Impatient Adèle Blanc-Sec readers have been quizzing me about when they can expect the next Adèle volume, so I thought I'd give everyone a swift update that's not buried in the comments section on the tcj.com message board.
First, just as it was necessary to release The Arctic Marauder before the second volume of Adèle Blanc-Sec in order to fully sell the gag of the former book's cast suddenly showing up in the latter's, we need to publish yet another earlier Tardi book, Adieu Brindavoine, before moving onto our third Adèle book, because Brindavoine plays a major role in it and its continuity feeds straight into the Adèle continuity.
Second, while I love the "Adèle universe," I also love all of Tardi's other work, so I don't want to focus too heavily on those to the exclusion of all else. Thus the next book will be New York Mon Amour (featuring the re-translated and re-mastered Roach Killer, plus the legendary RAW-published "Manhattan" and three other NY-set Tardi stories that haven't been published in English before), in the Spring of 2012, and then, in the Fall of 2012, the full-color War of the Trenches semi-sequel Putain de Guerre! (tentative English language title for now: Goddamn This War!). Spring 2013 should see the release of Adieu Brindavoine in principle, but it's also entirely possible that some other Tardi book will muscle its way to the front of the line (Jacques has told me about his next project and it sounds like a doozy, so I'll want to slot that in as early as possible when it's completed). So Adèle #3 is likely to be at best Fall 2013, and quite possibly 2014, especially if I decide I want to start the "Nestor Burma" series or something.
Third, quitcher bitchin'! The poor French Adèle fans have been following this serial for three and a half decades, sometimes with gaps of close to ten years between books. So a two- or three-year wait between two volumes (which, I might add, are reprinting two Adèle books at a time) doesn't seem like a huge hardship, now does it? And cranking out ten Tardi books in four years (plus the Unfinished Fatale we just released as an FBI•MINI) is, if you ask me, a pretty decent pace overall.