European Comic Art

Creation and criticism, in comics, as in all types of artistic expression, become intertwined, and all the more so as the form develops self-awareness and seeks defi nition. One of the main precursors of the tradition of graphic storytelling, William Hogarth (1697–1764), told of the social tribulations of the London in which he lived via multi-image series such as A Rake’s Progress (c. 1735) and A Harlot’s Progress (c. 1732), but was also known for his Analysis of Beauty (1753), in which he elaborates the notion of the central S shape as key to the visual expression of attractiveness; this serpentine ‘line of beauty’ can still be detected in the characters of comic books today.

Dispossession (2015) is a 96-page colour graphic adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s 1879 novel John Caldigate. It is the primary outcome of a 2012 commission from the University of Leuven to develop, draw and rationalise a new graphic novel relative to Trollope’s (Fig. 1). Dispossession will be published in an English edition and as Courir deux lièvres [To Run Two Hares] in a French edition in conjunction with a 2015 academic conference on the occasion of the bicentenary of Trollope’s birth.1 The commission encompassed theorisations of adaptation, the habits and limitations of research and practice, narrative drawing and Victorianism. An academic partner volume, Transforming Anthony Trollope: ‘Dispossession’, Victorianism and 19th-Century Word and Image (2015), published at the same time, will include new writing on the graphic adaptation of nineteenth-century literature, Victorian illustration and Victorianism.

This article deals with Philippe Druillet's three-volume comic adaptation (1980–1985) of Salammbô, Gustave Flaubert's historical novel from 1862, set three centuries BC. Flaubert was famous for not wanting his texts illustrated: he argued that the preciseness of images would undo the poetic vagueness of his written words. The article examines how Druillet tackles the challenge of graphically representing Flaubert's canonical work without reducing the priestess Salammbô into a given type. The analysis shows a dynamic adaptation process in which Druillet gives a kaleidoscopic form to Flaubert's text. His variation on the Salammbô character foregrounds photography, a medium historically relevant to the novel but also to Druillet's own artistic training. Featuring his character Lone Sloane in the role of Mathô, the adaptation proves to be a highly personal appropriation of the novel, where Druillet enhances an autobiographical dimension of his work previously hinted at in La Nuit and Gaïl.

With Epileptic, French comics artist David B. presents a graphic novel as innovative in style as it is experimental in content. In the foreground, Epileptic is an autobiographical tale about his youth overshadowed by his brother's suffering from epilepsy, but it is also the illustration of a dream-world. David B. consequently entangles the levels of reality, autobiography and dreamlike fantasy. Emphasised by the interaction of clear graphics with hard black-and-white contrasts and the use of surrealistic and medieval quotations, David B. presents a unique combination of art, narrative and abstraction.

Guy Delisle was born in Canada’s Quebec City in 1966. He studied animation at Sheridan College in Oakville, near Toronto, and has worked for animation companies in Canada, France, Germany, China and North Korea. His comics career started at L’Association, where from 1995 onwards he contributed to the French periodical Lapin, whilst also working on the Canadian magazine Spoutnik. Delisle is also an active animator strongly associated with Dupuis-Audiovisuel. He has just finished the third volume of his current series, Le Guide du mauvais père [A Users Guide to Neglectful Parenting], which will be available in January 2015.

BOOK REVIEWS

Thierry Groensteen, M. Töpffer invente la bande dessinée

Ole Frahm, Die Sprache des Comics [The Language of the Comic]

Daniela Petrini, ed., Die Sprache(n) der Comics: Kollokium in Heidelberg, 16.–17. Juni 2009 [The Language(s) of Comics: A Symposium Held in Heidelberg, 16–17 June 2009]

Hannah Miodrag, Comics and Language: Reimagining Critical Discourse on the Form

Ian Hague, Comics and the Senses: A Multisensory Approach to Comics and Graphic Novels

EXHIBITION REVIEW

Albums: Bande dessinée et immigration, 1913–2013, Musée de l'histoire de l'immigration, Paris, 16 October 2013 to 27 April 2014 Catriona MacLeod

CONFERENCE REVIEW

Graphisches Erzählen: Neue Perspektiven auf Literaturcomics Graphic Storytelling: New Perspectives on Literature and Comics], University of Düsseldorf, Germany, 5–7 March 2014 Carolin Kirchhoff