Since her arrival in the comic book world, a good fifteen years ago, Zviane has undeniably demonstrated her ability to take a lucid and playful look at the world around her. Look that she totally blows up for our pleasure in Football-Fantasy, which will appear in the coming weeks by Éditions Pow Pow.
Comic strip, therefore, which arose from the left buttock of Yoyolalala, published last spring, when the author gave us a foretaste of this universe located at the junction point between reality and a form of extrapolation of reality as it could be imagined by a child with only access to to bits of what he hears on the news when the television is playing in the background.
Then, Football-Fantasy, contrary to what one might think, does not revolve around a pool of the NFL. Rather, it is the name of a town established on the Banane-Banane archipelago, located not far from the coast of Gaspésie, where we speak a strange language made up of words from French whose meaning has been changed. . And it is on this archipelago that Frederique (12 years old) and Annabelle (6 years old) meet, after having escaped from the laboratory of a mad scientist, ex-doctoral student, led by her desire to take revenge on the university environment whose he finds ethics too restrictive. In other words, he went to “do his research”.
To all this we add a national electoral campaign and an extremely tense climate, demonstrations for the construction of a bridge connecting Banana-Banana to the continent being in fact at the heart of an identity dispute.
In short, we are dealing here with a very complex environment, but above all intelligently constructed: the author has fun sprinkling the story with references to reality by inserting, for example, advertising boxes for recognizable products that become a commentary. on the plot. In addition, Zviane has fun with the language levels. The language spoken by the Bananians is never translated and, depending on the level of education or the age of the characters, those who speak French do so with more or less mistakes in the text. We have both feet in meta humor here!
As for the drawing, we immediately recognize the rendering specific to the author: he is nervous and fast and not without recalling the childish pleasure of drawing, while also referring to the fanzines of the early 1980s.
This ultimately results in the most ambitious (over 500 pages), intelligent and accomplished work of a Zviane in full mastery of her art, the subtleties of which invite a second reading, if only for the pleasure of it. grab all the layers.
Football-Fantasy
★★★★ 1/2
Zviane, Éditions Pow Pow, Montreal, 2021, 516 pages
Choose the tear
Choosing to kill a loved one is, without a doubt, one of the most difficult decisions a human can make. What is more when it comes to his own mother. This is the subject that the German-born author Zelba decided to tackle in this story that took 13 years to be born, when she had to make this decision herself with her own sister. It is beautiful and sensitive and, above all, an enlightening reading, this subject remaining, again and always, of topicality.
My bad girls
★★★★
Zelba, Futuropolis, Paris, 2021, 160 pages
Get to the bottom of things
In this meticulously documented account, journalist Soren Seelow (The world), helped by Kévin Jackson (Terrorism Analysis Center) and by the cartoonist Nicolas Otéro, plunges us into the background of the investigation of the terrorist attacks at the Bataclan and the Stade de France, which caused the death of 130 people on November 13, 2015. We thus discover the powerlessness of the intelligence services and the complexity of such an investigation which, in the end, draws a portrait of the armed group Islamic State which shivers down your spine.
The Investigation Unit into the attacks of November 13, 2015
★★★★
Soren Seelow, Kévin Jackson and Nicolas Otéro, Les Arènes, Paris, 2021, 224 pages
The godmother
We knew, until recently, little about Stéphanie Sainte-Claire. Nicknamed Queenie, born in Martinique in 1897, she became one of Harlem’s most feared criminal gang leaders at the end of Prohibition with her illegal betting businesses and a lot of corruption. She managed to survive this ruthless world before becoming a political activist until the end of her life, in 1969. It is her story that is adroitly told here by the French author and documentary filmmaker Aurélie Lévy, carried by the drawing hard and sharp by the New York painter of Martinican origin Elizabeth Colomba. We bet that it will be adapted to the cinema.
Queenie The Godmother of Harlem
★★★ 1/2
Aurélie Lévy and Elizabeth Colomba, Éditions Anne Carrière, Paris, 2021, 168 pages
A missed opportunity
This homage to Lucky Luke by German author Mawil, which presents us with a refreshing take on the famous cowboy forced to ride a bike in California, could have been funny and clever. And it is, until Lucky Luke was captured by cartoonish “Indians” that seem straight out of the 1950s. There was, however, an opportunity to do better. Pity.
Lucky Luke recycles
★★
Mawil, Dargaud, Paris, 2021, 64 pages.