Review by C.J. Bunce
The Mummy and Jurassic Park visit Belle Époque Paris in an entertaining journey, sharply written and vividly illustrated by French cartoonist Jacques Tardi. Jacques Tardi created Adèle Blanc-Sec in the 1970s. She is a bit of an anti-hero, a Belle Époque Miss Fury without the supersuit and far more more Victorian in her escapades, her story beginning in 1911 just after the end of the era. Adèle is a brash, forward Parisienne adventure novelist crossing paths and turning tables on villains as bumbling detectives chase pavements. She encounters the supernatural in the form of Jules Verne-inspired monsters, prehistoric creations a decade before Michael Crichton’s novel, and a demon and ghost or two. Fantagraphics is publishing an English translation of Tardi’s tales next month in a full-color hardcover beginning with The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Vol. 1, which you can pre-order now here at Amazon.
You may want to read it if you’re a Luc Besson completist–the book explains what director Luc Besson (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, The Fifth Element) was going for in his 2010 French production adapting the early stories. Rumor has it he’s also talked about adapting Adèle into a TV series, which hasn’t come to fruition. Although Besson’s movie is more on the goofy side–more The Mummy or Egypt scenes from The Fifth Element than say Raiders of the Lost Ark. To his credit Besson cast his villains as a faithful match to the motley assemblage of Tardi’s creations. As a comic from the 1970s about the 1910s it’s easy to see why it’s become an international classic.
Don’t expect much Joan Wilder romance–Adèle always sticks to the current mission. Compared to the movie or French creators Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières’s Laureline, Adèle is surprisingly in the background for a title character, a bit of a cold shoulder for the first three stories. Aside from two other supporting women players, the book is nearly entirely men.
This volume includes the 48-page stories “Pterror Over Paris,” “The Demon of the Eiffel Tower,” “The Mad Scientist,” and “Mummies on Parade.” Those titles are good clues to the content. The humor is very French, very Pink Panther. The supernatural monsters, mad science, steampunk vibe, are all Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
This is a pristine translation by Kim Thompson, and I found the font and lettering adds much to the aura of the stories (the book didn’t list the English letterer). Think of the look of Gotham by Gaslight or From Hell but from years earlier. Note: The stories are good but crumble in the fourth story. It has unnecessary animal harm, another story where a writer is lazy and defines a villain by shooting a small animal, and it has a “woman in the refrigerator” trope scene (Tardi’s artwork and layouts also seem more rushed). If you skip content for those tropes then you’ll want to take a pass on “Mummies on Parade.”
The color in the above digital images doesn’t do justice to the printed book, which is more muted and refined.
In celebration of the series’ 50th anniversary, Fantagraphics is bringing this re-issue and return of Adèle Blanc-Sec to bookshops July 14, 2026. While Fantagraphics published the first four adventures 15 years ago, this new series will bring the complete ten-episode run of the series into English for the first time. The book includes a useful introduction by British journalist and comics historian Cynthia Rose to set the stage for the characters and Tardi’s work. For fans of French comics, 1970s creations, and steampunk era sci-fi, pre-order The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Vol. 1 in hardcover now here at Amazon.
