Dupuis / Casterman / the Lombard
“On the Korean Front”, “From Rififi to Ménilmontant” and “Revoir Commanche” are in our selection of essential comics for the end of the year.
GIFTS – Like every year, under the tree there will be chocolates, clothes, high-tech objects, but also “cultural gifts” and in particular comic books. An inexpensive, customizable and space-saving present, the comic is a must for Christmas.
However, it is difficult to make a choice given the extent of the shelves and the number of new products. To help you, here is a selection of comics mixing the return of well-known characters, historical stories, the end of a captivating saga and the adaptation of a literary monument.
From Rififi to Ménilmontant, by Jacques Tardi (Casterman)
The immense Jacques Tardi adds a fifth volume signed by his hand to his series Nestor Burmawhich had been taken up by authors other than him for twenty-five years. For the first time, he does not adapt a novel by Léo Malet but uses the writer’s characters in the service of an original story, which takes place during Christmas week in 1957.
A committed activist author, Tardi denounces the misdeeds of the pharmaceutical industry and animal abuse. But what fascinates the most in this album is the drawing and the coloring which imitates the comics pulp of the 1950s. Tardi is having fun like crazy, and pays homage, along the way, to many personalities that we can have fun recognizing among the passers-by in the streets of the 20th arrondissement of Paris.
ErostratusMartin Veyron (Dargaud)
In 356 BC in the city of Ephesus, the Temple of Artemis – one of the seven wonders of the world – was on fire. A young man named Erostratus publicly boasts of being the arsonist. His only motivation? The fame that his crime will earn him. Erostratus is condemned by the city to the stake, but also to oblivion: anyone who pronounces his name will in turn be put to death.
Two thousand years later, the name of Erostratus remains documented, while that of the architect of the temple has been forgotten. Around this story which resonates with the absurd and universal contemporary quest for notoriety, Martin Veyron composes a masterful album, a journey into ancient Greece which bounces his words from Aristotle to Diogenes by multiplying the tones as well as the points of view.
Sea Workersby Michel Durand (Glénat)
Romantic masterpiece by Victor Hugo published just after Les Miserables, The Workers of the Sea from the time of its publication benefited from several editions illustrated by some of the greatest designers of the time. In 2024, Michel Durand is inspired by the hatched line of their engravings to depict Victor Hugo’s text in a remarkable comic strip.
No one will be surprised to learn that this work took four years given the splendor of the boards. The black and white drawing magnifies a travel story crossed by multiple themes. In particular the conflicted relationships that man maintains with nature and with society, which is also a tragic love story.
On the Korean frontby Stéphane Marchetti and Rafael Ortiz (Dupuis)
It is the first title in a collection aimed at adapting major reports won by the Albert Londres prize (the most prestigious awarded to journalistic work) into graphic novel form. On the Korean front adapts an investigation by Henri de Turenne from 1950. Not only does this album shed light on a work that has become inaccessible, but it sheds light on a now forgotten conflict that led to the partition of Korea into two enemy countries.
Winner of the Albert Londres prize at just 28 years old, Henri de Turenne left for Korea a month before his wedding date, but stayed there for a year. He sent his dispatches to the AFP every day before writing a long article for Le Figaro in the evening. His testimony at the front – where he lost several journalist friends – is perfectly staged in a comic strip which strives to recount the cruelty on both camps.
A Fucking Bastard 4/4, by Loisel and Pont (Rue de Sèvres)
Author of iconic comic strips from the 1980s (The Quest for the Bird of Time) and 1990 (Peter Pan), Régis Loisel also subsequently wrote excellent scenarios for other designers besides himself. This is the case of the series A Fucking Bastardput into images by Olivier Pont, who draws strong inspiration from Loisel’s graphic style to tell his story.
The fourth volume of this adventure story set in the Amazon jungle in 1972 was released this fall. He concludes a story that ended in suspense two years ago. Readers’ wait is rewarded: the highly anticipated finale keeps all its promises.
See Comanche again, by Romain Renard (Le Lombard)
“ Neither a tribute, nor a cover, rather a rereading »: Romain Renard offers a unique sequel to the series Comanche by Greg and Hermann published in the Journal de Tintin from 1972. It places its story at a later time than that of the original series: in 1932. An unusual decade to set the atmosphere of a western, a genre that We only recognize it in the second half of the story.
We find the character of Red Dust, who has become old and lonely, who comes to confront a young woman investigating the myths of the conquest of the west. Literally and figuratively, Review Comanche summons the ghosts in a twilight story which rather evokes the atmosphere of the series Melville by the same author as that of Comanche from which he draws inspiration. Melancholic and contemplative, Review Comanche returns to a golden age of comics, but with a resolutely modern tone.
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