort of stream of consciousness or stilted exposition.
...
And yet I find it all to be really charming?

[Emily Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit over my head in some parts but captured beautifully the insane international issues leading up to WWI and the horror & chaos of the war itself. I always go into reading French books knowing I won’t understand everything but will appreciate how visceral and emotional the writing is.

[Titus · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Adieu Brindavoine” is one of Tardi’s earliest comics, originally published in the magazine Pilote in 1972, and it shows a somewhat looser, sketchier art style than what I’ve seen in his later work. That isn't meant as a criticism though: I really like this less polished style, and I especially love the colouring, which looks to me like it might have been done with watercolours. The story is a classic Tardi farce, following a wealthy young man of leisure on an outlandish globetrotting adventure at the dawn of the 20th century. There isn’t much depth to it, but it’s consistently fun, and at 43 pages it doesn’t outstay its welcome.

My edition (and I think all editions, regardless of language) follows “Adieu Brindavoine” with “La Fleur au fusil”, a 10-pager originally published in 1974. This is a sequel in that it follows the same protagonist later in his life, but in content and tone it's totally different: a serious reflection on the horrors of the First World War. It was a very odd choice to use the absurd hero of a comedy for this, and the two comics don’t fit together terribly well when read back to back, but nonetheless this is pretty well done, with similarly great artwork and colouring.

[Alessandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

With ‘Farewell, Brindavoine’, Jacques Tardi gives us a comic book that is at once a pulp adventure, a grotesque satire and a grim foreshadowing of the carnage of the Great War, a situation that is clearly evident in the second story contained in the volume. Published in the mid-1970s, it already contains many of the themes and tones that would become characteristic of the author: the absurdity of violence, bitter irony, characters thrown into surreal and dangerous situations with no possibility of control.
The style is clean and dynamic, with strong colours and an expressionist flavour that amplifies both the comic and disturbing sides of the story. Brindavoine, the reluctant and disillusioned protagonist, embarks on an adventure that begins as an exotic serial and gradually turns into a disenchanted reflection on fate and war.
It may not be Tardi's most accomplished or mature work (in fact, it is one of his first), but it remains a fundamental piece in understanding his career and his unique vision. A quick, chaotic and poignant read, it already gives a glimpse of the power of his later works.

[Neal Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A prequel to the Adele Blanc Sec series, with a bonus 10-page story of Brindavoine’s vicissitudes as a WWI soldier.

The main section is a kind of allegory of global realpolitik leading up to the war. Brindavoine’s wanderings take him to an iron city in the middle of the Afghan desert, which has been constructed by Lindenberg, the capitalist who reappears in the Adele books.

Pride of place goes to the artwork, in particular the belle epoque aesthetic, and to the extravagant characters, in particular Oswald Carpleasure, an effete English drunkard whose dying wish is for Brindavoine to sing him Tonkinoise (Vietnamese Girl). The plotting isn't great (though admittedly nor is my French), and the action gets grim towards the end.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

tardi is still learning the ropes here and making beginner errors, but it equally has the slapdash charm of passionate amateurism

[Nicola Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was a gift from my Belgian brother-in-law. He owns the third largest collection of comic books in Belgium where I spent the last week. I read it on the plane back home to Ireland yesterday. I don't know anything about Tardi and am not really sure what to make of the book but I loved the drawings and the early Steam Punk visuals. I'm giving four stars because it's a beautiful looking book. As to the story, I got lost here and there and that ending was a complete mystery to me. Admittedly, I was tired and hungover, so I blamed that for my sheer bafflement. It was entertaining and I liked the main character and that is really all I can say. Is this part of a series? Is there a follow-up to this? I'm going to ask my brother-in-law. And I probably need to read it again with a clear head!

[Nestor B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tardi's first comic album is an adventure in the same spirit as the stories about Adèle Blanc-Sec, with the difference that this one takes place not in Paris, but in places like Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan. It's charming, whimsical and quite enjoyable. Considered as a debut, it's both interesting and promising, and it's obviously well drawn, it's Tardi after all.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Daniel Mossop · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t think it’s bad I’m just not sure I fully “got it”