After reading Adele
Blanc- Sec I am not a great fan. The title alone The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc- Sec do not seem extraordinary.
There is too much going on at once within the storyline as well as in the illustration.
The storyline has two main stories happening at once; that end up overlapping
and tying into each other in the end. At the same time there are smaller
stories being solved throughout the comic as well. In relation to the
illustration, the comic is very detailed relative to the setting. The buildings
are drawn very meticulously as well as the surroundings. While the setting is
precise to Paris, the characters are not. The characters share the same
features, with a distinction in the mustache or nose only. In reading the comic
once can get lost with all the characters being presented to us. The colors are
also very bland with dark earth tone colors. The comic is also text heavy;
possibly because of the translation but I did enjoy having a recap of what
happened in Pterror Over Paris when
reading The Eiffel Tower Demon.
I also found it really difficult to distinguish between the male characters -they're all white with similar faces and mustaches - the distinctions all seem to be in the thickness of their mustaches or eyebrows, or slightly wider faces, etc. I frequently find this is a problem for me when watching black and white (especially noir) films as well - with so many similar-looking white men wearing the same thing, it's really difficult to remember who is who.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I appreciated the many facets of the story - the subplots made the story a little more complicated but it meant that Tardi was treating as adults who could handle a little more complexity, and I think it would have been much easier to follow if the characters didn't all look so similar. I think the biggest issue is that after around 1840, all men's dress clothing tends to come in a very limited variety of cuts and colors.
Following the plot and the characters was definitely difficult- but I would say it wasn't only the appearance of the male characters that made it difficult, but also the similar character: many of the "evil" characters acted the same- they betrayed, they murdered, or they threatened. Was it Joseph or Albert who betrayed Adele? It was both. Tardi must have intentionally drawn these characters similarly- it would not have been that difficult to offer an easier distinguishing feature. Given that, Tardi might have been trying to play into the idea of moral ambiguity and the idea that no one person is ever completely right or wrong.
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