Influence of earlier comics on Adele Blanc-Sec

When I think about Adele Blanc-Sec, I think of it as a combination of the comics that we have read earlier this semester. The plot of Adele Blanc-Sec is very similar to those of Tintin and Little Nemo. To begin with, the artistic style of Tintin and Adele Blanc-Sec is very similar, as both Herge and Tardi use ligne claire. In addition, the setting of the story takes place in different country in every series. This again relates back to Tintin, where each series of Tintin has different settings, and Tintin travels around the world to correct the injustice. Both cartoonists use many moment to moment transitions to effectively convey actions of the characters, and they use scene to scene or subject to subject transitions to play with the perspectives, which ultimately make the story more engaging and complex.

Besides the comic’s similarities to Tintin, Adele Blanc-Sec’s plot is also adapted from Little Nemo. The layout and the color of the panels showing Antonie Zborowsky’s dream on page 21 are very similar to those in Little Nemo: the size of the panels portray the movements and the linear perspective, while the contrast of bright and dark colors conveys the feelings. Tardi’s implementation of the elements from the earlier comics emphasizes how influential and important those comics are in the field of comics.