When it comes to naming the architects of current comic strips in Quebec, Jimmy Beaulieu absolutely must be on this list. Like Michel Rabagliati, he arrived at the turn of the century, at a time when Quebec comics needed headliners passionate about a genre that was about to take hold. Co-founder in 2002 of Mécanique générale, which was originally a publishing house for the genre, host of workshops devoted to comics at CEGEP, former bookseller and self-taught cartoonist, the native of Île d’Orléans has a road worthy of his talent as a storyteller of non-events. The publication of a first solo work in seven years therefore deserved a little clarification!
Seven years that have passed since the publication of Composition rolesa reflection on the couple, Beaulieu’s favorite theme, which he cheerfully revisits in Complex gardena collection of short stories centered on pivotal relationship moments, which will be released on April 3.
So why now, after seven years? What made Jimmy Beaulieu want to go back? “Because I had enough material to make a book with intelligence and sensitivity. You don’t just want a bunch of stuff you’ve accumulated, you’re looking for a purpose, a structure, a coherence. It took all this time to get there, but there’s also the fact that you don’t make a lot of money with comics. I had to make a living in other ways, by drawing, by giving comic book lessons, which meant that I couldn’t put my creation at the forefront as I would have liked. I still continued to create short stories, to work on this book, which comes out these days. That’s why there are things here that are seven years old. It’s a long continuous process. »
It is true that, on social networks, we have the impression that Beaulieu is constantly working on sketches, little bits of history, without us knowing if it is intended, or not, for a more global project. . Did the idea come from the accumulation of small ideas, or was the album on the drawing board from the beginning? “It’s always meant to end up in a book. I’ve always worked like this: I do little things left and right and, afterwards, I give them consistency, I find an angle while trying not to distort what I had amassed over time. »
Does this mean that, for this album, the sketches have not been retouched too much? ” Yes still ! Reworked, but not distorted. Several of the short stories that can be read in this album were previously published in very confidential stuff, or not at all, but I had to edit them for continuity, add a box, or a page. In fact, I thought I had finished on September 15, but between September 15 and the final edition, I redid a third of the book! »
And what is reworked, exactly? Cutting, drawing? “It’s often the rhythm that is altered. Between telling a story, in narration, and doing it with boxes in a comic book, you realize that you need moments of silence, of gazes. The comic is really very strong for the silent boxes. Comics have often been compared, disadvantageously, to literature for this reason: they show rather than suggest. However, I think it’s a strength, we can also suggest the interiority of the characters, and the silent boxes, of atmosphere, are used for that. »
The time of the balance sheets
Jimmy Beaulieu is now 48 years old. If it’s not yet time to take stock of his career, it’s still a good time to stop for a few minutes, just to see where he is in his evolution. “One is never as convinced of one’s ideas as in one’s twenties. I had, at the time, the impression and the illusion that I could influence, sociologically, what people thought. I have committed the narrator’s greatest sin: placing myself above my readers. When I reread myself, that’s what bothers me the most. Today, I think I “slaked” that. What I do is in complicity, I feel more like writing letters to people I love. »
Complex garden, they are short love stories, which work or not, and even if it is not the author who is explicitly in scene, the reader understands rather quickly that it is about him that it is. How does Jimmy Beaulieu feel about him as a character? “My avatar, my character, is a kind of Tintin or Charlie Brown, they are vectors for the reader and that’s how I see myself. I don’t really like this character. It is rather to those who are on the periphery that I attach myself. When I finish an album, I experience an emotional break with them, as if I let them down, unlike my avatar. »
Jimmy Beaulieu constantly talks about romantic relationships in his albums. The day it doesn’t, will that mean he’s made peace with it? ” I don’t know. When I was married, I talked about it too. But since I’ve always known euphoric beginnings and dry ends, in my relationships, I have a lot of material. Even if I don’t really want readers to spend their time analyzing my life. I rather want them to be there too. »
And that’s exactly what happens in this Complex garden, a place where we, as readers, are invited to dive back into the sum of all our relationships. Although sometimes it hurts more than we were prepared for. And that’s what makes the strength of this story: Jimmy Beaulieu, by telling himself, ends up talking about all of us.