It’s never too late
There are these books that have this ability to come and take us by the hand and show us what is beautiful in life, even if we have to go through what is bad. This is the case of Grandma, by children’s author and illustrator Brigitte Marleau, who addresses the theme of violence among the elderly. Lucienne lives under threat and beatings from her partner, Gerry, with whom she has shared her life for around fifty years. And Lucienne, according to her own belief, is not worth more than that. She is Marc’s grandmother, who lives as a couple with Julie and their two children, who decide to take her out of there and take her in, just to offer her a better quality of life. A cohabitation that will last around ten years, which shows that, even if we think we are at the end of the road, we deserve to be taken care of. In an illustrated book style, rather than a traditional comic strip, with soft pastel illustrations, Brigitte Marleau succeeds in her challenge, that of approaching the unaffordable with kindness and hope.
François Lemay
Grandma
★★★1/2
Brigitte Marleau, Station T, Montreal, 2024, 180 pages
Tame your dissonances
The contradictions, it’s the moment we all go through in our lives, the one where our education and the ideas we grew up with find themselves tested by the real world. This is what queer American author Sophie Yanow tells us, who looks back on her early twenties when she decided to study in Paris, because she loves French comics. She suddenly meets Zena, a young anarcho-vegan student who is a fan of political shoplifting. Together, they decide to take a quick trip to Amsterdam and Berlin, just to see if they are there. In this soberly and beautifully written album, Yanow succeeds in putting his finger on this pivotal moment during which we confront our own dissonance with our ideals, which are not always compatible with everything that came before. A fair look at the transition to adulthood.
François Lemay
The contradictions
★★★★
Sophie Yanow, Pow Pow, Montreal, 2024, 208 pages
A youth in Algiers
A keen observer of political life, Salim Zerrouki quickly stood out for his biting and sarcastic writing. The Algerian designer now based in Tunisia returns with an opus full of lucidity entitled Rwama, volume 1. My childhood in Algeria (1975-1992) in the heights of Algiers. His parents moved into a brand new building in the Olympic city designed by the famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer to host the 1975 Mediterranean Games. The modern facilities – which are the great pride of megalomaniac President Boumediene – accommodate members of the administration, as well as families of Cuban, Russian and East German aid workers who came to teach high-level sport to Algerian athletes. As the country becomes mired in economic precariousness, the model neighborhood loses its appeal. The foreigners have deserted. All that remains are dilapidated apartments. The prankish and inventive drawings manage to move beyond the anecdotal, painting an unflattering portrait of politicians ready to bring down an entire nation.
Ismaël Houdassine
Rwana, volume 1. My childhood in Algeria
★★★
Salim Zerrouki, Dargaud, Paris, 2024, 176 pages
Broken loves in the time of COVID-19
Summer 2020 in Seattle. As a global pandemic puts everything on hold, Gussy hopes to save his dog biscuit shop from bankruptcy. The owner, who is himself represented as a puppy, notices that his employee Rosie (a rabbit) has fallen in love with him. She also has a crush on her roommate Hissy, a frog who prides himself on being the offspring of a big Hollywood star, whose identity we will not reveal here. Behind this chaotic and imperfect love triangle, the author addresses current issues such as police brutality, the influence of social networks or wokism. At the origin of this anthropomorphic album, an episode published every day on the Instagram account in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. The fierce and funny result collected in a volume rich in detail manages to capture the essence of everyday pandemic life, loneliness and alienation included, in a delicate monochrome graphic novel.
Ismaël Houdassine
Dog Biscuits
★★★★
Alex Graham, translated by Jean-Baptiste Bernet, Almost Moon, United States, 2024, 408 pages