Total Jazz

In this freewheeling collection of short stories and vignettes, the famed French cartoonist examines not only the music but the nature of the jazz subculture. The grumpy festivalgoer, the curmudgeonly collector, and many other fan “types” are the targets of his unerring gimlet eye. Drawn in a range of styles as improvisational as Coltrane and Mingus — everything from loose linework to tight pen and ink to gestural pencils — Blutch captures the excitement of live performance, the lovelorn, and the Great Jazz Detective, who is out but not down.