The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Vol 1 Review
Writer & Artist: Tardi
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Price: $29.99
Book Length: 196 Pages (Full Color)
Book Size: 8” x 10.75”
Release Date: July 14, 2026
ISBN: 9798875002380
At 11:45 pm on November 4, 1911, a pterodactyl egg cracked inside the Museum of Natural History in Paris. While the police attributed early sightings of a pterodactyl to alcohol consumption, reports spread in Parisian newspapers. As mauled victims and corpses mounted, French newspaper criers shouted the latest attacks from every street corner.
Eventually, President Armand Fallièrs realized this wasn’t the opposition’s latest attempt to destroy his government, but a prehistoric threat to modern life in the Third Republic. How did France react to the pterodactyl’s reign of terror? And what other dangers threatened France during this Belle Époque? Let’s leap into The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Vol 1 and see!
Story
After a pterodactyl flew past his office window, the President ordered the police to free Paris from this nuisance. Yet the idea of a prehistoric reptile flying through the city seemed too nonsensical to be believed. So, the case eventually landed on Léonce Caponi’s desk. Believing that this was his big break, the Inspector vowed to solve the petro-dactyl case.
While the police assign their least capable detective to the Pterodactyl Pterror, a young writer attempts to capitalize on the mania in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Vol 1. Adèle writes novels serialized in the newspaper, and she researches her stories thoroughly. She sees through popular conceptions and waves of pop culture. And as a woman of strong beliefs, when she sees a wrong, she attempts to right it. Unfortunately, she goes too far, leading her to employ henchmen and abduct a young woman to secure an inventor’s help.
Tardi’s story follows Adèle’s adventures in Paris during the early 1910s. It’s a glittering era that celebrates the greatness of past civilizations while producing modern marvels. Scientists investigate prehistoric animals and prehuman species while spiritualists pursue the mysteries of life after death. Adèle remains as skeptical of people’s wild theories and romantic views of the past as she is of the government’s ability to serve its people.
As she plunks away at her typewriter and gets embroiled in one caper after another, Adèle sees ample evidence that societal progress only sweeps our primitive urges under the rug. And while Léonce Caponi may not be the shining star of the Parisian Police, Adèle’s suspicions that the little separates coppers from criminals are justified in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Vol 1.
Art
As Tardi reveals the buildings, monuments, and statues of Paris, skeletal reconstructions from the past fill the museum. When a pterodactyl breaks out of its egg, it shatters its glass display case. As it crashes through the glass-paneled ceiling, a man in a book-filled study laughs and dances as he flaps his arms. Amid the grand architecture and lavish interior design of homes and offices, trains rumble into stations, and early automobiles fill the streets. Gentlemen wear suits, flat caps, and bowler hats while carrying pistols in their pockets. Ladies like Adèle wear long dresses, jackets, frilly blouses, and top their bundled-up hair with wide-brimmed hats.
Amid the detailed art, Tardi limits the colors in each panel to a handful in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Vol 1. When she first appears, her maroon attire links her with the pterodactyl and the blood it spills. A green train, automobiles, and crocodiles link Adèle with an ancient demon who lurks in the French underground. Unlike those who plot mass deaths in Paris, neither Adèle nor the man who admires her is a fervent nationalist. Yet while he sleeps in blue-and-white pajamas beneath a blue blanket, he dreams of spotting Adèle amid more red pterodactyls.
Tardi fills colored narrative boxes and white dialogue balloons with lowercase letters. The font enlarges or shrinks according to the available space in each panel. Or, given the musical nature of French, these changes may reflect the author’s enthusiasm or distaste for the characters. Large, bold capital letters denote shouts, while a gray Poof enhances the flash powder as a student attempts a late-night photo with an early camera on a tripod. Extracts from newspapers fill panels, elaborating on current events, as Adèle smokes cigarettes, ponders not getting involved, and then ventures out to face danger once again. Thanks to Fantagraphics for providing a physical review copy.
Final thoughts
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Vol 1 contains Tardi's first four Bandes Dessinées following the intrepid antihero. An introduction by Cynthia Rose reveals the author's fascination with the feuilletons, or early newspapers, that merged fact and fiction in the 1910s.
Tardi puts his own spin on history. Paris rises as the center of civilization, at the forefront of scientific research, while revering the glories of the past. Yet like everything precious, this golden era teeters on a knife's edge as Humanity's inherent unwillingness to get along emerges on the horizon.
Rating 9.8/10
For more, see my spotlight on The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec Vol 1.
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