Twelve years after the publication of To end Novemberwhich has the October Crisis as its backdrop, the duo formed by Sylvain Lemay, director and professor at the Multidisciplinary School of Image at the University of Quebec in Outaouais, and André St-Georges, illustrator and painter, picks up the pace again with a story that takes place, this time, during Maple Spring in 2012. And if red april is not a direct continuation of the album which precedes it, it is part of the same narrative universe and is written in the same spirit, that of a striking crisis which serves as a catalyst as much for the time as for the characters put on stage.
Let’s get one thing straight, though, before we go any further: red april doesn’t claim to be a documentary album that deals strictly with the student crisis. The crisis serves rather as a time marker and adds a layer of complexity to a story that is already not, at its base, very simple. Here, it is about the relationship between a CEGEP professor, Réal Petit, who wants to write a comic strip with the help of a former student, Gaston. Then there’s Petit’s mysterious father, who may not be who he appears to be, a former blonde out for revenge, and then a jealous fellow professor.
And if To put an end to November had been well received when it was published in 2010, why wait twelve years before Rouge avril?
Sylvain Lemay. “We began work on this story in the early 2010s, a story that was to take place during the Montebello Summit in 2007 when Prime Minister Stephen Harper received his American and Mexican counterparts, George W. Bush and Felipe Calderón, summit which generated its share of demonstrations. Unfortunately, several people around us died at that time, including André’s spouse, one of my 26-year-old students and the five-year-old daughter of one of my students. We were pretty much in shock. »
André St-Georges. “In fact, nine people close to us died during this period. Let’s say it slowed down our creative ardor a bit. »
SL “And we must not forget, of course, the student strike. I participated, I supported the students. My son, who was four at the time, watched me get kicked out by the riot squad. It’s not told in the comic, but I experienced post-traumatic shock afterwards. »
AS “Same thing for me, I had a big depression after going through all that. Let’s say that both of us weren’t at our best. »
The student crisis was a turning point, both socially and individually. Everyone had an opinion on the thing and that’s what creates this sense of heightened tension that the characters experience.
SL ” Indeed. If the main character is called Réal, it means that he is unable to understand the reality of the things around him. Everything is based on lies and on the misperception of events. That’s why we quote Richard Martineau at the beginning, with his famous sentence about students who live a good life drinking sangria and talking on their cell phones. He also didn’t understand what was happening around him. »
The previous album had required research to recreate the different eras. Here, André St-Georges works with a material he knows well. How did he approach it?
AS “I was no longer a student at the time, but I still felt concerned by what was happening. Even though I was not personally present during the demonstrations, I had friends who were there, I was angry at what was happening, and the fact of drawing these events plunged me back into this rage! I saw a lot of newspaper clippings to inspire me and it did something to immerse myself in this effervescence. Besides, since the student crisis, it seems that I have difficulty with my chronology. I find it hard to believe that it’s been ten years already. »
SL “After the quarantine, time flies! My students this year were still in elementary school at the time. I have a bit of the same feeling as when I started teaching in 1999 and I was talking about the fall of the Berlin Wall. »
SL “Since we worked on the album over several years, we even had to sit down a few times to take stock of where we were at. But, to make a confession, I like finding references in what I read. I am referring, for example, to Réjean Ducharme and to Who knows, which is the title of one of his novels. Some readers will see them, others will not. »
AS “As for me, I also spoiled myself, especially in creating the intro images for the chapters. Also, I enjoyed reproducing the cover of Foxtrot, the Genesis album, or even the apartment where Gaston and his girlfriend Émilie live, it’s the same one I had at the time. There is even the author Christian Quesnel (Megantic. A train in the night) who makes a little cameo! »
Lots of layers, so in this red april, an album that also asks us readers questions about how crises and upheavals punctuate our lives. It provides a lot of pleasure because “complex” is not the same as “complicated”. You just have to take the time to let yourself be impregnated by the material.