Run like Crazy, Run like Hell

Tardi’s relentlessly paced adaptation of Manchette’s novel The Mad and the Bad presents readers with a fascinating noir tale that is as bleak as it is brilliant. Architect Michael Hartog hires Julie Ballanger, a patient in a psychiatric facility, as a nanny for his nephew, Peter. It seems that Hartog has a reputation for hiring staff who are “damaged,” although his motives aren’t entirely altruistic. Indeed, when Julie and Peter are kidnapped, the tale takes a dark turn, especially when the kidnapping goes wrong and the pair find themselves on the run from a deadly contract killer with his own complicated story. Tardi (It Was the War of the Trenches) is a revered comics master in his native France, and his illustrations here tell us so much about how complex these characters are. The occasional juxtapositions of the cartoonish and the grotesque imbue the narrative with a grim, sardonic humor. Readers can expect the type of story promised by the title in this heart-pounding narrative. (Mar.)