Fantagraphics Books would like to bring to readers’ attentions the release of West Coast Blues, the new graphic novel adapted by Jacques Tardi from Jean-Patrick Manchette's classic crime thriller to be published next month by Fantagraphics Books.
West Coast Blues is a savage noir thriller reuniting a master crime novelist and a superlative French cartoonist. George Gerfaut, aimless young executive and desultory family man, witnesses a murder and finds himself sucked into a spiral of violence involving an exiled war criminal and two hired assassins. Adapting to the exigencies of his new life on the run with shocking ease, Gerfaut abandons his comfortable middle-class life for several months (including a sojourn in the countryside after an attempt to ride the rails turns spectacularly bad) until, joined with a new ally, he finally returns to settle all accounts... with brutal, bloody interest. This is the kind of graphic novel that Quentin Tarantino would love, and a double shot of Scotch for any fan of unrelenting, uncompromising crime fiction.
Jacques Tardi is the author of over 30 graphic novels and considered the leading European cartoonist of the generation that came of age in the 1970s. He lives in Paris, where he is currently working on another Manchette adaptation, Nada, for release in 2010. Jean-Patrick Manchette (1942-1995) authored ten short, highly acclaimed crime novels (two of which have been translated into English by City Lights, including West Coast Blues, under the title Three to Kill), as well as a multitude other books and teleplays. See Amazon's entry for Three to Kill http://www.amazon.com/Three-Kill-Jean-Patrick-Manchette/dp/0872863956/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249576940&sr=8-2 for reviews of the original prose version.
"“Tardi brings a rough and gritty reality and an existential strangeness that makes his crime stories different than anyone else’s. I’ll read anything he draws." —— ED BRUBAKER
"“To put it simply, this shit kicks ass.”" — — HOWARD CHAYKIN
PUB. DATE: OCT. 1, 2009
80 pages, Hardcover • ISBN 978-1-60699-295-1 • $18.99
Published by Fantagraphics Books, Inc.
7563 Lake City Way NE
Seattle, WA 98115
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| West Coast Blues cover image |
