And Malraux lost Mona
Not ordinary news item that was the affair of the perilous journey of the mona-lisa on a liner. The story of this painting, gone to make itself beautiful for the eyes of Jackie Kennedy, first lady of America in 1962, is here told and drawn by a shock trio, using clear lines. Implicitly, it is a portrait of the project manager, André Malraux, the honorary resistance fighter who was bombarded Minister of State under de Gaulle, that we are given, from the most revealing angle there is: a literary to be able to. Like Gérald Godin at home, the mad circus of politics has thus passed through the sieve of the writer-poet-philosopher, a great admirer of creative genius, a free-thinker and an elusive intruder. Imagine a sharp Tintin, a writer imbued with his person, elected so-called responsible, confronted with the incredible of an unimaginable situation: the potential disappearance of the most celebrated of paintings in a camera on the water. The humor invites itself into this satire, we stuff ourselves with adventures, and we come out less stupid. Holy feat.
Sylvain Cormier
The Minister & The Mona Lisa
★★★★
Text by Hervé Bourhis and Franck Bourgeron, illustrated by Henri Tanquerelle Casterman, Tournai, 2022, 88 pages
Break the cycles
Are traumas passed on from one generation to the next? Here is what underlies Giants with feet of clay, an album that is intended as a reflection on the transfer of violent behavior to men, in particular. This is also the question posed by the character of Pat, whose father, a Vietnam War veteran, violent man and notorious alcoholic, never knew how to take care of his family. It’s also the story of Mathieu, his best friend who, like Pat, takes on the role of father at home while their spouses both lead successful careers. Well-crafted essay on the representation of certain problems experienced by men who are, here, aware of their own limits and who decide to break the cycle of violence. All in a search for what the role of man can be in a world where he can no longer content himself with the role of provider. It’s sensitive and intelligent.
Francois Lemay
Giants with feet of clay
★★★★
Alain Chevarier and Mark McGuire, Moelle Graphik, Quebec, 2022, 262 pages
The hard pavement of despair
We know very little about Géraldine (Grotowski), self-taught graphic artist, passionate about literature and comics, born in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, but who has lived in Quebec since the end of the 1980s. Autobiographical story, this first comic book album ? It looks like it. In any case, it’s glaringly true, this story which tells us of an episode in the life of a teenager from Quebec who flees a family home living under the yoke of an authoritarian, violent and cruel father, who takes pleasure in call her children by their birth order number (she is number 4), only to find themselves in the street. His only comfort? Her pet rat, which she wears around her neck. It’s a hard read, without embellishment, with a cold and disturbing design and which leaves no trace of hope. For now at least. Can’t wait to see what Géraldine will offer us for the rest of things.
Francois Lemay
like rats
★★★1/2
Géraldine Grotov, Moelle Graphik, Quebec, 2022.70 pages
The veggie cowboy
After the blacks, the veggies! The adventures of the cowboy (decidedly less and less lonely) take place again and again in the Far West of the XIXe century, but increasingly close to our present day. A beautiful paradox for a Lucky Luke whose job – cowherd boy – consists of leading animals to the slaughterhouse. Very cleverly, the Achdé-Jul duo found the trick: to draw inspiration from history. Thus, the pioneer Henry Bergh, founder in 1866 of the first SPA in North America, triggers extreme reactions: the zeal is equal between dispossessed cattle breeders and defenders of felines, canids and funny birds of the meadow (including BB, as angry as it is inevitable). It sometimes goes a bit far: we are frankly disconcerted by an overly editorial and not stoic enough Lucky, mourning his injured Jolly Jumper. More believable is the unexpected return of Rantanplan, the ineffable mutt, whose involuntary intervention marks the beginning of a change in morals without changing the nature of the adventures too much. Moo!
Sylvain Cormier
The Adventures of Lucky Luke T.10: Rantanplan Ark
★★★
Achdé and Jul, after Morris, Lucky Comics, Givrins, 2022, 48 pages