Ici Même #[nn]

A striking collaboration between writer Forest and artist Jacques Tardi, this Casterman edition of Ici Même opens with a cover that immediately signals something wonderfully off-kilter. Rendered in Tardi's characteristically sharp black-and-white linework against a cool steel-blue ground, a wide-eyed, bowler-hatted figure clutches an old-fashioned telephone receiver to his ear while gripping an equally antiquated rotary phone — his expression caught somewhere between alarm and bewilderment. It's the kind of image that promises a story steeped in absurdist unease, and fans of Tardi's unmistakable draftsmanship will find plenty to savor here.