The funny line
It was in 2016 that comedian Alex Lévesque, then in the midst of a quest for meaning, took on the challenge of producing a short comic strip per week, even though he had never tried the genre and didn’t know how. really draw. His project, titled Draw blindfolded, will experience success quite quickly on social networks, even if, since then, the author has slowed down by putting the effort on quality rather than quantity. Lévesque therefore offers us here an anthology of the best strips, in this first collection which can be read in one go, since we find ourselves passing from one page to another, effortlessly, the gags being generally confined to a single page. Its slightly nono humor, which takes several degrees, combined with rather simple drawings (think of a mix between the very popular Cyanide and Happiness And XKCDavailable online) have something to make us smile and even a little more because, yes, we laughed out loud, a few times.
François Lemay
Draw blindfolded
★★★
Alex Lévesque, New address, Montreal, 2023, 155 pages
Eternal October
If only to find out if there was still something new to say about the FLQ and the October crisis, we were very eager to delve into this album, Die for the cause, by Chris Oliveros. Founder of the very important publishing house specializing in comics Drawn & Quarterly, Oliveros left his position to devote himself, among other things, to this series of two albums relating to the rise of the FLQ during the 1960s. And the The bet is well taken up. Told as if we had found reels of interviews for an aborted CBC documentary in the mid-1970s and centered around three of the founding figures of the Front, Georges Schoeters, François Schirm and Pierre Vallières, Die for the cause draws up what seems to us to be a fairly accurate portrait of the context which will ultimately lead to the October crisis, in all its disorganization and revolutionary naivety. We can’t wait to read the second volume!
François Lemay
Die for the cause
★★★★
Chris Oliveros, Pow Pow, Montreal, 2023, 164 pages
The men’s best friend
François Schuiten, formidable Belgian author to whom we owe, among other things, THE obscure cities with Benoît Peeters, returns to the forefront with a poignant tribute to his dog, who recently passed away. This monochrome work, small in shape but large in the love that emanates from it, tells the story of the close relationship between man and his animal, a pretty flat-coated retriever. After living together for thirteen years, Jim passed away peacefully one morning in January 2023 following an illness. “The only valid therapy” for the designer then consists of celebrating – with pen and brush – the significant slices of life of his faithful traveling companion through monochrome portraits of striking finesse. Thus, the comical and funny moments are added to the moments of pure communion, like a patchwork of memories engraved forever in the mind. Much more than a love letter to his dog, the 67-year-old cartoonist has created a truly poetic album on mourning.
Ismaël Houdassine
Jimmy
★★★ 1/2
François Schuiten, Rue de Sèvres, Paris, 2023, 128 pages
Removing the masks
It all begins when a plane crashes on the edge of Lapyoza, a small lakeside hamlet, whose uneventful inhabitants continue to venerate the beliefs of an ancient submerged culture. On board, a man named Pavil, who claims to be a scribe who arrived on the scene by accident. Our hero will, however, have to show great patience with the villagers in order to gain their trust, because many of them fear the presence of a spy in the pay of the Empire. In the pages of this graphic novel, as sublime as it is enigmatic, humanity is divided between two civilizations born, it seems, on the ruins of a tragic collective history. Inspired by the Chinese legend of Hou Yi, the Frenchman Jérémy Perrodeau has created a hypnotic work which stands out for its softness and its vegetal atmosphere, where you could almost swear you hear the rustling of the leaves on the trees and the lapping of the waves.
Ismaël Houdassine
Pavil’s face
★★★ 1/2
Jérémy Perrodeau, Éditions 2024, France, 2023, 160 pages