Done reading.
The French cartoonist Jacques Tardi’s excellent graphic novel adaptation of Jean-Patrick Manchette’s crime thriller beautifully captures the noir aesthetic of the book. Given the title, it also comes with several excellent cool jazz references: Bob Brookmeyer (Truckin’!), Tal Farlow, John Lewis, Gerry Mulligan, Chico Hamilton, Shelly Manne etc. Even though west coast jazz is often associated with sun and surf, the relaxed tempos and lighter tone of some of the blues referenced here fits the mood of noir fiction perfectly. Sort of like Miles Davis’ soundtrack for Elevator to the Gallows.
Below is the opening page which poignantly illustrates some of the similarities between comics and film. The sequence of frames on this page is straight out of film school: long shot to establish the scene, medium shot, close-up – and voilà, we’re drawn into the story.
The second page continues to illustrate the cinematographic quality and cool, noir mood. Plus some fine pince sans rire humor.
Below is a frame from a sequence where the main character is assaulted by two thugs while swimming in the ocean. This is how he ends up defending himself. The whole sequence is brilliantly drawn. I couldn’t describe it much better than was done here.
A graphic brain splattering scene:
There’s some quirky, almost existentialist humor in the book. Here’s my favorite panel, almost an example of flash fiction:
