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An inspired epic

Glad who like Ugo

Real Godbout and Robin Bourget-Godbout

The watermelon

187 pages

8.5/10

Réal Godbout, co-author with Pierre Fournier of the Michel Risk and Red Ketchup series, likes what some call “great” literature. 10 years ago, he signed an adaptation of America or the disappeared, Kafka’s unfinished novel. This winter, with the collaboration of his son Robin Bourget-Godbout on the screenplay, the cartoonist presents a superb book inspired by a founding story of Western literature: theOdyssey of Homer.

Glad who like Ugo (the title is a nod to Joachim du Bellay, French poet of the XVI^e century) recounts a cruise like no other: a stay in the Mediterranean in the footsteps of Ulysses. The idea is that of a Greek shipowner baptized Aristotle, who is desperately trying to bail out. For the maiden voyage of his yacht Amphitritehe therefore invited silver travelers who could give him good publicity and a columnist specializing in tourism, Quebecer Ugo Saint-Germain.

Ugo has lived without ties since his separation from the mother of his son, who remained in Quebec with the child, now a teenager. He has traveled around the world several times, but increasingly has the feeling of going in circles. Luxury does not interest him, but he is however intrigued by the idea of ​​going from Greece to Tunisia via Sicily in the footsteps of Ulysses. However, this crossing is only the pretext for shady activities, and Ugo will find himself at the heart of an adventure that is very likely to go wrong…

Godbout father and son sign here an abundant book, tinged with humor, but which also takes a critical look at tourism and highlights in particular the tragedy of migrants who seek to reach Europe by the Mediterranean. Ugo is not a hero in the proper sense, but he has something of a modern Tintin (Godbout’s manner evokes Hergé and the album makes a few nods to his work). The care he brings to the rendering of Greek architecture and art as well as the multiple references to mythology give a lot of depth to this story which explores father-son relationships in the background.

Alexandre Vigneault, The Press

Jimi before Hendrix

Kiss the Sky

JM Dupont and Mezzo

Glenat

87 pages

6/10

Kiss the Sky is the title of a compilation of Jimi Hendrix songs released in the 1980s, before his estate set about digging up every conceivable bottom drawer. It is also the title chosen by cartoonists Jean-Michel Dupont and Mezzo for their album which aims to tell the life of Jimi Hendrix. This first volume is dedicated to the childhood of the future guitar hero, marked by an unreliable mother, an abusive father, racial segregation and poverty. Jimi (born Johnny Allen Hendrix) will eventually make it through music. It’s not a fairy tale: his beginnings were laborious and the album details his many collaborations, his many failures and his many mistresses, which makes it a bit redundant. However, period painting and society portraits prove to be powerful and magnificently carried by the hyper-contrasted black and white of Mezzo, closer to the American Charles Burns than to his compatriot Chabouté.

Alexandre Vigneault, The Press

For manga buffs

Burlesque, stripper and saucy

Dandadan

Yukinobu Tatsu

Crunchyroll

Volumes 1 and 2, b & w

7.5/10

Although its two protagonists seem a priori very classic, namely a young schoolboy with a tendency nerd and its companion with a flamboyant character, this manga plunges us very quickly into a rather crazy fire of action. Attempting to prove to each other that ghosts and aliens live among us, Momo and Ken find themselves embarked on adventures where unlikely creatures multiply on their heels, like Granny Turbo, the ghost of a ribald old woman. Caricatural burlesque and quirky humour, omnipresent in the dialogues and drawings (the author provides both), make this series an extravagant entertainment to devour with a light mind. The zest ofecchi (read: a bit naughty) injected on occasion raises the threshold of the average age of the target audience (from mature teenagers to slightly frivolous adults).

Sylvain Sarrazin, The Press

Between sweetness and aromas

The maiko house

Aiko Koyama

Noeve Grafx

Volumes 1 and 2, b & w

7/10

It’s soft, it’s slow, it smells good, and what’s more, it makes us discover an unusual universe. The maiko house sits on the shoulder of Kiyo, a young country girl who went to Kyoto to become an apprentice geisha (what the term maiko), a woman of many artistic talents. Despite her failure, she is asked to run the kitchens of the institution, thus sharing the daily life of the contenders in training. The story, with its naivety and its assumed childish side (in the good sense of the term), is punctuated by instructive incursions into this veiled world, but also by culinary presentations, with small summary gastronomic sheets as interludes. For all audiences, and even readers familiar with Japanese culture should learn something from it.

Sylvain Sarrazin, The Press

1980s nostalgia

Saint Seiya – Time Odyssey

Jérôme Alquié (drawing, screenplay) and Arnaud Dollen (screenplay)

Kana

Volume 1, color

7.5/10

Dynamic Heroes

Gô Nagai (screenplay) and Kazuhiro Ochi (drawing)

Isan Manga

Volume 1, color

5/10

Two cult series have been given a breath of fresh air thanks to new untold stories. Let’s start with Saint Seiya – Time Odyssey, which inserts a new arc just before the Sanctuary episodes. The story focuses on Ikki, Knight of the Phoenix, grappling with the emergence of a new divine power. A treat for fans of Knights of the Zodiac (French-speaking name of the series), with sumptuous drawings (entirely in color, in large Franco-Belgian comic book format), sparkling armor, respect for the original breath of the work (and its flaws), and connections with previous and future events of the series. The work of the Alquié-Dollen duo, approved by the original author Kurumada, impresses.

On the other hand, Dynamic Heroesthe official sequel to Grendizer scripted by Gô Nagai himself, does not convince as much. Here too, the large format and the vibrant colors are attractive, but the tone of the story, which is in fact a fictional crossing of the various universes of Nagai, is disappointing; the revisited version published last year and signed by a French quintet seems to have done better than the original. Note that for Saint Seiya as for Grendizerthose uninitiated in these series could be confused.

Sylvain Sarrazin, The Press