You Are There

One of the earliest full-length, standalone graphic novels to be published in Europe and certainly one of the most original, Ici Meme was seralised in the adult French comics monthly, A Suivre, in the early 1980s. A quarter of a century later, this dark, funny, consistently surprising masterpiece has finally been translated into English as You Are There. Drawn in Tardi's crisp, 1980s neo-clear line style, gorgeously detailed, elegantly stylised with impossibly deep slabs of black, You Are There is a feast for both the eyes and the brain.

About the Author :
Tardi is a pioneering, internationally award-winning European cartoonist. His Adele Blanc-Sec series was adapted into a feature by Luc Besson, and the animated film April and the Extraordinary World was inspired by his cartooning. He lives in Paris with his wife, the singer Dominique Grange, and their cats. There are worse things to be linked with than the image of a naked Jane Fonda spinning in zero gravity, but it should be stressed that Jean-Claude Forest's career in comics stretches far beyond Barbarella, the 1962 sci-fi romp that ushered in the era of adult comics first in France, then worldwide. He died in 1998 at the age of 58.

Review :
Tardi has nice skinny lines and large fields of black. His architecture and cars and landscapes are amazing. ...Arthur There running up and down the walls and living in this skinny little house are neat ideas. This book talks a lot about what it's like when you spend your life alone and how nuts a slutty crazy girl can make you.--Nick Gazin "Vice" The work's crackpot sensibility comes from Forest, best-known for creating the similarly droll sf heroine Barbarella, but it's Tardi's art, with its keen compositions, carefully placed areas of black and white, and sensuous line work, that ties the untidy story together. When this cynical, surreal satire appeared in France in the late 1970s, it was seen as a landmark in the development of the bande dessinée; three decades later, it stands to play a similarly valuable role by introducing American readers to one of Europe's greatest cartoonists.--Gordon Flagg "Booklist" You Are There is a masterpiece--a work unique in the history of comics, one of those books one reads and re-reads.--David B., author of Epileptic [You Are There] is an absurdist satire, ... and a pretty terrific one. ... [I]t's seriously a master class on creating a sense not just of place but of a claustrophobic, chaotic, unsustainable state of mind. ... Killer stuff, and more fun than you remember it from French class.--Sean T. Collins Fantagraphics' panties-to-the-floor handsome English-language version...may blow its own share of minds some three decades after the work's initial publication. ... It's a lost episode of Ripping Yarns in comics form by two in-their-prime masters, the French turned up to dix.--Tom Spurgeon "The Comics Reporter" Of all the comics published in 2009, none has deserved more acclaim... than You Are There. ... Tardi's art, which combines the liveliness and simplicity of the best cartooning with a well-observed realism, is perfect for this kind of surreal tale. ... His work deserves to be read and will endlessly reward readers who seek it out.--Robert Boyd "The Great God Pan Is Dead" Tardi's intricate, cartoony, and beautiful art perfectly expresses Forest's ideas and words. The humorous You Are There masterfully satirizes French society and politics unlike any comic before or since.--Rick Klaw "The SF Site: Nexus Graphica" The absurdity of Forest's script is brought to amazing life... It's a tremendous work of art, heightening the weirdness of the narrative very well. ... I would recommend You Are There because it's a thoughtful look at the pressure of conformity and what drives a man mad.--Greg Burgas "Comic Book Resources" Translated into English for the first time since it was written, more than 25 years ago, Jacques Tardi & Jean-Claude Forest's You Are There proves well worth the wait. Forest's satirical, minimalist writing lampoons French society and human greed with equal skill, and Tardi has never done better art: It's all deep, dark pools of blackness that perfectly match the pitch-dark humor of the writing. Equal parts Beckett and Kafka, the story explores the conflict between greedy speculators and the last heir of an aristocratic family whose land has been reduced to a series of precarious walls and towers. Tardi's intricate, gorgeous art gets better and better until the book's spectacular ending. It's an absolute must-read for anyone interested in how European comics got to where they are today. Had this been translated earlier, it likely would be counted as one of the masterpieces of the rich period of the mid-'80s... [Grade: ] A.-- "The Onion A.V. Club"