The Arctic Marauder

Plot

In its ongoing quest to showcase Jacques Tardi’s wide range, Fantagraphics is publishing one of his earliest and most distinctive graphic novels: a satirical, Jules Vernes-esque “retro-sci-fi” yarn. In 1899, a ship navigating the Arctic Ocean comes across a stunning sight: a ghostly, abandoned vessel perched high atop an iceberg. Soon, the sailors’ own ship is dispatched via a mysterious explosion. Enter Jérôme Plumier, whose search for his missing uncle, the inventor Louis-Ferdinand Chapoutier, brings him into contact with the sinister, frigid forces behind this — and soon he, too, is headed towards the North Pole, where he will contend with mad scientists, monsters of the deep, and futuristic submarines and flying machines. Told with brio in hilarious slabs of vintage purple prose, The Arctic Marauder finds Tardi in fantastical mode and is a keystone of his oeuvre.