Jean-Patrick Manchette

Jean-Patrick Manchette was born on 19 December 1942 in France and died on 3 June 1995. He is best known as the French crime novelist who revitalized the genre in the 1970s and early 1980s with ten short, violent novels that dissect society and the human condition. A leftist, his work is marked by sharp social and cultural analysis. Though primarily a novelist, Manchette was also a devoted comics fan and translator; his French translation of Alan Moore's *Watchmen* remains in print and is highly regarded. He collaborated with cartoonist Jacques Tardi, whose adaptations of Manchette's novels *Le petit bleu de la côte ouest* (as *West Coast Blues*), *La Position du tireur couché* (as *Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot*), and *Ô Dingos! Ô Châteaux!* (as *Run Like Crazy Run Like Hell*) were published in English by Fantagraphics Books. In our catalog, Manchette is credited as a writer on 36 issues, with his most prominent credits appearing in series such as *BD : L'hebdo de la B.D.*, *Watchmen - Les Gardiens*, *Griffu*, and *Der Schnüffler*. Nine of his eleven novels have been translated into English, with several released by New York Review Books Classics and City Lights Books. His legacy endures as a pivotal figure in crime fiction whose work continues to reach new audiences through translation and graphic adaptation.