SEQUENTIAL HEAVEN

I just returned from my first trip to Angoulême, Europe's biggest comics convention. Where to begin? That Angoulême itself is a beautiful, ancient walled town completely taken over by comics people for a week a year? That the last album of TITEUF sold over two million copies, more than all the top 25 American comics in December added together? (TITEUF is a wildly popular kids' comic; think CALVIN & HOBBES but a lot naughtier. Its cartoonist, Zep aka Philippe Chappuis, is also a heartbreakingly good artist - his sketchbooks look like something out of Constable. No, I'm not envious... much.)

Or should I begin by mentioning that the French publish over 3,000 graphic novels per year, all of which are creator-originated? Or that every major French publisher saw manga coming and actively embraced it, unlike US publishers, who mostly shut their eyes, covered their ears and went, "La la la I can't hear you"? That, as a result, there is vastly more quality manga available in French than in English? That independent comics are considered an art form, with beautiful production values and huge numbers of fans? That, most importantly, Angoulême's show tents are full of families with little kids who are thrilled to be there, and who wheeled suitcases behind them to carry all the comics they'd buy?

I spent most of my time at Angoulême looking at manga and alternative/independent European comics, and I wanted to talk about some of the books I bought. You may be wondering, why would I write about French comics? After all, they're in French. Well, there are two reasons.

First, because I think that a lot of you do speak French, even if, like me, you need a dictionary by your side to get through the sticky bits. Second, I think a lot of these books should be in English. I'm desperate for Top Shelf or Oni to do some licensing deals with Casterman, Éditions Cornélius, and L'Association. The fact that, after the global success of Sylvain Chomet's animated film BELLEVILLE RENDEZ-VOUS, nobody managed to release an English translation of his and Nicholas de Crécy's exquisite LEON LA CAME (Leon the Junkie), shows that opportunities are being missed.

I'm not going to write about the mainstream French "albums" (48-64 page hardbacks, usually in series of three or more) in this column. I can get those by mail order, so didn't buy many at Angoulême. They're heavy to carry back on the aeroplane. I may do a "20 French Comics You Need To Own" column in the coming weeks, so any of you art nerds out there who aren't aware of Hugo Pratt, Schuiten & Peeters, Sergio Toppi and so forth can geek out with me about godlike European sequentials. Meanwhile...

TRADITIONAL FORMAT, ALTERNATIVE CONTENT

LE ROI DES MOUCHES VOL 1: HALLORAVE, by Mezzo & Pirus (Albin Michel). I complain a lot how the covers of US comics are just a sea of dull pin-ups that don't stand out on the shelves. Surprisingly, French albums have a similar lack of graphic design oomph. I picked up this book for its cover - a striking, simple fly's-head design. I bought it for the art. Dark, striking linework, which owes a lot to West-coast American surf art and Coop, perfectly complemented by flat colouring with heavy use of straight cyan, magenta and yellow for emphasis.

The story itself is a mix of David Lynch, Daniel Clowes and Desperate Housewives, all about 21-year-old suburban slacker Eric Klein (the "king of the flies" of the title) and his friends and neighbours. It's structured as short stories told in the first person between a disparate group of people whose lives begin to cross and intermingle, with dramatic consequences. The first two stories, Hallorave (about a Halloween rave gone horribly wrong) and Jiminy (about an alcoholic father and his invisible friend) are unforgettable.

MONSIEUR, by David Sourdrille (Les Requins Marteaux). Imagine Robert Crumb doing autobio, drawn by Dean Haspiel, and you've got a pretty good idea of MONSIEUR. Soudrille is obsessed by women, desperately convinced of his own inadequacy, and completely willing to savagely caricature his friends.

It's incredibly funny, and a great part of the joy is Sourdrille's beautiful brush artwork. His technical proficiency is staggering, and comes across in everything from the subtle changes in expression among characters in his stories, to the wonderful 'some assembly required' cover. This album came out in 2003, and there's a recent follow-up, MESDAMES, which is on my to-buy list the next time I get to France.

EUROMANGA

FORGET ME NOT by Kenji Tsuruta (Sakka). The Sakka imprint, part of the giant Casterman stable, is possibly my favourite French manga label. Beautiful oversized editions of both recent (FORGET ME NOT was a 2003 book) and older works, mostly from Kodansha; an emphasis on quality of art and story; and books I had simply never seen before, but now very much want to buy.

FORGET ME NOT is the story of young detective Mariel Imari, who lives in Venice and whose humdrum life is shattered by a celebrity art thief who plays cat-and-mouse with her, the quest for the painting 'Forget-Me-Not', an ill-timed affair, and the arrival of her two sisters from Japan. Tsuruta's artwork is highly reminiscent of Miyazaki's, but with a slightly looser line. I could have bought about half the Sakka line, had I money and the strength to carry the books. Satoshi Kon's KAIKISEN is definitely on my list.

I'm also on a horror kick right now, so picked up the two French editions of works by Japanese horror legend Hideshi Hino: SERPENT ROUGE and PANORAMA DE L'ENFER. Hino, a Hiroshima survivor, inspired generations of Japanese horror filmmakers and manga-ka. His work (as "Hino Horror") is available in English from Last Gasp, my favourite American bookstore. I also finally found an English copy of Kazuichi Hanawa's DOING TIME, which has been recommended to me by countless people. It's the story of three years in Japanese prison, in a lovely oversized edition from Fanfare/Potent Mon, who are generally Spanish manga translators.

Much is made in France about the "nouvelle vague" manga of Franco-Japanese creators in the circle of Frederic Boilet and Kan Takahama. I've yet to really warm to either of them. Boilet (MARIKO PARADE, YUKIKO'S SPINACH) writes mostly about his love of Japanese women and how his relationships with them always go wrong. So yes, he's a rice-chasing version of Craig Thompson.

I lived in Hong Kong for five years and find the subject of male expats' obsessions and misunderstandings about Asian women to be incredibly tedious. And Kan Takahama's (KINDERBOOK, etc) art is a source of great frustration to me. I was lucky enough to see her pencils when she came to London for Paul Gravett's Manga ComICA event last September. Sadly her pencils are so much better than her inked work it's heartbreaking. From tight, exquisite pencils that she compliments by brush-inked hair (naturally, all her characters have black hair), one ends up with slushy, weak computer-inked final pages. Such a shame.

OVER THERE, IT'S NOT BLACK & WHITE PHOTOCOPIED INDIE FILTH...

You can't talk about French alternative comics without mentioning L'Association and Éditions Cornélius. I wanted to buy everything on Cornélius' stand, but would have contented myself with the mad info-overload advertisement love of Pierre La Police, Winschluss' nearly silent graphic novel SMART MONKEY, and Willem's deeply wrong yet oh so lovely ALPHABET CAPONE (the alphabet, rendered as blood-spatters from gang murder victims - it's Weegee meets Winsor McCay).

L'Association is the all-star lineup of French alt comics. It boasts Joann Sfar, Killoffer (whose 676 APPARITIONS was the must-buy book for Alterna-Fille and Indie Garçon a couple of years ago), Lewis Trondheim, and de Crécy among its creators. If you too take a deeply geeky interest in formal experimentation in comics, you at least need to own OUPUS #2 and OUPUS #3 from OuBaPo (Ouvroir de Bande Dessinée Potentielle), which are experiments with comics that can be read upside down as well as right side up, which you can fold together make a second comic thates remix other, older comics. You name it, they try it. And unlike a lot of other formal experimentations, these succeed. Also from L'Association is Aristophane's CONTE DÉMONIAQUE, a dreamlike meditation on Dante's Inferno.

... IT'S ART

The work of star groups like L'Association has a deep impact on self-published comics in Europe, creating standards that shame those of us who think minicomics equals staying after work, running off a bunch of A4 pages on the photocopier, and stapling them down the middle.

In Europe you get people like Olivier Philipponneau, who does a little fable about the journey of an email sent to himself, hand-printed in yellow and black on a poster sized sheet of paper. When you take the paper out of its bright yellow presentation box (which comes with stickers, postcards, and a guide to the story's characters), it's folded up, and tells a short version of the story. As you unfold the paper, the story morphs into different and more complicated versions of the poor little message's journey.

It's not just a comic, it's a feat of engineering, and singularly the most beautiful and fun printed object I've seen in years. And it's a limited-edition minicomic. Philipponneau promises an electronic, English version of the story online soon - check the link "La Véridique Aventure d'un E-mail" on his website.

Philipponneau's work cost Euros18, but good minicomics don't have to cost the earth. I also fell in love with Ludovic Pedrocci's FILIPO VERSUS PONEY, a faux-naïve political fable about a guy who accidentally becomes president of France and has to contend with the envious Poney, who wants his job. Sixteen black and white pages, but with a colour, laminated card cover and very high quality printing, it set me back a mere three euros.

... AND SOME OF IT IS IN COLOUR

Angoulême also showcases indie anthologies, of which the number and quality are staggering. My absolute favourite was the Israeli comics group Dimona. They've published three anthologies so far, all full colour, painted or mixed media comics, each with an originality that far exceeds much of the painted work in the UK and US.

DIMONA #2 has five stories, and every single one is both innovative and visually effective. My personal favourites were Michal Baruch's collage/ransom note/crazy quilt style and Amitai Sandy's delicate yet dynamic sketches - but I actually feel bad having to mention favourites out of these five stories, because they are all so accomplished. In DIMONA #3, there was a page of Meirav Shaul's story that brought an entire pub table of UK comic artists to a gibbering, jealous halt. Get your hands on these books - they're in English, so you have no excuse.

I also bought volume #12 of the TURKEY COMIX anthology, and volumes #15 and #17 of the wonderful Belgian MYCOSE anthologies. MYCOSE #15 had a mermaid shaving the scales under her armpits on the cover. Now, who can resist that?

There were also at least four literature/illustration/comix zines I wanted to buy, but I lacked the cash: RAGOO, the "rock & comix" anthology MY WAY, and the super high quality Italian 'zine INGUINE. And then there was the STRIPBURGER collective out of Ljubjana, which are mostly in English and distributed by Top Shelf. Lastly, the R DE RÉEL series, an "illustrated alphabetic revue" with contributions from the big names of European alternative comix and a truly covetable format.

I probably should have tried to blag free copies of some of this stuff, but having made indie comics myself, I know how much money, time and effort goes into making these books, and it feels wrong to deny those responsible some cash encouragement, especially when the results are so stunning. Next year, however, I'm taking a bigger suitcase to Angoulême.

Alex de Campi is a comics writer whose projects include the Eisner-nominated SMOKE with Igor Kordey and the forthcoming KAT & MOUSE with Federica Manfredi.

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