Direction Brazil to discover one of the most endearing female characters that the comic strip has given us: Marcia, mother courage of the favelas and heroine of the new graphic novel by Marcello Quintanilha.
Not because of this romantic tune that one of the protagonists of the story hums in the first pages of the book, but because to cover the sadness, the resentment, the anger, and despite the love that overflows from every box, here everyone is screaming. They are rare, the comics that howl at this point.
It must be said that in her favela in Rio de Janeiro, between her companion, kind but overwhelmed by events, and her exhausting job as a nurse at the hospital, the difficult ends of the month and the threats of the neighborhood gangs, Marcia has hard to make his only daughter listen to reason. Which frequents thugs and traffickers. Obviously, things go wrong. Mother courage, devoted caregiver, faithful friend, poor Marcia is hanging on.
Album after album, varying styles and stories, Marcello Quintanilha never ceases to tell about Brazil, his country. The designer nevertheless chose to settle in Barcelona twenty years ago. Exile, even if granted, sharpens nostalgia. Listen, Jolie Marcia is a comic strip in neon yellow and meadow green, in red, in pink, in blue, in purple. This improbable palette makes up a very difficult reality to live with.
Listen, Jolie Marcia, in the editions here and there.
Change of scenery for one of the quietest comics of the moment. There is no shortage of dialogues, but everything here invites us to listen to nature. Listen carefully! The air is pure, you hear the cry of a bird, the brush of a marten, the beating of a butterfly’s wing, and above all, in the depths of the woods, in the mating season, the slab of the deer . What a pity, the hunter is prowling!
It was when I heard writer Claudie Hunzinger speak on the radio about her book The Great Deer (ed. Grasset) that Gaétan Nocq felt the need in turn to go to the Vosges forests. To meet the author there and go deep into her territory. Capable of capturing the ephemeral and delicate atmospheres, the designer brushes, in bluish tones, cold landscapes and furtive animals. He turns his quest for the absolute into a saddened thriller.
The Great Deer, published by Daniel Maghen.