A true revelation for many readers, a popular text with scientific foundations lacking rigor for others, The secret life of trees, published in its original version by the German forest engineer and writer Peter Wohlleben in 2015, was received as a cry from the heart which allowed it to be found on several lists of bestsellers around the world. It was only a matter of time before we saw the book, which taught us in a somewhat romantic way the biological functioning of the forest, adapted for another discipline. If there was a documentary in 2017, it is this comic strip adaptation, signed by the French Fred Bernard (screenplay) and Benjamin Flao (drawings), which piques our curiosity, since the raw material takes the form, here , a story with a bioscientific flavor full of sunshine.
It is a Fred Bernard who we feel is happy with this long-term work that we join to discuss this transformed adaptation, for which it was difficult to find the right people. However, this meeting was self-evident, Fred Bernard having published, last year, his Notebook of a gardener who loves living things, in which he tells, in drawings and in words, his relationship with his own garden. “In fact, the idea of making this adaptation came from the publisher (Les Arènes, in France), who was looking but couldn’t find it. Before me, there were other authors who failed, because we wanted this adaptation without really knowing what we were looking for. On the other hand, the designer, Benjamin Flao, was already on the project and, after the third or fourth try, he proposed my name since we had already worked together, and I started something that they liked. »
We therefore understand that this is not an easily adaptable work, since it is not a story strictly speaking. Was there a prior relationship between Fred Bernard and the original text? ” Oh yes ! I had bought it and read it, as had some of Peter’s other books, and I was excited to do it because it’s a real challenge, it’s a puzzle! At the same time, I remember when I first read it, I wondered what Peter was telling us about. I spent my time looking for images on my phone! So, I knew I could bring that, this imagery. Also, I didn’t want to follow his way of telling the story. And as Peter was very open to our proposals, I suggested that he show his life in parallel, with his journey and his disappointments. All things he had said in an interview. I simplified a little, but I tell myself that instead of losing in the transposition of the work, as often happens, this time, we gain by learning things that are not in the ‘original. »
We must therefore take a book that exists, that lives, and not only transpose it, rework it, but rethink it entirely. How much time did Bernard and Flao devote to a comic strip for which the basic subject, the trees and the forest, represents a subject of expertise for neither of them? “Between the first attempts and the end? It took, I would say, two and a half years. Well, I had someone with me who spoke German and who could help me understand the more technical language. In fact, I would say it’s like taking apart an engine to make another. I took all the elements of the book, for example when it comes to photosynthesis or helping with mushrooms, and I put them together. Because, in the original text, Peter sprinkled these elements of knowledge everywhere. This is why, for example, I separated the comic strip into seasons to respect the different logics and thus organize the story. Additionally, I spent several weeks gathering photo files for Benjamin, so he could draw the right thing, like the right caterpillar or the right parasite, because you can’t believe everything you find on the Internet when you do a quick search. »
We clearly recognize the somewhat scientific side of Fred Bernard, he who could have become a veterinarian and who also flirted with the idea of becoming a forestry engineer. A bit as if destiny always ends up bringing him back to nature. “Ha! It’s tempting to believe it, in any case. It’s true that when you look at my journey, there is a certain logic. My first children’s book portrait on deforestation! And even Peter admitted to me that he found the comic strip better than his book. Moreover, he collaborated by taking us back to certain scientific aspects that had become obsolete since the original publication, and as he has a very funny side, almost a comic book character, he was happy to see himself represented like this. Just like he agreed to be taken for a walk with his dog. We wanted him to have someone with him, without it being a student or a journalist. »
And Fred Bernard, the designer, would he have wanted to illustrate this album himself? “I could have, but Benjamin, he’s super strong. More than 200 pages of trees, no two branches alike! It takes some sort of drawing genius like him to accomplish that. If I’m a violin, he’s a Stradivarius. »
And this is what emerges most from this adaptation, the respect and love, which we feel as much in the creative work as in the finality of the album. What could have been just another easy way to produce a comic strip adapted from a best-selling book ultimately became a new way to talk about the age-old relationship between humans and nature. It is in tune with the times !