tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2650063734664841992024-03-13T20:18:32.269-07:00Comics, French sideA blog devoted to comics, written from France. About French-speaking comics which could interest English-speaking readers and about the way some American comics can be appreciated in France.sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-20913469122578217292021-05-01T07:51:00.004-07:002021-05-01T08:23:45.860-07:00Great discussion between Jean-Christophe Menu and Fabrice Neaud on autobiography in comics<p align="justify">For those who know me or we have just followed this blog, you are aware that I am very fond of <a href="http://comicsfrenchside.blogspot.com/2017/04/from-1993-to-2003-rise-and-fall-of.html" target="blank">autobiographical comics</a>, and especially of <a href="http://soleille.neaud.com/eng" target="blank">Fabrice Neaud</a>, a French author who got huge critical acclaim publishing 4 volumes of autobiographical comics in the late 1990s and the early 2000s (he is working on more books...).</p>
<p align="justify">It should come as no surprise then that I have been very happy to learn that the latest issue of <i>European Comic Art</i> (March 2021) has published a long discussion between Fabrice Neaud and Jean-Christophe Menu, one of the (if not "the") godfathers of French-speaking indendepent comics since the early 1990s: He created one of the leading publishers of French independant comics (L'Association, which published, among many other masterpieces, <i>Epileptic</i> by David B and <i>Persepolis</i> by Marjane Satrapi) and wrote a few masterpieces in this field (such as <i>Livret de Phamille</i>). </p>
<p align="justify">This discussion, entitled (simply and rather sadly) "Autobiography: An autopsy" is available online here: <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/eca/14/1/eca140104.xml" target="blank">https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/eca/14/1/eca140104.xml</a></p>
<p align="justify">The exchange is not new, since it dates back to 2006 and was originally published in French a few years ago. But it is not oudated at all. Jean-Christophe Menu and Fabrice have known each other for years now. They are familiar with each other's works and share many views on the fate of autobiographical comics. In this email discussion, Jean-Christophe Menu inveighs against the deterioration of comics autobiography into a formulaic ‘genre’. Fabrice Neaud states that the autobiographical enterprise is necessarily a dangerous. He details the criticisms that have been made of his work (‘egotistical’, or formally over-conservative) and laments the tendency to equate artless scribbles with ‘sincerity’. Menu regrets that a distanced and selective portrayal of family life can be read as invasive of privacy, with devastating legal consequences. As usual with them, ideas are rich and flow easily.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5VorbT6fI94/YI1pCXBBMEI/AAAAAAAAFkU/iy2Ce_WcoQAbgNz3unJjes-2YEuGHAE2ACLcBGAsYHQ/s429/ECA-FN.JPG" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="429" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5VorbT6fI94/YI1pCXBBMEI/AAAAAAAAFkU/iy2Ce_WcoQAbgNz3unJjes-2YEuGHAE2ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/ECA-FN.JPG"/></a></div>
<p align="justify">All in all, 28 pages of very interesting talk on autobiographical comics. Enjoy!</p>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-34473412999273434402017-12-21T00:55:00.002-08:002017-12-21T00:55:59.245-08:00Monograph, by Chris Ware (2017)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Iexl0d53IuY/Wjrnw-jp4_I/AAAAAAAAFNk/UMAiqfJIqzAJntPq6r6OU_kBlX68oSV7wCLcBGAs/s1600/ware-monograph-couv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Iexl0d53IuY/Wjrnw-jp4_I/AAAAAAAAFNk/UMAiqfJIqzAJntPq6r6OU_kBlX68oSV7wCLcBGAs/s320/ware-monograph-couv.jpg" width="320" height="279" data-original-width="864" data-original-height="754" /></a></div><p align="justify">Chris Ware does not release books very often, but they generally move away from the usual standards of publishing. His latest book, <i>Monograph</i>, is no exception. Let us start by saying a few words of this book as an object. You may have a hard time storing it in your library: with its 46.5 cm high, 33.5 cm wide and 3 cm thick, it will not go unnoticed; it is even bigger than the <i>Building Stories</i> box, already very impressive. Furthermore, inside this book, a few booklets are pasted on different pages, thus creating secondary books within the main book ... As always, Chris Ware has carefully planned everything, controlled everything, conceived in detail every single inch of the book. And, as usual, it's beautiful, impressive and original.</p>
<p align="justify">Fine, but what is it about? What does this "object" contain? This is the illustrated autobiography of Chris Ware. In a chronological way, he tells his life and his work, delivering at the same time his vision of the art of comics.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C0kx_-AySCI/Wjrn4gYun-I/AAAAAAAAFNo/ROjmrudPn1QR4OoAtoX5Si3VRtXnR6gowCLcBGAs/s1600/ware-monograph_ny.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C0kx_-AySCI/Wjrn4gYun-I/AAAAAAAAFNo/ROjmrudPn1QR4OoAtoX5Si3VRtXnR6gowCLcBGAs/s320/ware-monograph_ny.png" width="320" height="218" data-original-width="850" data-original-height="580" /></a></div>
<p align="justify">To understand fully the wealth of <i>Monograph</i>'s iconography, it must be remembered that each page by Chris Ware has usually three lives: it is first published in the serialized comic strip that Chirs Ware had been publishing weekly for years (from 1992 to 2009 for his strip <i>The ACME Novelty Library</i>, in <i>NewCity</i> then in <i>The Chicago Reader</i>). The pages are then compiled in the <i>The ACME Novelty Library</i> books (20 volumes published from 1993 to now, plus an additional volume 18 ½, which presents some of his for the New Yorker). Finally, they are brought together again to form the final works, ambitious graphic novels (<i>Jimmy Corrigan</i> in 2000 and <i>Building Stories</i> in 2012, probably <i>Rusty Brown</i> in 2018) or collections of short stories (<i>Quimby the mouse</i> in 2003 and <i>The ACME Novelty Library Report to Shareholders</i> in 2005). For each book, Chris Ware draws new covers, new illustrations, etc. In parallel to this, he provides covers and stories to some prestigious magazines, such as the <a href="https://comicsfrenchside.blogspot.fr/2012/09/new-yorker-covers-by-chris-ware-2009_21.html" target="blank">New Yorker</a>. Beside all this "public" Chris Ware draws sketchbooks and improvised comic books. Last but ot least, Chris Ware is very fond of creating objects, doll houses or figurines figuring characters or places in his comic stories. The wealth of this protean work allows him to have many unpublished drawings and photographs at hand. Even an avid reader of his work will have the pleasure of discovering for the first time some unknown works.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WC8IKTjdNv0/WjroXAwafNI/AAAAAAAAFN0/-fQIARawI-YTMTmFy5KxobCSb16SNY4XQCLcBGAs/s1600/ware-monograph-couv-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WC8IKTjdNv0/WjroXAwafNI/AAAAAAAAFN0/-fQIARawI-YTMTmFy5KxobCSb16SNY4XQCLcBGAs/s320/ware-monograph-couv-2.jpg" width="320" height="279" data-original-width="864" data-original-height="754" /></a></div>
<p align="justify">With this very rich book, it is possible to discover further the abundant work of Chris Ware and better understand the intellectual and artistic journey of the author. He is convinced of the wide possibilities offered by comic as an art form to describe the way human spirit and memory work. This magnificent book perfectly exemplifies this, either through Chris Ware’s texts, his published pages or his unpublished works.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RJRlrqX1yBA/Wjrn-CgT_4I/AAAAAAAAFNs/YtnSzB7niL4FN9KllZFue-UNCW_7bRkugCLcBGAs/s1600/ware-monograph-laughing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RJRlrqX1yBA/Wjrn-CgT_4I/AAAAAAAAFNs/YtnSzB7niL4FN9KllZFue-UNCW_7bRkugCLcBGAs/s320/ware-monograph-laughing.jpg" width="250" height="320" data-original-width="624" data-original-height="800" /></a></div>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-63253598066864122122017-04-29T05:00:00.000-07:002017-04-29T05:05:35.253-07:00From 1993 to 2003, the rise and fall of autobiography in Franco-Belgian comics<p align="justify">When French comic book writer <b>Jean-Christophe Menu</b> wrote and illustrated the highs and lows of his tumultuous personal life, and used his difficulties as a lover and a father as the narrative backbone of his autobiographical series Livret de Phamille, he was likely not expecting that his wife would later present his work as evidence in his subsequent divorce settlement. Similarly, when <b>Fabrice Neaud</b>, got caught in another tumultuous gay love story, he could not imagine that this affair could bring his award-winning autobiographical series to an undesired end. In comics, as in life, some cards are perhaps best kept to the chest. During decades, Franco-Belgian comics had been nearly completely disconnected from their authors’ lives. In the early 1990s, several young authors put their most private stories into daylight. Bringing these secrets out of the closet led the way to a handful of masterpieces but also to personal turmoil for the artists involved.</p><p align="center">***</p><p align="justify">In the early 1990s, not much innovation or risk-taking was expected in Franco-Belgian comics. The latest revolution in Franco-Belgian comics, led by <b>Moebius</b>, <b>Gotlib</b>, <b>Brétécher</b> and other artists in the mid-1970s, with the creation of several artist-owned comics magazines for adults, such as <i>Heavy Metal</i>, was already quite far away and remembered as a golden age. Then came a radical change in Franco-Belgian comics. A few young authors, whose projects were rejected by most mainstream publishers, decided to create their own publishing companies and to release at last the comics they really wanted to draw. They had thus a much greater freedom to create, both in terms of format (the artists could choose the size, the number of pages, black & white or colors, etc.) and topics. Some of them decided to take benefit of this freedom by injecting real life and day-to-day issues into French-speaking comics. Far away from bigger than life adventure stories or repetitive one-page jokes, these authors released a series of true masterpieces in the field of autobiographical comics between 1993 and 2003.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I_TFqQojCbk/WQR70TXxdJI/AAAAAAAAFKk/MdRWvi4DWzM4kldIShCHK2PLTSMeKXmCACLcB/s1600/Edmond-Baudoin-Essuie-Glaces.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-I_TFqQojCbk/WQR70TXxdJI/AAAAAAAAFKk/MdRWvi4DWzM4kldIShCHK2PLTSMeKXmCACLcB/s320/Edmond-Baudoin-Essuie-Glaces.jpg" width="255" height="320" alt="Edmond Baudoin, Les Essuie-Glace, copyright Baudoin, Dupuis" /></a></div><p align="justify">A front-runner, <b>Edmond Baudoin</b> has one simple, but very ambitious target with his art: capturing life in his drawing. He often acknowledges that this is an impossible dream but, in each of his books, he keeps trying. <b>Baudoin</b>’s art is very intuitive and direct; what matters is life and movement (he loves drawing dancing people), not realism or precise likeness; people and backgrounds can change radically from one panel to another depending on the mood of the main character…</p><p align="justify"><b>Jean-Christophe Menu</b> and <b>Fabrice Neaud</b>, arriving a decade after <b>Baudoin</b>, are much more accurate and precise when they depict their life. In <i>Livret de Phamille</i> (Family booklet), <b>Jean-Christophe Menu</b> used innovative narrative technics (mixing of different time periods, involvement of several avatars of himself to multiply points of view, etc.) to describe his family life. He does not hide his repeated fights with his wife or his difficulty in being a father of several daughters.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LTbdTHOEI4Y/WQR7bOunhfI/AAAAAAAAFKg/neboYOh1-0YlkOfzg4jVW-bToF89zRNYwCLcB/s1600/Fabrice-Neaud-Journal-3.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LTbdTHOEI4Y/WQR7bOunhfI/AAAAAAAAFKg/neboYOh1-0YlkOfzg4jVW-bToF89zRNYwCLcB/s320/Fabrice-Neaud-Journal-3.gif" width="224" height="320" /></a></div><p align="justify">As a young gay art student in a small town of Southern France, <a href="http://soleille.neaud.com/eng/index.htm" target="blank"><b>Fabrice Neaud</b></a> has not an easy life: difficulties in making a living, hard times with one-night lovers met in the local public garden, impossible love story with a heterosexual guy, etc. His life does not offer any really striking events. But the great quality of his four-volume “<i>Journa</i>l” stems from his beautiful realistic drawing and the richness of the topics he deals with. His day-to-day misadventures lead him to comment and discuss much wider topics: his description of passion, his social commentaries, his depiction of many pitfalls of our society, his pointing out at any kind of poverty and exclusion (social, intellectual or affectional), his views on arts and comics are only some points of interest of his ground-breaking work. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SHSLZo1ZNbE/WQR-R8GhbEI/AAAAAAAAFKw/1NlFL3Czlt8Pn2Dn1qjkE8gc_ysBMLHugCLcB/s1600/david-b-epileptic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SHSLZo1ZNbE/WQR-R8GhbEI/AAAAAAAAFKw/1NlFL3Czlt8Pn2Dn1qjkE8gc_ysBMLHugCLcB/s320/david-b-epileptic.jpg" width="320" height="278" /></a></div><p align="justify">To name a few other talented artists, let us speak briefly of <b>David B</b>, who published the 6 volumes of <i>Epileptic</i>, the story of his brother suffering from this disease, between 1997 and 2003. Drawn in sharp black & white, filled with plenty of dreams, this strong familial story acquires a very specific tone. <b>Lewis Trondheim</b> drew the six volumes of his autobiographical comics, <i>Approximate Continuum Comics</i>, between 1993 and 1994. In this comics, in which all characters have an animal head, <b>Lewis Trondheim</b> pictures himself as a parrot. We are far from <b>Baudoin</b>’s philosophical quest on art and life, from Neaud’s deep analysis of social exclusion in modern society or from <b>Davis B</b>’s depiction of a family struggling with illness in day-to-day life. <b>Trondheim</b>’s style is firmly humorous; he portrays archetypal characters in whom most people aged between 25 and 50 can easily recognize themselves, at least to some extent.</p><p align="center">***</p><p align="justify">Unfortunately, this golden age could not last. These autobiographical comics faced two major challenges, somewhat unexpected, and failed to overcome them. The first one was raised by their characters, the second one by their success.</p><p align="justify">The first challenge is intrinsic to autobiographical stories: they always face the risk of upsetting the people they depict, all the more when they deal with complex, unhappily ending, love affairs. We already told the misadventure of <b>Jean-Christophe Menu</b>. Since his divorce, he has stopped drawing his friends and relatives in his books, talking mostly of music discs or concerts… Similarly, <b>Fabrice Neaud</b> has encountered difficulties because of his depiction of real people in his comics since the very beginning of his career. It has generated much misunderstanding, frequent aggressive discussion and heavy personal criticism. This difficult situation was even the core topic of a short story called “<i>Emile</i>” (<a href="http://www.ego-comme-x.com/spip.php?article559" target="blank">the full story is available online in English</a>), a brilliant tour de force in which he talked of the man he was then in love with, but without showing any single real-life character, only objects or city views… It finally became too difficult when his life got caught in tricky events, with some of them being brought to court, at the turn of the century. He has not published any autobiographical work since then.</p><p align="justify">On top of this, an additional challenge came from the growing competition from major mainstream publishers. The international success of <i>Persepolis</i>, by <b>Marjane Starapi</b>, about her youth in Iran during the Islamic revolution (more than one million books sold and a successful movie adaptation, prized in Cannes) achieved convincing mainstream publishers that there was a real business in autobiographical comics, or at least comics depicting real events. They decided to invest in autobiographical comics as well, but on their own terms: they were not interested in ground-breaking works, but wanted comics with simple narration and straight stories. Actually, they consider only two kinds of autobiographical comics: either light entertainment (short funny stories, depicting stereotypical young men and women; it is sometimes rather funny, often very superficial) or serious and educative stories: the quality of the comics per se does not really matter, at least not as much as the story itself, from great historical events to tearful family tales. This soft version of (auto)biographical comics flourished in mainstream publishers and progressively took over from the ground-breaking independent publishers who paved the way for autobiographical comics at the turn of the century.</p><p align="center">***</p><p align="justify">The story of Franco-Belgian comics, like many others, witnesses regular artistic ebbs and flows, with years of strong evolution and ground-breaking innovation, followed by years of standardization, with mainstream publishers taking profit from innovations of smaller publishers, softening the edges and bringing this novelty, somehow attenuated, to a greater audience. During the decade 1993-2003, we witnessed a truly incredible flourishment of ground-breaking autobiographical masterpieces in Franco-Belgian comics. Ex-wives, angry lovers, burgeoning success and innovation-adverse mainstream publishers brought an end to this golden age. Innovation and masterpieces were much scarcer in the following decade. Let’s wait for the next wave.</p>
sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-15586276609536062822014-09-05T00:58:00.000-07:002014-09-05T01:11:03.884-07:00How the world was: A Californian Childhood (L'Enfance d'Alan), by Emmanuel Guibert (2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GQ7-_26psRI/UbgDsNARieI/AAAAAAAADbc/HXOhXRL0kMs/s1600/Enfance-alan-Couv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GQ7-_26psRI/UbgDsNARieI/AAAAAAAADbc/HXOhXRL0kMs/s320/Enfance-alan-Couv.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">This post is an update of my initial message published in 2012. I just updated it because a translation into English of this superb book was released this summer...</p><p align="justify"><i>L'Enfance d'Alan</i> (i.e. "How the world was: A Californian Childhood" in the English version) was awarded the "Prix des libraires de bande dessinée" in 2012. In other words, the French comic book shop keeper association selected this book as the best one in 2012. They are comic book sellers, so they select each year a comic book that is quite easy to sell: one that looks not too innovative, with classical drawing; one that can be easily offered to a friend or a relative who usually doesn't read any comics. Consequently they usually choose a book that can potentially sell well, but not necessarily one of the best books of the year. This time, with <i>L'Enfance d'Alan</i>, it was both.</p><p align="justify">This book is very interesting not only because it is an excellent comic book but also because Emmanuel Guibert manages, more than most of the contemporary comics artist, to draw books that are both very easy-to-read, even for people that are not used to reading comics, and of a very high artistic quality. Thus combining artistic quality and acceptability by a very wide audience is not very easy. Hergé, Hitchcock, Jean-Luc Godard in some of his early movies, Charles Schulz managed to do that. But, in my opinion, few of the great contemporary comics artists combine these two characteristics. How talented can be Edmond Baudoin and Fabrice Neaud, Chris Ware and Jaime Hernandez (and I consider them very, very talented), I think you must have already developed some kind of artistic taste to fully appreciate their work.</p><p align="justify"></p><p align="justify">At first reading, <i>L'Enfance d'Alan</i> tells the story of a Californian boy, Alan Cope, in the 1930s. And, in this aspect, it already is very interesting. California at this time is both far way from our present-day preoccupations (no information technology, fear of the war, importance and danger of ordinary diseases...) and very near (the world crisis, the beginning of leisure society, etc.). But there is much more than this: it tells also the story of a young adult remembering his childhood, that of an old man remembering both his childhood and his youth and that of a middle-aged French man (Emmanuel Guibert himself) drawing the story of a late American friend (Alan Cope died between the time when he shared his memories with Emmanuel Guibert and the time when the latter drew this book).</p><p align="justify">It is a book about childhood, as it can be seen immediately, but also a book about memory, a book about how an old man revives his past through often-reminded remembrances. It is a book about memories and getting old. Which souvenirs will accompany a man throughout his whole life? Some of these souvenirs seem important, others do not. Some of them are vividly remembered, others in a very shady way.</p><p align="justify">Emmanuel Guibert implements very different ways to convey all these types of souvenirs and to tell this story with all these temporal layers (childhood, adulthood, old age, etc.).</p><p align="justify">A good example is the following double splash page. You can see one of the houses Alan lived in when he was a young boy; on the left page, we can see as it was (or as Alan remembers it was) when he lived there; on the right page, you can see the same house, but some years after, with Alan as a teenager looking at it and remembering his childhood. And the caption is the voice of Alan as an old man remembering both his childhood and the time when, as a teenager, he came back to this house...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_ZIGRGyqGNg/UbgBuGfUzCI/AAAAAAAADa4/MAy-23vxLx8/s1600/enfance_alan_house.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_ZIGRGyqGNg/UbgBuGfUzCI/AAAAAAAADa4/MAy-23vxLx8/s320/enfance_alan_house.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify"></p><p align="justify"></p><p align="justify">Emmanuel Guibert´s art is also an art of equilibrium: he always strikes the right balance between text and art, between black (the black of shadow) and white (the white of forgotten past). </p><p align="justify">On the double page below, the young Alan is walking with his father. The latter has just bought the former an ice-cream. Unfortunately Alan lets this ice cream fall on the ground. His family were not rich, getting an ice cream was a luxury, losing it was a little drama. What does Alan remember of this event? nothing but he, his father and the ice cream. The place, the surrounding, the other people, everything else vanished from his memory long ago.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sk2YOlEpoPM/UbgCf-fvtkI/AAAAAAAADbA/G10YxP5wSaM/s1600/enfance-alan-ice-cream.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Sk2YOlEpoPM/UbgCf-fvtkI/AAAAAAAADbA/G10YxP5wSaM/s320/enfance-alan-ice-cream.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">Similarly, when Alan tells us about his games, black and white, image and text are perfectly balanced...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vtXlr26th_o/UbgEbck5weI/AAAAAAAADbo/jb5Qm-jMriw/s1600/enfance-alan-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vtXlr26th_o/UbgEbck5weI/AAAAAAAADbo/jb5Qm-jMriw/s320/enfance-alan-1.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">And, last but not least, Emmanuel Guibert's drawing ability is very high, his art is really beautiful. His so particular grey-and-white inking gives a specific texture to what he draws that reminds the reader of old snapshots.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ztHuTiFuVJY/UbgDPuJKe_I/AAAAAAAADbU/4l6FdvWj1KU/s1600/enfance-alan-car.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ztHuTiFuVJY/UbgDPuJKe_I/AAAAAAAADbU/4l6FdvWj1KU/s320/enfance-alan-car.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify"></p><p align="justify">Most readers won't realize how good an artist Emmanuel Guibert is. They will just think: "Wow! This is a really good comic book!" But it is the most important, isn't it?</p><p align="justify"><i>Alan's War</i>, the book in which Emmanuel Guibert tells the memories of the same Alan Cope, but refgarding his experience during WW2, was published in English in 2008 by First Second. Let's hope they will translate <i>L'Enfance d'Alan</i> shortly.</p>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-44134413350364907252014-01-14T11:49:00.001-08:002014-01-22T03:45:06.772-08:00The Explainers, vol. 1 (1956-1966), by Jules Feiffer<p align="justify">Feiffer is nearly completely unknown in France (even though he wrote the screenplay of one of Alain Resnais', a great French movie director, movie, I want to go home). He is probably better known in North America, but not that much (I mean outside a little group of comics specialists). What is sure is that very few of his books are currently available. And, after having completed The Explainers, I am deeply that the unavailability of his books is a real shame.</p><p align="justify"><i>The Explainers</i> collects the weekly strip Feifffer had been publishing in <i>The Village Voice</i> for 40 years (or, at least, it should be; the first volume, the only that has been released yet, covers the first 10 years, from 1956 to 1966). What are all these strips about? They deal with people who talk, who explain who (they think) they are, what they (try to) do, what they feel, what they want.</p><p align="justify">A lot of blah-blah, one could say. And I must admit it was my first impression. But after reading quite a few strips I progressively realized that it was much, much more than that.</p><p align="justify">Feiffer understands very well his fellow citizens. He points out their weaknesses, their hypocrisies, their contradictions. It is impressive in a double way: firstly because <i>The Explainers</i> gives an extraordinary and vivid picture of the middle to high class urban Americans of the years 1956 to 1966, with the rise of the Civil Rights movement, the escalation of the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the beginning of the contestation of the consomption society; secondly, because a lot of the issues at stake in these strips remain, after more than 50 years, at the heart of our present day society.</p><p align="justify">Feiffer draws all this is his unique way: the expression of his characters is incredibly well depicted; bodies and faces make explicit all that is hidden in the speeches of these explainers. In this way, most of the strips are a graphic tour de force.</p><p align="justify">Nonetheless, I am a bit worried: Fantagraphics have released this first volume of <i>The Explainers</i> quite some time ago, and there is no news about the next issues... Perhaps this first volume was not successful enough to permit the publication of the next three volumes? Please, Fantagraphics, <i>The Explainers</i> is a masterpiece in the depiction of the Western way of life and of thinking in the second half of the 20th century, so do not wait too long before publishing the following volumes of this great masterwork!</p>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-63715630841297915982013-11-17T10:17:00.000-08:002013-11-17T10:17:03.730-08:00Universal War, by Denis Bajram (from 1996 onwards)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XSDurx09bY4/UokEhynfv2I/AAAAAAAADsA/1mTQbfn3Woo/s1600/bajram-uw2-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XSDurx09bY4/UokEhynfv2I/AAAAAAAADsA/1mTQbfn3Woo/s320/bajram-uw2-1.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">Nowadays, French-speaking comics are not necessarily very well known in the science-fiction field. OK, we had Moebius and Enki Bilal, but the former is dead and the latter spends more time painting and selling his paintings than drawing comics. Now, French-speaking artists are probably more renowned for intimistic stories (from Lewis Trondheim to David B). </p><p align="justify">American readers looking for a good SF comics will probably not investigate on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. But they may be wrong. Denis Bajram, a French artist, has been creating since the mid 1990s one of the most interesting, ambitious, captivating, mind-blowing SF saga of the last 30 years. It is called <i>Universal War</i>. Three 6-volume each sagas are planned. The first arch (called <i>Univarsal War One</i>, or <i>UW1</i>) was published between 1996 and 2003, and was publihed in the US by Marvel Comics in 2008 and 2009. The first volume of the second arch (<i>Universal War 2</i>...) was released in September 2013.</p><p align="justify">
</p>
<p align="justify"><i>Universal War One</i> begins at a time, at the end of the 21st century, when all the solar system has been colonized. A civil war between the United Earth Forces (UEF) and the Colonization Industrial Companies (CIC), which comprises the various outposts and colonies beginning at the planet Saturn and beyond, is about to break out. Near Saturn, we follow the adventures of the Purgatory Squadron, which is composed of members who face Court Martial for various infractions (which we discover progressively). Suddenly, a black wall appears near Saturn, cutting the solar system in two. This wall absorbs all light and matter. Incredibly big, incomprehensible and terrifying, the Wall is centered on Uranus's moon Oberon, cutting off access to any planet beyond Saturn. The Purgatory Squadron, more or less in line with commands from the headquarters, will explore this wall and try and discover what is behind. This search will bring them in various points of the solar system and will reveal completely unknown parts of themselves and of the scientific field...
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QOL3c_w7txM/UokHvF_72zI/AAAAAAAADsM/gJ8u_c2o8Cg/s1600/bajram-universalwarone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QOL3c_w7txM/UokHvF_72zI/AAAAAAAADsM/gJ8u_c2o8Cg/s320/bajram-universalwarone.jpg" /></a></div>
<p align="justify">In this saga, Denis Bajram mixes together classical elements of SF sagas with an incredible maestria. Each volume of the saga brings new elements and rises the issues at stakes to a higher level. From a problem located aroud Saturn, it slowly becomes a war that could change the future of mankind as a whole. The plot is very complicated, with numerous people and times involved but everything is very carefully designed, nothing is left to chance. A perfect balance is found between the particular stories of a few characters and the overall fate of the system solar as a whole, between human feelings and scientific descriptions.
</p>
<p align="justify">And, last but not least, Denis Bajram's art is very efficient: his spaceships are very convincing, his compositions are very impressive. A must-have for any SF fan and a very good way to discover SF for all the people who think that they are not fond of spaceships and exploding stars...</p>
<p align="justify">sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-29505722334568245262012-09-21T04:59:00.001-07:002012-09-21T05:10:18.709-07:00New Yorker covers by Chris Ware (2009-2012)<p align="justify">I have recently discovered, <a href="http://danielgray.com/blog/chris-ware-on-the-new-yorker.html" target="blank">on this website</a>, several wonderful covers drawn by Chris Ware for the <i>New Yorker</i>. I already knew two of them, which were included in the beautiful, and over-sized, <a href="http://par-la-bande.blogspot.fr/2011/08/acme-novelty-library-18-12-de-chris.html" target="blank"><i>Acme Novelty Library 18 1/2</i></a>. I saw the other ones for the first time.
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-elg2KWBWV3c/UFoGTfJKfXI/AAAAAAAACP0/v-h2Dz-TI14/s1600/NewYorkerNovember2009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="232" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-elg2KWBWV3c/UFoGTfJKfXI/AAAAAAAACP0/v-h2Dz-TI14/s320/NewYorkerNovember2009.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">Once again, I was deeply impressed by the amazing quality of Chris Ware's art. Everything is thoroughly thought and minutely drawn: the compositions are really powerful, the drawings are superb and colors are very subtle and rich.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1H64MXhnHrk/UFoGZUNt34I/AAAAAAAACQA/A1CtTY93oyw/s1600/NewYorkerOctober2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="226" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1H64MXhnHrk/UFoGZUNt34I/AAAAAAAACQA/A1CtTY93oyw/s320/NewYorkerOctober2010.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">Each covers tells a story in itself. A simple glimpse at them makes us discover a part of the lives of the people on them or, more generally speaking, a specific element of our modern Western society.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8cmkdGcNOO8/UFoGfjLdpWI/AAAAAAAACQM/F7iSRRbusQE/s1600/NewYorker_May_2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="214" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8cmkdGcNOO8/UFoGfjLdpWI/AAAAAAAACQM/F7iSRRbusQE/s320/NewYorker_May_2012.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">In a way, these covers remind me of some Edward Hopper's paintings. Of course, they differ in many ways: Chris Ware's very precise art looks different from Edward Hopper blurry, more or less impressionistic, painting; and Edward Hopper mostly depicted lonely people whereas Chris Ware's covers are very often rather crowded (but nowadays, where can we be more lonely than in a crowd? which is more or less the central topic of many Chris Ware's stories, from <i>Jimmy Corrigan</i> to <i>Rusty Brown</i>). But both of them use pastel shades to describe typical scenes of present-day American way of life. Their paintings look very silent to me, very calm; but at the same time, they are very meaningful; each one of them makes me feel like stopping for hours in front of it, to enjoy fully its silent beauty and to try and fathom its subtle mysteries.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hN6_uxdazcA/UFoGmt2IouI/AAAAAAAACQY/7A8Hf0_jFjk/s1600/NewYorkerSeptember2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="218" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hN6_uxdazcA/UFoGmt2IouI/AAAAAAAACQY/7A8Hf0_jFjk/s320/NewYorkerSeptember2012.jpg" /></a></div>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-71065057896579559652012-09-13T05:59:00.002-07:002012-09-13T06:50:04.367-07:00A Chinese Life, by Li Kunwu and Philippe Ôtié (2009-2011; 2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5BnjKxMXcSI/UFD6I3G0FDI/AAAAAAAACMk/AB6oR_PjuvE/s1600/chineselife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5BnjKxMXcSI/UFD6I3G0FDI/AAAAAAAACMk/AB6oR_PjuvE/s320/chineselife.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">The Chinese people have lived, during the past few decades, many extraordinary upheavals which cannot be easily fathomed by any Western person: the arrival of the Communist Party at the head of the State (1949), the Great Leap Forward (1958-1961), aiming at improving significantly Chinese agriculture but responsible for the starvation to death of tens of millions of people; the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), in which the then Chairman of the Communist Party, Mao Zedong, created a revolution against his own ruling comrades, an unbelievable turmoil during which everything was constantly changing, political power was passing from one faction to another at an incredible speed; the cult of personality surrounding Mao Zedong and his death (1976); the shift from a Marxist economy to an ultraliberal one; the metamorphosis from an underdeveloped third World country to an economic giant and a political superpower; the rise and fall of the hope for a political change in the Tiananmen Square...</p><p align="justify">Chinese people have lived through all this. And I must admit that I have always been unable to figure out what these people think of their own history, how they feel about their country, about their leaders, about the evolution of their society.</p><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iqhw4xKMXtc/TrVeArOnQ-I/AAAAAAAABSc/DX6G6Yqmjks/s1600/une-vie-chinoise-i.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 234px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iqhw4xKMXtc/TrVeArOnQ-I/AAAAAAAABSc/DX6G6Yqmjks/s320/une-vie-chinoise-i.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671542671440036834" /></a><p align="justify">Here lies the great quality of <i>A Chinese Life</i>. Li Kunwu is a Chinese artist whose father took part in every phase of the Chinese Communist Party since the Second World War. Based on Li Kunwu's memories, Philippe Ôtié, a French writer, drafted a storyboard that was drawn by Li Kunwu himself. This close collaboration was successful and the resulting graphic novel is very pleasant to read: The story is clear and easy to follow, even for someone not specialized in Chinese history (whereas the historical events told are very complicated...). Li Kinwu's art, with a strong influence from his Eastern formation, is original and nice.</p><p align="justify"><i>A Chinese Life</i> may not be a great masterpiece but it gives a fascinating insight into how it can feel like to have led a Chinese life for the past few decades.</p>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-56960686389771486332012-09-07T14:03:00.001-07:002012-09-21T07:19:28.326-07:00Adolf, by Osamu Tezuka (1983-1985; 2012)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tRz9zGEFxRg/UEpgoRWaofI/AAAAAAAACMQ/NFplyXirFh8/s1600/tezuka-adolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="238" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tRz9zGEFxRg/UEpgoRWaofI/AAAAAAAACMQ/NFplyXirFh8/s320/tezuka-adolf.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">At the beginning of his career, Osamu Tezuka was specialised in comics for kids, with well-known works such as <i>King Leo</i>, <i>Metropolis</i> or <i>Astro Boy</i>, all of them with a deep influence by Walt Disney. But, from the late 50s, a new kind of manga, the "gegika" (or "dramatic pictures"), more adult-oriented, began to have much success, lead by the great Yoshihiro Tatsumi (whose autobiographical <i>A Drifting life</i> was released in 2009 by Drawn and Quarterly). Tezuka could have been overwhelmed by this new kind of comics. But he reacted with all his talent and published stories for a more mature audience, with more complex plots, more violence, some sex, etc. All this with as much, if not more, commercial and artistic success than before.</p><p align="justify">Nonetheless, two things did not change in Tezuka's latter works: their very high quality and their underlying philosophy. Tezuka combines a deep faith in humanity, stressing out in all his works the importance of the necessary respect due to any living being, and the frightful conviction that men can be extrememy harmful for the people and the environment around them.</p><p align="justify">Among the (numerous) masterpieces of this second part of Tezuka's career, <i>Message to Adolf</i> may be, with <i>Black Jack</i>, one of the most easily accessible to Western readers. Firstly it is deeply rooted in historical events well known to Europeans or North-Americans: it takes place mostly during the 2nd World War, beginning in Germany during the Berlin Olympic Games and ending in Israël, some time after the creation of this State. There is a single hero, whom we follow during the whole story, Sōhei Tōge. The plot is relatively simple, compared with many characters, places and times of <i>Phoenix</i>; there is not as much Oriental metaphysics as in <i>Buddha</i>.</p><p align="justify"><i>Message to Adolf</i> was one of the first works by Osamu Tezuka to be published in English, in the mid 90s (in 5 volumes). It is published once again, in two volumes.</p><p align="justify">For those who have not read this masterpiece yet, this new publication (even though the new cover is rather badly chosen, in my humble opinion) could be (must be, should I say) a good opportunity to discover this book. Even if <i>Adolf</i> may be less idiosyncrasic for Tezuka than <i>Phoenix</i>, for instance, it includes all of the main qualities of Tezuka's works: great storytelling, very innovative layouts, strong humanism, very good insertion of fictional characters and events into important historical facts, etc.</p>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-6757831113649530432012-09-05T10:58:00.003-07:002012-09-10T04:38:59.860-07:00New pages from Fabrice Neaud's "Diary"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VgpZW_OzasM/UEX6B-NiXJI/AAAAAAAACLM/ZSWt__cmck4/s1600/journal-direct-2003-2004.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="214" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VgpZW_OzasM/UEX6B-NiXJI/AAAAAAAACLM/ZSWt__cmck4/s320/journal-direct-2003-2004.gif" /></a></div><p align="justify">Fabrice Neaud has not released a single volume of his famous (at least among French-speaking good comics lovers...) "Diary" since 2002. For the last 10 years, he has published only a few short stories from his <i>Diary</i> in various magazines or compilations. (Plus two full length books; but in the first one, he was only the artist, not the writer; and the second one, a science-fiction book, is only the beginning of a potentially long saga...) </p><p align="justify">So it is very good news to hear that his publisher, Ego comme X, has decided to release each week new <a href="http://blog.ego-comme-x.com/spip.php?article74" target="blank">unpublished pages extracted from his <i>Diary</i> from 2003 and 2004</a>. </p><p align="justify">What can we discover in these new pages? As usual, should I say (but any "usual" thing by Fabrice Neaud is extremely good): beautiful art, interesting thoughts on literature or modern society, a few anecdotes about his sexual life (by the way, it is for mature readers). </p><p align="justify">Unfortunately, it is only in French. But it is nonetheless a good opportunity to discover new and beautiful art by Fabrice Neaud.</p>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-15982898278919190312012-08-30T13:24:00.001-07:002012-09-10T04:36:24.236-07:00Inception, by Christopher Nolan (2010) and Barbarella 3, by Jean-Claude Forest (1977)<p align="justify">To most, if not all, English-speaking people, the name <i>Barbarella</i> will evoke nothing but a science-fiction movie, starring Jane Fonda (not always with a lot of clothes on…). But, at least for some French-speaking comics addicts, <i>Barbarella</i> is, first and foremost, a fantastic 4-volume comics saga, by the great Jean-Claude Forest. In my humble opinion, <i>Barbarella</i> is much better than <i>You are there</i>, probably the only book written by Jean-Claude Forest (but drawn by Jacques Tardi) now available in English (it was published by Fantagraphics in 2009). <i>Barbarella</i> is a science-fiction saga, whose heroine wanders through the galaxy in her spaceship, without fear and with a lot of curiosity. She encounters many incredible living beings, fantastic and poetic. When the first book was published, in 1964, it created some scandal and was banned by censorship because it was considered as very erotic; times have changed and the sexual component of these four books is much less shocking than nearly 50 years ago... </p><p align="justify">Some time ago, I read again these comic books. When reading the third one, <i>Le Semble-Lune</i>, initially published in 1977 (and translated by <i>Heavy Metal</i> as <i>Barbarella and The Moon Child</i> the year after), I was very surprised to discover that the plot was very similar to that of a movie I had seen a few weeks before… <i>Inception</i>, by Christopher Nolan.</p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ambDr6p-0zY/TKzhCISsi4I/AAAAAAAAAf4/AGi1zn_f0hE/s1600/semble-lune.gif"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 261px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ambDr6p-0zY/TKzhCISsi4I/AAAAAAAAAf4/AGi1zn_f0hE/s320/semble-lune.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5525038269578644354" border="0" /></a><p align="justify">What is <i>Le Semble-Lune</i> about? Barbarella gets a mission of a very special kind: she has to introduce herself in a certain man’s dreams to steal him a secret… Which is more or less the central concept of the whole <i>Inception</i> concept. And that is not all: Barbarella spends some time living with the man she loves in the world of dreams. She does not want to go back to the real world any longer. She goes alone in an isolated place, where the sea is very present and where her lover comes to find her back. Both of them go always further down into multi-layered dreams; they even venture to the last layer of dream, just before the great unknown (a kind of Limbo), from where nobody ever came back. And a part of the story is about a child... I cannot help estimating that the similarities between both stories are very impressive...</p><p align="justify">Could it be only some kind of coincidences? Or some clichés that it is possible to discover in many different science-fiction stories? Or could there be a real influence of <i>Barbarella</i> on <i>Inception</i>, in a direct or an indirect way? I am not completely sure. But if any of you has some idea about these surprising similarities, please let me know…</p>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-43070998723347933202012-08-28T10:16:00.000-07:002012-08-30T13:31:55.632-07:00Diario de guerra, by Alberto Breccia (1960-1961; 2009)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mzARwVL1NIg/UDz3PWMLLmI/AAAAAAAACIk/20AiIV11vt4/s1600/breccia-ddg0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="246" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mzARwVL1NIg/UDz3PWMLLmI/AAAAAAAACIk/20AiIV11vt4/s320/breccia-ddg0.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">It is very difficult to get hold of comics by the great Uruguayan artist Alberto Breccia. Or, should I say, it is difficult to get them in Spanish (his native language) or in French, very difficult in Italian or German and nearly impossible in English or any other language. So it may appear as a pity that the latest publication of some of his works (released in 2009), should be constituted of such minor works as <i>Diario de guerra</i>. But let's be clear: even on these minor works, Alberto Breccia displayed an amazing talent, if not the incredible genius he would show in most of his later works, from <i>Mort Cinder</i> to <i>Dracula</i>, through <i>Perramus</i> and <i>Buscavidas</i>.</p><p align="justify"><i>Diario de guerra</i> is a Spanish compilation of four war stories drawn by Breccia, initially released in specialised comic books in Great Britain in 1960 and 1961. Their writers are unknown and they are adapted from popular novels. However very conventional, the plots are quite pleasant to read. But the strong point here, and the reason why these very classical stories deserve not to be forgotten, is Alberto Breccia's art. At this middle stage of his career (he was 41 at this time), he is a true master of realistic drawing. He can draw anything in an excellent way: warriors and femmes fatales, planes, trucks and boats, Asian jungle and French countryside, intimate conversations and frightening explosions or accidents... All this with the right level of realism and movement. In these pages, two main elements were already beginning to escape from conventional realism: quite often, Alberto Breccia was using expressionistic ways to increase the suspense or the acme of the story: weird angles, exaggerated shadows, etc.; besides he loved dwelling on wrinkled faces, especially those of elder men. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kyawESxmkbE/UDz37AfsoUI/AAAAAAAACIw/jxaXrW0I5Ys/s1600/breccia-ddg2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="223" width="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kyawESxmkbE/UDz37AfsoUI/AAAAAAAACIw/jxaXrW0I5Ys/s320/breccia-ddg2.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">This is only the beginning of what he would be capable in his later works. After more than 20 years of conventional drawing, having reached a great level of mastering in realistic art, he will develop much more original and experimental techniques: fantastic expressionism (inspired by famous German film-makers such as Murnau or Fritz Lang), inclusion of photographs, cut paper, colour painting, caricature, etc. During the following 30 years, this never-ending experimentation would give birth to numerous masterpieces, all worth being read and read again...</p><p align="justify">But this is another story...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4tdMatsBCok/UDz6DBKajsI/AAAAAAAACI8/_WbB7CrpEfE/s1600/breccia-ddg1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="241" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4tdMatsBCok/UDz6DBKajsI/AAAAAAAACI8/_WbB7CrpEfE/s320/breccia-ddg1.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">P.S.: You can get much information about Alberto Breccia on this website: <a href="http://www.alberto-breccia.net/" target="blank">http://www.alberto-breccia.net/</a>. It is in French but it contains many images, which can easily be enjoyed without understanding the language...</p>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-21017355276235058302012-08-09T13:10:00.001-07:002012-08-23T09:19:34.976-07:00Kamui-Den, by Shirato Sanpei (1964-1970)<p align=justify>Shirato Sanpei is often dubbed as the first Marxist mangaka. It is true that his masterpiece, Kamui-Den, whose publication began in the since then very famous magazine Garo in 1964, can be read as a long (6,000 pages) story of class struggle in feudal Japan. All the layers of the Japanese society of the Edo period (1603-1868) are depicted and the numerous injustices of this society are heavily criticised. The social movements of the Edo period are described with much precision and accuracy. We understand quite well the numerous and complex mechanisms in place to maintain an oppressive society: how the Shogun oppresses the warriors (they are obliged to spend every two year in Edo, the capital, so that the Shogun can easily keep an eye on them); how the warriors oppresses the peasants and the pariahs (they do all what they can to increase the division and the hate between peasants and pariahs lest these two classes of poor people join their strengths to overthrow the ruling classes); how the merchants develop their wealth thanks to the weaknesses of this feudal society. Furthermore Kamui-Den was considered by Japanese students in the 1960s as a perfect flagship for the numerous revolts of the time. All this is true.</p><p align=justify>True but not enough. Kamui-Den and Shirato Sanpei are much more than this. Kamui-Den is a breathtaking, beautifully drawn epic and Shirato Sanpei id one of the greatest manga artist I have ever read.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-csDNLNDHaeQ/UDZXw48df8I/AAAAAAAACAU/QV41steiCCU/s1600/kamui-den-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="210" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-csDNLNDHaeQ/UDZXw48df8I/AAAAAAAACAU/QV41steiCCU/s320/kamui-den-1.jpg" /></a></div><p align=justify>Kamui-Den is the story of a rural Japanese region during the Edo period (1603-1868). Many characters are involved, from various social classes. The three main ones are Kamui, the pariah, Shôsuke, the very clever son of a domestic in a peasant village and Ryûnishin, the samurai, whose family will be killed as the aftermath of complicated clan struggle. The three of them discover progressively the complexity of the Japanese feudal society and all the injustice it includes. They will have to fight the a prioris of the whole society, including their friends and families, to live the lives they want.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4SUyw3UH_tA/UDZX44Lcj7I/AAAAAAAACAg/LVAnCB5dE54/s1600/kamui-den-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4SUyw3UH_tA/UDZX44Lcj7I/AAAAAAAACAg/LVAnCB5dE54/s320/kamui-den-2.jpg" /></a></div><p align=justify>The art is absolutely gorgeous. From magnificent landscapes to various animal scenes, from face-to-face discussions to demonstration scenes, Shirato Sanpei looks very good at drawing absolutely any kind of scenes. Many panels, especially those of fights, are really breathtaking.</p><p align=justify>In a nutshell, Shirato Sanpei can be considered as a Marxist mangaka. His criticism of social oppression and his description of class struggle are powerful and interesting. But he is much more than this. His art is incredibly good and his storytelling is complex and captivating.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Vg3UfZmMY80/UDZYCntg_GI/AAAAAAAACAs/XXmOjGhehu4/s1600/kamui-den-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Vg3UfZmMY80/UDZYCntg_GI/AAAAAAAACAs/XXmOjGhehu4/s320/kamui-den-3.jpg" /></a></div>
sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-7308715757645707052012-08-08T13:35:00.001-07:002012-08-28T00:51:04.872-07:00My all-time favorite comics, part 2<p align=justify>Here is the second part of the list of my favorite comics.</p><p align=justify>1920s.</p><p align=justify><b>Polly and her Pals</b>, by Cliff Sterret (1922-1930, United States).<br>A family soap opera, with a couple of middle-aged people, her young and elegant daughter and her cat. All this in beautifully-drawn Art Deco surroundings, with poppy colors and a very subtle sense of humor.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3VpkQTA8G3g/UDZUCcGB5hI/AAAAAAAACAA/EXcv_CAv2A0/s1600/walt-skeezix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="279" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3VpkQTA8G3g/UDZUCcGB5hI/AAAAAAAACAA/EXcv_CAv2A0/s320/walt-skeezix.jpg" /></a></div><p align=justify><b>Gasoline Alley</b>, by Frank King (1921-1969, United State). <br>Another great family soap opera. Its main characteristic lies in the fact that the characters age at the same pace than their readers. At the beginning of the strip, Walt, a single man, very fond of cars, finds a baby orphan on his doorstep. Their relationship along several decades is depicted with subtlety and a lot of tenderness. And, last but not least, each color Sunday page is absolutely beautiful.</p><p align=justify>1930s.</p><p align=justify><b>Popeye</b>, by Elzie Crisler Segar (1930-1938, United States).<br />Popeye can be seen as the ancestor of superheroes. He is as powerful as many of them. But not as clever. As a matter of fact, he is quite simple-minded. But he is so honest and good-hearted that it seems impossible not to like him. Segar manages to mix successfully humor, action, fantasy and a lot of tenderness.</p><p align=justify><b>Tintin</b>, by Hergé (from Lotus Bleu to Tintin et les Picaros, 1934-1976). <br />One milestone of French-speaking comics. Depending on one's preferences, one can be particularly fond of the great adventures of the first books (L'Oreille Cassée, L'Ile Noire, etc.), of the classical balance of the great two-volume sagas (Rackam le Rouge, On a marché sur la lune) or of the experimental innovations of the mature Hergé (from Coke en Stock to Les Picaros). Founder of the "ligne claire", Hergé was particularly influential on many comics artists, from his friend E.P. Jacobs to Chris Ware.</p><p align=justify><b>Prince Valiant</b>, by Harold Foster (1937-1970, United States). <br>Classical and beautiful art. A great epic in a fantasy Middle Age that mixes the fall of the Roman Empire with the classical times of Chrétien de Troyes.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OmZGRxhpqIk/UDZTxdrMnFI/AAAAAAAAB_w/-hG-VOKhKdE/s1600/caniff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="317" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OmZGRxhpqIk/UDZTxdrMnFI/AAAAAAAAB_w/-hG-VOKhKdE/s320/caniff.jpg" /></a></div><p align=justify><b>Terry and the Pirates</b>, by Milton Caniff (best period from 1937 to 1942, United States)<br>The acme of adventure feuilleton: Fearless heroes, femmes fatales, exotic countries (mostly China and Sud-East Asia), terrific villains, pirates (of course). Action, romance, humour... And the art, on black and white or in colors is absolutely fantastic. Milton Caniff was nicknamed the "Rembrandt" of comics (for his great use of clair obscur). One the one hand, it's just another stupid comparison; on the other hand, it clearly outlines how great an artist Milton Caniff was.</p><p align=justify><br />
To be continued...</p><br />
sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-83635684407470686332012-08-06T12:45:00.001-07:002012-08-30T13:27:22.442-07:00French-speaking comics artists deserving a bigger audience...<p align=justify> Once again, The Comics Reporter realised <a href=http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/fff_results_post_302_sous_estim233/ target=blank>an interesting mini-survey</a>. A few people were asked to name five French-speaking cartoonists who could have a bigger audience with English-speaking readers that they have now.</p><br />
<p align=justify>It depends on what you expect when you talk of "bigger audience". If it is public, or even mainstream, success, Bastien Vivès is probably the first name to tell at this time of writing. His art is really lovely, he is very prolific and his stories fit very well in mainstream culture. Polina, one his latest book, on a young dancer, is really good.</p><p align=justify>Quite many other names come to my mind when I think of cartoonists who could get a bigger audience in English-speaking countries. And most of these names were given by some of the people interviewed by the Comics Reporter.</p><p align=justify>Among the older ones, André Franquin comes first. He is clearly one of the, if not THE, most talented humoristic French-speaking comics artist from the 1950s to the 1970s (probably on par with Albert Uderzo). He is also one the most influential Belgian comics artist with Hergé (Moebius being French). Gaston Lagaffe and his Idées Noires are his most famous works. </p><p align=justify>One generation younger, Baru is also a great artist. His art is very specific, both in colors and in black and white. His most characteristic feature is the importance he gives to the social background of his stories. They often take place in Western France, in places that suffered a lot from the decrease of industrial activity in the 1960s and 1970s.</p><p align=justify>Among the younger generation, the most talented artists were named in the post of the Comics Reporter: Joann Sfar, very prolific and often very funny, Christophe Blain (his Quai d'Orsay, about a French minister of Foreign Affairs, is very funny and very informative), David B (his Epileptic, available in English, is a true masterpiece of autobiographical comics), Nicolas de Crécy, Blutch, Frédérik Peeters, Marc-Antoine Matthieu, and a few others.</p><p align=justify>OK, all these authors are very talented ones. But two others, who were named only once or twice in the post of the Comics reporter, deserve, in my humble opinion, much more recognition than all these and are still surprisingly and, if I daresay, scandalously, ignored by English-speaking publishers: Edmond Baudoin and Fabrice Neaud.</p><p align=justify>Edmond Baudoin, active since the 1980s, is more or less, directly or indirectly, the godfather of all the French-speaking alternative comics that have flourished since the 1990s, from Lewis Trondheim to Marjane Satrapi. If I wanted to give an indication of the recognition he enjoys among these alternative comics artists, I would say that it could be compared to that of Robert Crumb in the States (OK, I know that this kind of comparison is stupid and pointless, but it's just to give a rough idea...). From a graphical point of view, he is one of the most gifted artist in the comics field ever. Influenced by many artists outside the comics field, a.o. Chinese traditional painters, he has a very original and really beautiful drawing style. His whole work aims at painting life; but life in itself, as an absolute. All his works aim at reaching this impossible dream. So he keeps on developing new techniques, new ways of doing comics to better depict life around him, to convey more emotion, to create more beauty. I do not know whether one of his book has ever been translated into English...</p><p align=justify>Fabrice Neaud is younger. His main works are the four volumes of his "Diary". In this masterpiece, he tells his own story, that of a young, jobless, gay artist living in a middle-size French city. In these four books, he reached new heights in autobiographical comics. He uses many possibilities offered by the comics medium in an innovative and original way to describe his life and feelings and to offer a very relevant critic of our present way of life. As of now, very few of his works have been translated into English. A 30-page short story is available on <a href=http://www.ego-comme-x.com/ target=blank>his publisher's website</a>. Two other short stories (<a href=http://s.soleille.perso.sfr.fr/fabriceneaud/eng/general/accueil.htm target=blank>here</a>) and the first ten pages of his Diary (<a href=http://wordswithoutborders.org/graphic-lit/from-diary target=blank>here</a>) are also available on the Internet. An <a href=http://s.soleille.perso.sfr.fr/fabriceneaud/eng/general/accueil.htm target=blank>English website</a> is devoted to him.</p><p align=justify>I wish English-speaking readers could discover soon these two great artists.</p>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-10072749347910184402012-08-01T13:12:00.001-07:002012-08-28T00:57:00.227-07:00My all-time favorite comics, first part<p align="justify">I would like to share with you (not that I assume that you really care about it but...) the list of my favorite all-time comics. I have already done this on my French blog. This time, I left aside a few comics too French specific to get non French-speaking interested. Nevertheless some of the comics in this list, coming from France, but also from Japan, Belgium or Argentine, have probably never been translated into English. It is a real pity inasmuch as they really belong to the best comics that have ever been published in the world, in my humble opinion at least. Let's hope that an English-speaking publisher will have the good idea to translate them in a near future...</p><p align="justify">OK, let's begin the list. It is in chronological order and it is beginning in the 1830s, with somebody whom many scholars consider as the first comics artist ever...</p><p align="justify"><br />
1830s.</p><p align="justify">Works by Rodolphe Töpffer (1830-1844, Switzerland).<br />
First of his kind but already a true master. Since his very first comics, Töpffer discovers many potentialities of the new medium (sequential art, as it will be called many years later): changing the size of the panels to play with the rhythm of the story, iconic iteration, and so on. And his graphic novels are very funny.<br />
He also wrote a very interesting essay on comics, "Essai de Physiognomonie".</p><p align="justify">That's all for the 19th century. There are probably many other great comics artists from that period (Caran d'Ache, Wilhem Busch, Christophe, Rudolph Dirks, for instance) but I do not know their works enough to able to express an opinion on them.</p><p align="justify"><br />
1900s.</p><p align="justify">"Little Nemo on Slumberland", by Winsor McCay (1905-1914, United States).<br />
Winsor McCay brings us to a land of dreams. In each new page, he invents new ways of drawing comics to enable Nemo explore Slumberland and its beautiful Modern Style landscapes.</p><p align="justify">"The Kin-der-Kids", by Lyonel Feininger (1906-1907, United States).<br />
Lyonel Feininger devoted only 2-3 years to comics before converting himself to painting, a field in which he became truly famous. Nonetheless, in such a short time, he made a deep influence on comics drawing. The influence of his rough and angular art can still be felt today, in some of Frank Miller's drawings, for instance.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AluwUmymYfE/UBzYl8nBjjI/AAAAAAAAB_A/KNiRDEUa_os/s1600/feininger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="234" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AluwUmymYfE/UBzYl8nBjjI/AAAAAAAAB_A/KNiRDEUa_os/s320/feininger.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify"><br />
1910s.</p><p align="justify">"Krazy Kat", by George Herriman (1913-1944, United States).<br />
Nothing as poetic as this has been created in comics ever since. Landscapes are changing all the time, the pages are laid out in an extraordinary way; the language spoken by the main characters, made of English, Spanish and French, full of alliterations, is very poetic; and the same story (a complex love triangle between a he-mouse, a he/she-cat and a dog-cop) is told every Sunday but it is different every time. This strip was widely appreciated by Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso...</p><p align="justify">"Bringing up Father", by George McManus (1913-1954, United States).<br />
Here is the origin of the "ligne claire", one of the strongest graphic influences of Hergé and Joost Swarte. Very elegant, this drawing has not lost its charms at all.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4OdTJFYcOgI/UBzYwEza2sI/AAAAAAAAB_M/OBqICbcMyt8/s1600/mcmanus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="274" width="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4OdTJFYcOgI/UBzYwEza2sI/AAAAAAAAB_M/OBqICbcMyt8/s320/mcmanus.jpg" /></a></div>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-25889487304430342232012-07-30T14:26:00.001-07:002012-09-21T05:06:49.880-07:00God and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls, by Jaime Hernandez (2012)<p align="justify">"God and Science: Return of the Ti-Girls" is a superhero graphic novel. It was first published in the first two issues of "Love and Rockets: New Stories". 30 new pages were added.</p><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ToTKEvZeSu4/UBb8BqdCJoI/AAAAAAAAB-s/BYvR-l8Csco/s640/blogger-image-1002871029.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ToTKEvZeSu4/UBb8BqdCJoI/AAAAAAAAB-s/BYvR-l8Csco/s640/blogger-image-1002871029.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">I must admit that, when I first read "God and Science" in the first two issues of "Love and Rockets: New Stories", I was not completely convinced by this story. But, after reading it in one volume, with 30 new pages, I must acknowledge that Jaime's superhero story is a very good one. </p><p align="justify">Once again there's in this Hernandez' comics much more than meets the eye. "God and Science" is a very strong, multi-layered graphic novel.</p><p align="justify">First layer: with this story of super-girls running, flying, falling and wrestling, Jaime Hernandez can draw as many women bodies in motion as he can dream of, like in "Whoa, Nellie" (that takes place in the women wrestling world).</p><p align="justify">Second layer: "God and Science" is evidently more than a pseudo-remake of "Whoa, Nellie!". It is a super-hero comics with all the strengths of it. Like Alan Moore in "Supreme", Jaime Hernandez uses many flashbacks to create a rich and complex past for all his heroines. In a few pages, we discover all the teams they have belonged to, all the super-villains they have fought, all their alliances or struggles. Even though these heroines will probably not live longer than these 100-odds pages, we have the impression of knowing them for a very long time... Naming this story "Return of the Ti-Girls" is part of this game. Jaime Hernandez manages to create, in a little more than 100 pages, a whole universe as rich as many others...</p><p align="justify">Third layer: We have here a storyline with all that is required in any good superhero comics: extraordinary superpowers, gigantic fights, cosmic danger, psychological interrogations, twist in the end, etc. Jaime Hernandez knows superhero comics and can create a good one.</p><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-fyJ9EsaCU_w/UBb8AC6TpQI/AAAAAAAAB-k/lho9TCBJNXs/s640/blogger-image--1507133429.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-fyJ9EsaCU_w/UBb8AC6TpQI/AAAAAAAAB-k/lho9TCBJNXs/s640/blogger-image--1507133429.jpg" /></a></div><p align="justify">Fourth layer: "God and Science" takes place in the Locas-verse. The main character of this story is Penny Century. As Jaime concluded Izzy's story in "Ghosts of Hoppers", he seems to bring Penny's misadventures to an end in "God and Science". She had been dreaming to have superpowers for ages; now she has some and it is not as great as she had imagined... "God and Science" brings a moving and rich conclusion to Penny's story. Maggie plays an important part in "Ghost of Hoppers" too. She has no superpower but, as a superhero comics specialist, she can give good advice to her super heroic friends. And we have Angel, one of Maggie's latest friends, who discovers that she has superpowers.</p><p align="justify">And that's not all. As a fifth layer, "God and Science" is a new convincing proof of Jaime's mastery in storytelling. He is particularly good at describing people's feelings with very subtle touches, a silent panel, a movement of the hands, a specific look. The last few pages of the book are a very good example of Jaime's exceptional art: the conversation between Angel, her younger sister and their mother is just breathtaking: after a few panels of secrets disclosed and hidden again, of things half told, half untold, nobody knows exactly who knows what. One thing only is clear: Jaime is one of the greatest comics artist ever...</p>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265006373466484199.post-82573503068297443252012-07-29T01:24:00.000-07:002012-07-29T01:24:15.589-07:00Comics, French side<p align="justify">For 4 years now, I have regularly updated a blog, in French, on various cultural facts and events, mostly related to comics. It is available here: <a href="http://par-la-bande.blogspot.fr/" target="blank">http://par-la-bande.blogspot.fr/</a>. Quite often, I wished I had more discussion with English-speaking people about some of my posts, either when I was talking about American artists (Chris Ware, los Bothers Hernandez and so on) or when I gave my opinion on how French comics were perceived in the United States. </p><p align="justify">That's why I decided to give an English version of my blog, with the translation of some my posts or some original posts. I hope that it will create fruitful discussions about comics, across the Atlantic Ocean...</p>sebsohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03339038672229794493noreply@blogger.com2