Michael D Hamersky On Comics Presents His Take On:   The Arctic Marauder   By Jacques Tardi!

TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #3671 - This graphic novel is about the following:

"In its ongoing quest to showcase the wide range of Jacques Tardi’s bibliography, Fantagraphics reaches all the way back to one of his earliest, and most distinctive graphic novels: A satirical, Jules Vernes-esque “retro-sci-fi” yarn executed on scratchboard in a stunningly detailed faux-woodcut style perfectly chosen to render the Edwardian-era mechanical marvels on display. Created in 1972, The Arctic Marauder is a downright prescient example of proto-“steampunk” science fiction — or perhaps more accurately, and to coin a spinoff genre, “icepunk.”

In 1899, “L’Anjou,” a ship navigating the Arctic Ocean from Murmansk, Russia, to Le Havre, France comes across a stunning sight: A ghostly, abandoned vessel perched high atop an iceberg. But exploring this strange apparition is the last thing the sailors will ever do, as their own ship is soon dispatched to Davy Jones’ locker via a mysterious explosion.

Enter Jérôme Plumier, whose search for his missing uncle, the inventor Louis-Ferdinand Chapoutier, brings him into contact with the sinister, frigid forces behind this — and soon he too is headed towards the North Pole, where he will content with mad scientists, monsters of the deep, and futuristic submarines and flying machines. Told with brio in hilarious slabs of vintage purple prose, The Arctic Marauder works both as ripping good adventure story and parody of same, and, predating as it does the later and not dissimilar Adèle Blanc-Sec series, is a keystone in Tardi’s oeuvre in his fantastical mode. 64 pages of black-and-white comics."

As you can see from the above, this is a reprint from the 1974 publication originally published in French.

The cover was what stood out to me, and prompted me to pick it up.

The interior pages artwork grabbed my attention as well, and I knew that I wanted to read this, and possibly review blog it also.

The translation from French to English was done by Kim Thompson.  Not having seen it in French, nor understanding the language to read, I've got to say that Kim did a good job in presenting the work here in this book.

The chapters were laid out properly, and grew my interest as each chapter ended.

My only con to this graphic novel would be the last page, after the 'Fin'.  I'm not for sure if this is to be a continued story or what...?

Still, until that last page, I would have to say that the storyline, the artwork, and the full presentation, even though it is in black and white, gave me many minutes of pleasant diversion.  A very good job indeed!

My comic book grade for this is a Very Fine / Near Mint (VF/NM) 9.0 out of a possible 10.0 comic book grading scale!

Here is where you can purchase a copy of this graphic novel: The Arctic Marauder.

~ Michael D Hamersky

NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics:  My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now at 3,671 total posts in number!   I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog!

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