G. W. Thomas
Presents
THE
GHOSTBREAKERS
ADELE
BLANC-SEC (1976-1998) by Jacques Tardi
Adele and the Beast
(Adèle et
la bête)
In November 1911,
a telepathically resuscitated pterodactyl terrorizes Paris. Hoping
to profit from the panic, a less-than-noble Adèle Blanc-Sec and
her henchmen Albert and Joseph kidnap Édith Rabatjoie, who has an
ingenious plan to capitalize on the hype with a peculiar flying machine.
But treachery and deceit abound, and soon Adèle is dodging bullets
and crocodiles, not to mention the pterodactyl itself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Demon of the
Eiffel Tower
(Le démon
de la tour Eiffel)
The story picks up
almost immediately after Adele and the Beast leaves off. A valuable
statue of the Assyrian demon Pazuzu has been stolen, and the performance
of the bizarre ancient play The Last Days of Babylon brings to Paris a
cast of religious fanatics who meet in a secret vault beneath the Seine
River. Along the way she teams up with Simon Flageolet and remains
just a few steps ahead of Inspector Caponi. How would Adèle ever
guess that she would end up as their prized offering to Pazuzu atop Paris's
great sacrificial ziggurat - the Eiffel Tower!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Mad Scientist
(Le savant fou)
It is now early 1912.
In a cold, dark, snow-blanketed Paris, Adèle meets a group of scientists
determined to revive a pithecanthropus - an ape man - brought back intact
from a deep-freeze on the Siberian plains. Little does she know,
one of the scientists has his own plans for the cave man. He kidnaps
the cave man, names him Alexander (after Alexander the Great), and beings
converting him into a crazed war-machine, a soldier of tomorrow.
But is Alexander the Ape Man up to the task?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mummies on Parade
(Momies en folie)
Someone has been
hanging human sacrifices on Paris's most revered historical monuments.
The victims all have one thing in common: they have all been mummified!
Now in the midst of typing up her memoirs, Adèle is visited by a
scientist named Félicien Mouginot, who specializes in the study
of life after death. Not long after his mysterious visit, Adèle's
Mummy, brought back from Egypt by a great grand-uncle, disappears, and
soon all the mummies in the Louvre museum follow suit. Baffled, Adèle
and Mouginot search Paris for a trace of the missing mummies. Their
search leads them to a pyramid in the Parc Monceau, and all carnage breaks
loose! Killed at the end, Adèle winds up on ice in a suspended
animation tank in Mouginot's laboratory, where he hopes one day to bring
her back to life...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Secret of the
Salamander
(Le secret de la
salamandre)
Throughout the First
World War, Adèle Blanc-Sec lies cased in ice, forgotten in Mouginot's
laboratory. During this time, a simpleminded soldier named Lucien
Brindavoine meets up with a talking statue in an abandoned bunker, and
is instructed to go recover her from death's door. It is the voice
of Adèle's faithful Mummy, speaking to him all the way from his
new home within the Great Pyramid of Egypt! Meanwhile, the grotesquely
decrepit American industrialist Otto Lindenberg is also interested in the
study of life after death. Soon enough, he and Brindavoine cross
paths, and work out the secret of "Megalobatrachus japonicus" - the Great
Salamander. Thanks to Brindavoine, and with no small loss of life
on the part of others, Adèle is restored to life after four years
in deep-freeze.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Le noyé à
deux têtes
(The Drowned Man
with Two Heads)
It is 1918, and World
War I has ended. Upon returning home for the first time in four years,
Adèle Blanc-Sec finds a two-headed dwarf in her medicine chest,
with a message in its mouth. Shortly thereafter, a two-headed man
is pulled from a Paris canal with strange suction-cup marks on his body
and a letter to Adèle in his pocket, and a monstrous red octopus
begins to terrorize pedestrians along the canals and waterways of the city.
This story is a dark yet imaginative commentary on war, patriotism, and
their combined effect on human nature.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tous des monstres!
(Monsters All!)
It is November 1918.
Adèle is trying to publish her memoirs, the red octopus still terrorizes
the city, and Dieuleveult - her old nemesis from earlier adventures, reappears
with plans to peer into the dark thoughts of men. What he finds are,
of course, monsters all...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Le mystère
des profondeurs
(The Mystery of
the Depths)
It is now March 1922.
Adèle has a toothache. Strange pink crustaceans have begun
appearing in her washbasin, as well as in the holy water font at the nearby
church. After several tortuous twists, a strange sequence of letters
leads her to an underground cave inhabited by her long lost sister, Mireille
Pain-Sec! Perhaps the most extraordinary episode of all...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
French English
Adèle et
la bête (1976)
story & art:
Tardi;
color & inking:
Delobel;
48 pp, hardbound,
full color. Adele and the Beast
serialized in Cheval
Noir #1-4, (Aug 89 - Feb 90), B&W;
anthologized by
NBM Publishing, 1990, softbound, full color.
Le démon
de la tour Eiffel (1976)
story & art:
Tardi;
color & inking:
Delobel;
48 pp., hardbound,
full color. The Demon of the Eiffel Tower
serialized in Cheval
Noir #5-8 (Mar 90 - Jun 90), B&W;
anthologized by
NBM Publishing, 1990, softbound, full color.
Le savant fou (1977)
story & art:
Tardi;
color & inking:
Delobel;
48 pp., hardbound,
full color. The Mad Scientist
serialized in Cheval
Noir #15-18 (Feb 91 - May 91), B&W;
anthologized: N/A.
Momies en folie
(1978)
story & art:
Tardi;
color & inking:
Delobel;
48 pp., hardbound,
full color. Mummies on Parade
serialized in Cheval
Noir #19-23 (Jun 91 - Oct 91), B&W;
anthologized: N/A.
Le secret de la
salamandre (1981)
story, art, color
& inking: Tardi;
48 pp., hardbound,
full color. The Secret of the Salamander
serialized: N/A;
full-length (48
pp) release from Dark Horse Comics, 1992; B&W.
Le noyé à
deux têtes(1985) *
story, art, color
& inking: Tardi;
48 pp., hardbound,
full color. N/A
Tous des monstres!
(1994) *
story, art, color
& inking: Tardi;
48 pp., hardbound,
full color. N/A
Le mystère
des profondeurs (1998) *
story, art, color
& inking: Tardi;
48 pp., hardbound,
full color.
Thanks to JM &
Randy Lofficier
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