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The True Story of the Unknown Soldier
Mad geniuses, Jules Verne-style deliriums, dinosaurs, sex, bloodshed, and the madness of World War I ― two strange and surreal early works by a master of the comics form. Fantagraphics presents two experimental, early works by the French cartooning legend Tardi. These comics, created in the mid-'70s, provide a fascinating preview of the masterworks of his prolific career. While they are not narratively linked, an eerie sense of foreboding suffuses stories in this collection: they both depict sex and brutal violence and condemn the horrors of war.
The True Story of the Unknown Soldier follows a pulp novelist turned soldier who, driven to delirium amidst the trenches of WWI, becomes tormented by visions of his own seedy creations. This stream-of-consciousness tale visualizes the tortured psyche of its protagonist through dazzling dreamscapes and surreal scenarios. In The National Razor , a soldier returns from war a shattered man. Drowning himself in drink, he wanders the streets of Paris without purpose; in this numb stupor, he finds himself caught up in strange situations, lashes out in unexpectedly violent ways, and ultimately meets with a bloody end. At once a visceral depiction of the trauma wrought by war and a powerful denunciation of the death penalty and France's iconic guillotine.
Black-and-white illustrations throughout
The True Story of the Unknown Soldier follows a pulp novelist turned soldier who, driven to delirium amidst the trenches of WWI, becomes tormented by visions of his own seedy creations. This stream-of-consciousness tale visualizes the tortured psyche of its protagonist through dazzling dreamscapes and surreal scenarios. In The National Razor , a soldier returns from war a shattered man. Drowning himself in drink, he wanders the streets of Paris without purpose; in this numb stupor, he finds himself caught up in strange situations, lashes out in unexpectedly violent ways, and ultimately meets with a bloody end. At once a visceral depiction of the trauma wrought by war and a powerful denunciation of the death penalty and France's iconic guillotine.
Black-and-white illustrations throughout
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
64 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
About the author
Jacques Tardi
284 books195 followersJacques 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_...
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_...
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 5, 2022
Well! I read everything the iconic Jacques Tardi has created in comics as it becomes available in English translation and so when I saw this Fantagraphics production I jumped at it. The work I have read from Tardi can mostly be placed in three categories: Fantasy adventure stories, noir mystery stories, and war stories. The True Story of the Unknown Soldier looks to be is a collection of two short experimental stories, dream sequences, both of them sort of surreal, filled with nudity/sex and violence..
The first, The True Story of the Unknown Soldier, is about a writer who has “battle fatigue from WWI, the war of the trenches, who seems to be visited/tormented by the “victims” of his many creations. Most of these victims he meets in a bordello, so yeah, a lot of his women characters are now naked, sex workers, having been brought low by his dismissive treatment of them, which they rail to him about.
The second story, The National Razor, is an anti-death penalty tale also about a soldier who has returned from the war, traumatized, drinking himself silly, wandering the streets in delirium, spending time in a--surprise!--bordello (what must this young man have been thinking of all the time??!), the scene becomes violent, and he ends with a trip to the guillotine.
These are two early anti-war tales, with detailed drawings pointing to his later greatness. There’s also a lot of nudity, some graphic sex --which he admits were pornographic, creating some problems for publication for some time. They’re stream-of-conscious stories, disjointed, less rooted in the actual events of war than later anti-war Tardi stories. Some of it is pretty funny, and some of it is likely to be perceived as gratuitous sex and violence. I won’t argue that point. I’ll admit I found it interesting, if not quite up to later standards, but a lot of his lifelong themes are here in this early work.
The first, The True Story of the Unknown Soldier, is about a writer who has “battle fatigue from WWI, the war of the trenches, who seems to be visited/tormented by the “victims” of his many creations. Most of these victims he meets in a bordello, so yeah, a lot of his women characters are now naked, sex workers, having been brought low by his dismissive treatment of them, which they rail to him about.
The second story, The National Razor, is an anti-death penalty tale also about a soldier who has returned from the war, traumatized, drinking himself silly, wandering the streets in delirium, spending time in a--surprise!--bordello (what must this young man have been thinking of all the time??!), the scene becomes violent, and he ends with a trip to the guillotine.
These are two early anti-war tales, with detailed drawings pointing to his later greatness. There’s also a lot of nudity, some graphic sex --which he admits were pornographic, creating some problems for publication for some time. They’re stream-of-conscious stories, disjointed, less rooted in the actual events of war than later anti-war Tardi stories. Some of it is pretty funny, and some of it is likely to be perceived as gratuitous sex and violence. I won’t argue that point. I’ll admit I found it interesting, if not quite up to later standards, but a lot of his lifelong themes are here in this early work.
February 25, 2022
Two tedious and very Euro fever dream riffs on "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge."
First up we have The True Story of the Unknown Soldier (originally published in French as La véritable histoire du soldat inconnu, 1974, 34 pages) wherein a writer wanders around in scenarios from his novels, meeting his characters. Then we have The National Razor (originally published in French as La Bascule à Charlot, 1976, 24 pages), billed as a protest against the guillotine, that follows the descent of a French dude through bizarre and bloody events that involve a troll-like creature in a high-chair yelling "Mouh mouh!" as it demands to be nursed.
I have little patience for this sort of dream logic nonsense especially when it's so misogynistic. Women are present for sex or to die or -- voila! -- to die during sex. Take it right on back to the '70s, boys.
First up we have The True Story of the Unknown Soldier (originally published in French as La véritable histoire du soldat inconnu, 1974, 34 pages) wherein a writer wanders around in scenarios from his novels, meeting his characters. Then we have The National Razor (originally published in French as La Bascule à Charlot, 1976, 24 pages), billed as a protest against the guillotine, that follows the descent of a French dude through bizarre and bloody events that involve a troll-like creature in a high-chair yelling "Mouh mouh!" as it demands to be nursed.
I have little patience for this sort of dream logic nonsense especially when it's so misogynistic. Women are present for sex or to die or -- voila! -- to die during sex. Take it right on back to the '70s, boys.
February 4, 2022
Well drawn fever dreams from Tardi's early days. It looked great but I'm not sure I actually liked it.
July 20, 2022
It's so French! The sexual violence is like a Marquis de Sade drunk fantasy and I think he'd have found it excessive. I do love how crazy and experimental it is. I cant lie the style is spontaneous and appealing but its all murder and sex.
April 17, 2022
Extremely hell yes. Had only read all of his Manchette adaptations (6?), which were rad, but these are on a different plane. More autobiographical which somehow makes the doomed characters more miserable. Just a really nice ride into a mind of madness and anxiety.
March 8, 2022
4.5/5.0
Took me hours to read, getting lost in the art constantly. Dropping in and out of the dream logic after getting lost was pretty magical. I think you’ll buy into it or you won’t.
Took me hours to read, getting lost in the art constantly. Dropping in and out of the dream logic after getting lost was pretty magical. I think you’ll buy into it or you won’t.
January 19, 2023
More of a 3.5. Interesting ambiance, some okay dialogue.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews