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The Mad Tsar
$7.99 – $22.49
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The Mad Tsar is extremely readable fun.
It's really cool, it's a little different, and I like it. I like it a lot.
Overall the story was enthralling and the style was intriguing due to an interesting use of color.
Additional information
| Format | |
|---|---|
| Pages | 140 |
| Genre | History, Satire |
| Color/B&W | Color |
| Rating | G |
Tarek Ben Yakhlef, Author
Graduate of the Sorbonne (University Paris I) in medieval history and art history, Tarek launched "Paris Tonkar" in 1991, the first art book dedicated entirely to urban street art in Paris, which is still considered an important reference for urban art lovers. Since 1999 Tarek has written more than sixty graphic novels with various publishers. His work has won several awards including the Saint-Michel Award for Best Screenplay for his graphic novel Sir Arthur Benton in 2007. Although his time is often balanced between photography, street art, and television, from writing a US TV pilot to exhibiting street art in Montreal, his interest inevitably returns to comics. He regularly attends conferences on comics, history and contemporary art, including the Cold War Symposium at Caen's Memorial in 2007, presenting his own particular insights from his experience in the industry.
Lionel Chouin, Artist
Lionel Chouin, born in Quimper, headed for Angoulême after obtaining his degree in Applied Arts. Together with his former study companions, he founded the Guy 2000 atelier, where he drew his first comic pages. At this point, he also met Denis Bajram, with whom he created the SF series 'Les Mémoires Mortes', which is published by Les Humanoïdes Associés in 2000. He eventually moved back to Britton, where he went to work on the 4th album in the series 'Les Morin-Lourdel', written by Raymond Maric and previously drawn by Baron Brumaire at Glénat publishers. With Tarek, he began the 'Le Tsar Fou' trilogy at Emmanuel Proust Éditions in 2005.
12 reviews for The Mad Tsar
The Mad Tsar
Christian Feliciano –
Ordered this graphic novel and it sat in my room for a little while since I always have a difficult time to sit down and start reading, but when I did, the difficult part was to put it down. The art, the stories, the characters… I mean, everything complement each other so well that I would just get lost in the pages. It’s been a while since I felt this emerged with a graphic novel.
Ralston Hough –
The story is a diverting kind of political fairy tale that takes place in an anachronistic, legendary Imperial Russia. The tsar is never named. Historical and literary references, within and outside Russia, are flung about as needed with no regard for timelines. The clothes and technology are nineteenth century, except when they’re not, etc. The point is not a depiction of real events but to tell an entertaining yarn with fun characters and a little humor. The book combines three tales originally published separately, with some common themes and light plot threads between and sharing the same cast of characters. I found the third portion to be the weakest, but it was enjoyable throughout.The art is lovely and, to me, rather unique. Line work is rendered in a kind of rough, cartoonish style that gives the characters great expression and recognizability. The use of light and color to define mood, time, setting, and action is brilliant and masterful. Environments especially struck me as far as their beauty in their own right. The imperial palaces and Russian countrysides and cities are rendered with impressive detail that provides a pleasing contrast to the simpler character designs.It is difficult for me to objectively assess the translation from the original French, as I don’t have the original and wouldn’t be able to read it anyway. It is mostly serviceable, but I suspect it suffers from a few errors. There were what seemed to me to be some confusions of character titles and one occasion where I feel a word must have been mistranslated, due to plot issues. There were also moments in which I suspected the humor was not being conveyed effectively. All of these were minor and do not reduce the book’s enjoyability.Visual errors that I think must have originated in the original book include a character’s design changing within one panel before being corrected again and a couple of confusing speech bubbles.Overall, it’s a fun and pretty book that can be read in an afternoon!
Yareliz Marie Pellot –
Overall the story was enthralling and the style was intriguing due to an interesting use of color. I feel as though the font could have been a bit larger as some speech bubbles just have quite a bit of white space.
Christian Feliciano –
Ordered this graphic novel and it sat in my room for a little while since I always have a difficult time to sit down and start reading, but when I did, the difficult part was to put it down. The art, the stories, the characters… I mean, everything complement each other so well that I would just get lost in the pages. It’s been a while since I felt this emerged with a graphic novel.
Lazarus –
This graphic novel collects, in English, the three volume series originally published in French.On an evening that theTsar is strolling in disguise as a peasant, he is captured and put in an asylum. His ministers, who’ve been conspiring against him come up with a plan to use him to replace himself as the Tsar unaware that he’s the real Tsar. Fans of movies such as “The Magnificent Fraud”, “Moon Over Parador” and “Dave” will enjoy this story.The artwork by Mr. Chouin reminded me of the raw early work of artists Kevin O’Neil and Simon Gane yet stand out on its own.
Jaime Thorpe –
Beautifuly illustrated, a really well don’t collection. This was a fantastic read.
Yareliz Marie Pellot –
Overall the story was enthralling and the style was intriguing due to an interesting use of color. I feel as though the font could have been a bit larger as some speech bubbles just have quite a bit of white space.
Hunter van Lierop –
I found The Mad Tsar throughly enjoyable and comedic. I’m not one for a politically driven story but this made me laugh so I’ll let it pass. Each of the 3 stories are great and connect well enough. I’d recommend this to any history buffs and people who like political comedies.
Jaime Thorpe –
Beautifuly illustrated, a really well don’t collection. This was a fantastic read.
Lazarus –
This graphic novel collects, in English, the three volume series originally published in French.On an evening that theTsar is strolling in disguise as a peasant, he is captured and put in an asylum. His ministers, who’ve been conspiring against him come up with a plan to use him to replace himself as the Tsar unaware that he’s the real Tsar. Fans of movies such as “The Magnificent Fraud”, “Moon Over Parador” and “Dave” will enjoy this story.The artwork by Mr. Chouin reminded me of the raw early work of artists Kevin O’Neil and Simon Gane yet stand out on its own.
Hunter van Lierop –
I found The Mad Tsar throughly enjoyable and comedic. I’m not one for a politically driven story but this made me laugh so I’ll let it pass. Each of the 3 stories are great and connect well enough. I’d recommend this to any history buffs and people who like political comedies.
Ralston Hough –
The story is a diverting kind of political fairy tale that takes place in an anachronistic, legendary Imperial Russia. The tsar is never named. Historical and literary references, within and outside Russia, are flung about as needed with no regard for timelines. The clothes and technology are nineteenth century, except when they’re not, etc. The point is not a depiction of real events but to tell an entertaining yarn with fun characters and a little humor. The book combines three tales originally published separately, with some common themes and light plot threads between and sharing the same cast of characters. I found the third portion to be the weakest, but it was enjoyable throughout.The art is lovely and, to me, rather unique. Line work is rendered in a kind of rough, cartoonish style that gives the characters great expression and recognizability. The use of light and color to define mood, time, setting, and action is brilliant and masterful. Environments especially struck me as far as their beauty in their own right. The imperial palaces and Russian countrysides and cities are rendered with impressive detail that provides a pleasing contrast to the simpler character designs.It is difficult for me to objectively assess the translation from the original French, as I don’t have the original and wouldn’t be able to read it anyway. It is mostly serviceable, but I suspect it suffers from a few errors. There were what seemed to me to be some confusions of character titles and one occasion where I feel a word must have been mistranslated, due to plot issues. There were also moments in which I suspected the humor was not being conveyed effectively. All of these were minor and do not reduce the book’s enjoyability.Visual errors that I think must have originated in the original book include a character’s design changing within one panel before being corrected again and a couple of confusing speech bubbles.Overall, it’s a fun and pretty book that can be read in an afternoon!