Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge is a unique literary product. The English translation of the illustrated adaptation of a French version of a hardboiled private-eye mystery novel, it will be immediately familiar to fans of The Maltese Falcon, Philip Marlowe or Mickey Spillane.
Set in 1956 Paris, the mystery begins when Nestor Burma—a surly private investigator and former anarchist—receives a warning from a someone claiming to be a past associate. Intrigued, and perhaps even more intrigued by the mysterious dark-haired beauty who is following him, Burma travels to a local hospital. He is too late; the man has died and Burma must piece together the crime that is about to occur. As the story unfolds, Burma uncovers enemies hiding in plain sight, discovers links between his past and the present, and of course, embarks on a complicated romantic entanglement with the dark-haired woman.
The original series of Nestor Burma novels were written in French by Léo Malet (1909-1996). Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge was published in novel form in1956, and adapted into a graphic novel by the acclaimed French comics artist Jacques Tardi in 1982. Even though the graphic novel is only 67 pages long, it is quite dense. There is a lot of content here, and you need to pay attention. The mystery unfolds very slowly at first, and there are times when it’s uncertain if this story is going anywhere. Once the pieces begin to fall into place, however, the drama accelerates to its dramatic conclusion.
(A quick tangent—this graphic novel contains swearing, ‘adult situations’, one panel of full-frontal nudity, and lots of smoking. If such activity makes you clutch at a pearl necklace, you may not want to read this adaptation. Or have your children read it. At least not until they’re 35.)
Tardi’s adaptation is generally easy to read, although there are ocassionally disconnects between important plot points. Some characters are also under-developed, and the origins of their conflicted history with Burma unclear. Tardi may have assumed that his audience was already quite familiar with this mystery series and didn’t need to explain who the various characters were. A readership encountering Nestor Burma for the first time, however, is left with questions that remain unanswered.
There are panels in Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge that deserve to be analyzed in detail by anyone interested in the craft of making comics—they are just that good. The Nestor Burma mysteries are known for their vivid descriptions of Paris, and this adaptation continues that tradition. Tardi’s backgrounds are beautifully detailed, and Paris’ XIIIe arrondissement is very much a character in this work. The book is cinematic in its approach. You are immersed in the characters’ surroundings—the streets are wet with rainfall, smoke billows from Burma’s ever-present pipe, the métro rumbles through the neighbourhood, and everywhere are reminders of the ongoing French-Algerian conflict. Following Burma as he investigates is like taking a tour through the backstreets and alleys of this particular neighbourhood in 1950’s Paris.
This graphic novel may be in black, white and tones of grey, but Tardi demonstrates his mastery of this medium within each and every panel. The railway beams in the background actually look like steel. The crosshatching on one of Burma’s coats conveys both the look and the texture of a heavy herringbone fabric. And driving with the private detective is an experience, as the vintage vehicles seem to stop with both a jolt and a slight bounce. The weakest component (if there must be one) might be in the faces that Tardi draws; unlike the detailed backgrounds, character expressions are drawn with considerably less linework. Despite this, Tardi’s cartoonish faces are still able to convey emotions that elude other artists.
Over the course of his career, Malet wrote 33 novels and five short stories starring Nestor Burma as the cynical protagonist. Some of these novels were translated into English during the 1990’s, but they have since gone out of print. Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge is the only adaptation by Jacques Tardi that has been translated for an English audience. Hopefully comics publisher Fantagraphics will continue to translate more of this wonderful hardboiled crime fiction.
Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge
Leo Malet (Writer), Tardi (Illustrator)
Fantagraphics (released July 2017)
Hardcover
Fog Over Tolbiac Bridge
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