Comic Book Guy: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec

Feisty and fearless, feminist and ferocious, adventurer, investigator and collector of rare artefacts… This is not the gun-toting, hotpant adventures of Lara Croft, but The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec. Pre-dating the Tomb Raider by some twenty years, Adèle was introduced in 1976 as a comic strip in the newspaper Sud-Ouest and was the brain child of enigmatic French artist Jacques Tardi.

This Franco-Belgian comic book has recently been plundered for the big screen by the caretaker of French Cinema, Luc Besson and will be getting an extremely limited UK cinema release from 22 April.

It may be a much indulged past-time to disparage against the movie mogul’s cash machine and their intentions, but this is no megabucks Marvel creation, and bringing new audiences to this lesser-know European comic book is only serving the greater good.

The stories begin in Paris: World War I looms and our protagonist, a cynical writer bored of the world of fiction, turns instead to investigative journalism, embedding herself in the world of crime. With the mystical arts at play, echoes of the occult corrupting officials and a knowing nod to the world of Jules Verne, this is one Parisian lady who is not afraid to drink, smoke or shoot to kill.

Every bit as extraordinary as Alan Moore’s League of Gentlemen, Adèle Blanc-Sec is a rare gem of a comic collection and has been translated into English for every Francophiles pleasure. C'est fantastique.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec is being reprinted this June in hardback.