Grove - Comics in French: The European Bande Dessinée in Context

The European Bande Dessine in Context

Laurence Grove

First published in 2010 by

Berghahn Books

www.berghahnbooks.com

2010, 2013 Laurence Grove
First paperback edition published in 2013

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Grove, Laurence.

Comics in French : the bande dessine in context / Laurence Grove. -- 1st ed.

p. cm. -- (Polygons : cultural diversities and intersections ; v. 14) Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-84545-588-0 (hbk.)--ISBN 978-0-85745-902-2 (pbk.)

1. Comic books, strips, etc.--France--History and criticism. 2. Comic books, strips, etc.--Belgium--History and criticism. I. Title. II. Title: Bande dessine in context.

PN6745.G76 2010
741.5'6944--dc22

2010004346

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Printed in the United States on acid-free paper

ISBN: 978-0-85745-902-2 (paperback) ISBN: 978-0-85745-923-7 (retail ebook)

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

* Figures are not to scale. Figures are in colour in the original. All efforts have been made to contact copyright holders (as indicated on the individual captions).

In practical terms, it is the year-by-year chronological sections of this book that stand out as needing a post-2010 update: specifically, of BD, and the case studies that suggest ways in which knowledge of French comics might help our understanding in other fields.

If, dear reader, you are, logically enough, reading this preface to the paperback edition before the rest of the book, you may find that the following sections make more sense as a postscript to the 2010 account, and so may wish to jump ahead, for the time being, to the foreword.

Angoulme update

Working backwards chronologically, for the reasons given in (footnote 28), the following were the winners for the Angoulme festival's Best Album and Grand Prix from 2010 to 2012:

2012: Guy Delisle, Chroniques de Jrusalem (Delcourt)

The award of the 2012 Best Album to an author from Quebec Guy Delisle was born in Quebec City in 1966 might appear like a further nod to the international status of BD, and in particular francophone BD, following recognition of Riad Sattouf (see below), Marjane Satrapi and Zep. However, in practice there is little that is specifically qubecois about Delisle's work, and in particular Chroniques de Jrusalem, although international it most certainly is.

Chroniques de Jrusalem follows from previous travel accounts by Deslisle, in particular Shenzhen (L'Association, 2000, about China), Pyongyang (L'Association, 2003, about North Korea) and Chroniques birmanes (Delcourt, 2007, about Burma). It has much in common with the earlier chronicles, and as such can be seen as a catch-up award, to be compared with Satrapi's 2005 prize for Poulet aux prunes rather than Persopolis. Delisle presents foreign, exotic and sometimes oppressive culture through the everyday, in the case of the Jerusalem trip via his own experiences as a child-minding father whilst his partner, Nadge, worked there for Mdecins Sans Frontires in 2008.

The style of Chroniques de Jrusalem, again like that of Delisle's earlier work, is that of line drawings with clear representational elements, whilst remaining far from any notion of photo-realism, to be compared perhaps with that of Manu Larcenet, or indeed Marjane Satrapi. A main difference, perhaps due to the possibilities offered by Dargaud, is the use of sepia tone and splashes of colour, albeit sparsely, to accentuate key incidents and objects. The style draws the reader in and situates the story in an exegetic reality, whilst keeping the distance that comes with caricature. It fits perfectly with the subject matter, one that presents traffic jams and the search for children's playgrounds, allowing us momentarily to overlook the background events, those of the religious conflicts in the Middle East.