Elise and the New Partisans

By Dominique Grange and Jacques Tardi. 

Hardcover, 176 pages, B&W, 2024. 

Fêted French cartoonist Tardi masterfully dramatizes the activist and singer Dominique Grange's gripping first-person account of the powerful student protest movements that rocked France from the '60s to the '70s.

In May 1968, France exploded. Leftist student groups occupied the streets of Paris, riot police clashed with protesters, and a general strike spread across France like wildfire, threatening to grind government and industry to a halt. And at the heart of it all — Elise.

Ten years earlier, Elise came to Paris to try her luck in show business. While she met with success as a pop singer, she soon found herself radicalized by the Algerian War and the poor treatment of Algerian immigrants in Paris. For the next 20 years, she would join the fight against labor exploitation, social injustice, and racism in France — risking it all for progressive causes. The firsthand account of activist and singer Dominique Grange, Elise and the New Partisans is an authentic and exhilarating glimpse into the front lines of the spirited social movements of late-20th century France. Drawn with typical mastery by legendary French cartoonist Tardi, this graphic novel resonates powerfully at a time when the fight against injustice still rages.

"Elise is a tribute to revolutionaries who still believe in the great night. Tardi's line perfectly captures the violence of the clashes with the police and the tumult of those powder years." — Le Monde

"This comic is a raw, counter-cultural document. Tardi and Grange reconstruct a history of protest and deliver a testimony." — L'Humanité

"A comic with a raised fist." — Actua BD

"A new Jacques Tardi album is always an event in the world of comics." — Le Telegramme