The Bloody Streets of Paris : 120 Rue De La Gare

Rating:
Summary: First-rate marriage of two genres
Review: The time is 1940-41 and the focus of this engaging and engrossing yarn is Nestor Burma, captured and interned by the Germans -- along with most of the rest of the French army -- following the blitzkrieg and the government's capitulation. Before the war, Burma ran the Fiat Lux detective agency in Paris and his investigative skills are needed again in finding the origin and identity of an amnesiac fellow prisoner -- and also the killer of an old friend and associate murdered before his eyes at a railway station. The cast of characters includes journalists, cops, lawyers, and crooks -- both big-time and two-bit. The German occupation is always in the background but it's not really part of the story. Rather, this is a classic "noir" murder mystery, complete with a wrap-up scene where everyone involved comes together to hear the detective explain the clues and identify the murderer. This is a sort of minimalist approach to the graphic novel form: Straight story-telling in black-and-white, each bit in its own rectangular frame, emphasis on the words rather than artsy effects. And it's an excellent piece of work.

Rating:
Summary: beautifully translated by jean-marc and randy lofficier
Review: this masterpiece of european comics, based on the leo malet detective novel, is impeccably drawn by Jacques Tardi and beautifully translated by Jean-March and Randy Lofficier. For mature readers due to a few questionable panels of nudity and contextual violence, it takes the reader into the heart of WWII occupied France with style, tension and detail. A not-to-be-missed graphic novel mystery.
--from ibooks, the publisher