Lock your doors, hide your children, your medicines and your cans of antifreeze liquid: the FBI agent Red Ketchup returns to our cottages by entering them through the television. On April 20, Télétoon will broadcast the first of a series of 20 episodes of the adventures of the cult character of the Quebec comic strip created in 1982 in the pages of the magazine Fang by screenwriter Pierre Fournier and screenwriter and designer Réal Godbout, who thus sees the culmination of 20 years of efforts to adapt his work to the screen. The Soviets and the Nazis will not recover!
Exactly 10 seconds after the start of the first episode (Ketchup on the snow), Red Ketchup interrupts a bomb thief on an airstrip in the Northwest Territories by smashing his skull with a wrench. Blood spurts everywhere, and we are quickly reassured: this adaptation of the adventures of Red Ketchup will be faithful to the original spirit of the comic strip, that is to say violent, grotesque, daring and doped with the multiple substances that feed our polydrug addict and paranoid antihero.
That said, in the Red Ketchup albums – three published by Dargaud in the early 1990s, the complete nine albums recounted in the pages of Fang published by La Pastèque from 2007 -, “we notice that the violence was more present at the beginning”, notes the cartoonist. “We see less of it over time, not because we wanted to censor ourselves, but because we didn’t just want to bet on it. Looking closely at the albums, we see that there is not that much violence, but we know that the character is capable of it. »
It is a production of Télétoon la nuit, therefore broadcast at 10 p.m., “but hey, it could be that children who go to bed too late fall on it”, imagines the co-writer and director of the series, Martin Villeneuve.
“A form of consecration”
“Red Ketchup’s creation dates back to the 1980s, so we play in this context, and with its tone which I would describe as politically incorrect which, I believe, has its place in our television landscape. It was a challenge to make a series in this tone today, because I absolutely did not want to distort the character. Fan of the work of Fournier and Godbout, Villeneuve had approached them exactly 20 years ago to transpose this universe into a cartoon; feature film projects were even planned (two screenplays were written), then abandoned. Sphere Animation and Teletoon/Adult Swim (red ketchup will be broadcast in English Canada, maybe one day in the United States) gave life to the project, for our greatest happiness.
Réal Godbout acted as script and image advisor during the production of the series, which faithfully reproduces the graphic universe of the designer, his line, his clear line: “Visually, I find it satisfying, among other the work on the sets, which have always been important to me. They are part of the story, they must be highlighted. The actor Benoît Brière completely transformed his voice to convincingly embody the animated Red Ketchup, “a character we tried to make as unsympathetic as possible”, which “did not prevent him from becoming popular says Godbout, laughing.
“There is a satisfaction to see that it will finally be broadcast on TV, for me it is a form of consecration. But it’s also like seeing your child leave home: it’s no longer my project,” adds Godbout. He noticed it in terms of the screenplay, which, if it relies on the source material (disclosure: yes, the famous scene of the penguin colony massacre is brought to the screen!), agrees many freedoms.
For example, the character, very secondary in the comic strip, of agent Peter Plywood takes on a preponderant role; that of the investigative journalist Bill Bélisle, central in the adventures of Michel Risque, where Red Ketchup appeared for the first time, but little seen in the albums, also plays an important role. Sally Ketchup (sister of, played by France Castel) arrives earlier in the story than in the albums — this first season draws on the story of the first two albums, Kamarade Ultra (1988) and Red Ketchup vs. Red Ketchup (1992), as well as in the very first story Life in red (The Watermelon, 2007).
As in the original story, the cartoon takes place in the mid-1980s, in the midst of the Cold War, with the Soviet threat hanging over the world, which resonates oddly with the geopolitical situation. Ketchup will seek to counter the plans of the Machiavellian Dr K (Alain Zouvi), who counts on the help of the vicious Russian agent Olga Dynamo (Émilie Bibeau).
Unpublished boards
Finally, the adventures of Red Ketchup will soon continue on paper, promises Réal Godbout: a collection of unpublished boards should appear by the end of the year, and the cartoonist is currently working on a 10e album, titled Agent Orangein which Donald Trump will occupy an “important” role – “dehydrated” at the end of the 9e album, Red Ketchup will be “rehydrated” in 2015 in this new “political-fiction” narrative.
This will be the first Red Ketchup album imagined without his old friend Pierre Fournier (also creator of the Captain Kébek character), who died last November at the age 72 years old. ” It was the fun to work with Pierre, because we had twice as many ideas, explains Godbout. The advantage of working with a co-writer is that it seems to take away the doubt a little. If I work alone and I have an idea, I always ask myself: Is it good? Will it stick? If both of us agree on an idea, it’s more likely to work. That’s probably why I work with my son. Robin Bourget-Godbout and his father recently released the graphic novel Glad who like Ugo.
“Red Ketchup” will air on Télétoon at night, at 10 p.m., starting April 20.