Crash Comics! -- Le Journal de Jérôme Kerviel

OK, this makes my day: a new comic featuring Jerome Kerviel, whose sham trading cost a leading French bank over 7 billion dollars. The book sparked so many orders that it has been pulled from Amazon until more copies can be printed.

The story of Mr. Kerviel - a native of Brittany, who rose through the ranks to Société Générale's trading floor without having attended any of France's elite schools - has made the 31-year-old a folk hero for many in France.

The pseudo-diary of Mr. Kerviel was written by an author who goes by the pen-name Lorentz and illustrated by Nicolas Million. The book starts with Mr. Kerviel as a young man at the bank, conscious of his humble origins as he compares his "three-button polyester suit" with the haute couture of his co-workers, saying, "I was all wrong."

It chronicles his rise to trader, showing him coming home to frozen dinners and renting Casino on DVD. As he begins trading beyond authorized limits, he takes his cues from random signs, like his concierge's observations about the weather or his horoscope in TV Guide. He mocks the bank's risk controls, fooling managers with a fake trade approval by photocopying a note onto German central bank letterhead.