I have just learned that photographer Didier Lefêvre has passed away. What a shock. He was just at Angoulême, where the comic he made in collaboration with Emmanuel Guibert and Frédéric LeMercier, Le Photographe, was singled out as one of the essential works of the year. He had apparently been suffering from heart trouble for a while and died earlier today from a heart attack in his Morangis home.
Nå, jeg kan se at vores nye format har vakt opmærksomhed ovre i kaffeklubben (tak for de pæne ord. Vi knuselsker skam også jer).
Hovedanken er, at vi skulle have afskaffet debatten fordi vi har lukket forumet, men det er faktisk ikke tilfældet. Vi er bare trætte af at køre et forum og har derfor valgt at omstrukturere. Hvis nogen vil kommentere vores indslag, kan de – ligesom det er tilfældet på et af tidens bedste nyheds- og debatsites for tegneserier, Tom Spurgeons Comics Reporter – bare sende en email, så skal vi nok bringe den og endda svare på den, hvis vi skønner den er interessant for læserne (det er faktisk allerede sket).
Velkommen hjem fra Ærø!
It is about time. The Grand Prix winner of the Angoulême festival is the Argentine master José Muñoz (born 1942 in Buenos Aires). As the artist of a series of classic books written by his compatriot Carlos Sampayo : notably the noir character-driven series Alack Sinner, the masterful short story cycle set around “Joe’s Bar”, and the touching memoir Sudor Sudaca : Muñoz was one of the most important innovators of European comics in the 80s.
Today, a group of comics industry luminaries got together on panel at Angoulême’s comics centre, CNBDI, to discuss Thierry Groensteen’s new book, La Bande dessinée – Un Objet culturel non-identifié which I reviewed here yesterday. Groensteen himself was there, of course, and was joined by L’Association co-founder Jean-Christophe Menu (who just published the final, massive issue of the critical journal on comics L’Eprouvette), journalist Bernard Joubert, and comics author, scholar and editor Benoît Peeters, as well as mc Jean-Pierre Mercier.
Just attended the on-stage interview with Charles Burns, conducted by two nincompoops. Why is it that, when French interviewers talk to American cartoonists, they always – always – have to spend precious time talking about superheroes, even when it’s completely irrelevant to the artist’s work? And why is it that they always – always – have to spend more time trying to extract the names of European cartoonists that may or may not have been influential to the artist? And why is it, when somebody – in this case Burns – has said they like Tintin, they always – always – have to spend ages discussing it? How about getting into the meat of the matter? Burns is a thoughtful and perfectly articulate guy – how about asking him some more questions about, say…Black Hole?
Photo: Matthias Wivel
In time for the festival, Thierry Groensteen, Director of the national comics centre (CNBDI) here in Angoulême, and one of France’s preeminent comics historians, -theorists, has put out a collection of essays charting the cultural reception of the comics medium in France over the last half century or so. Half history book, half timely, critical commentary. It simultaneously surveys the development of publishing, amateur culture, comics criticism, curatorship and government support for comics culture, and comments on the current state of comics in French culture.
Groensteen acknowledges that comics have come far in terms of the cultural accept that he considers essential for its future health as a medium, but that anything resembling the consolidation of the younger medium of film has had for more than half a century is still far off. Comics remain an Unidentified Cultural Object, as he calls it, beyond the radar of both high and popular culture (by the way, a dichotomy he dissects and argues for the abolishment of in the final, and unfortunately rather slapdash chapter on whether and how comics can be considered as art in relation to the Western Canon).
Masser af danskere i Angoulême i år! Metabaronen og yours truly kom væltende med selveste hr. Fahrenheit, Paw Mathiasen, hr. Aben Maler, Steffen Maarup og Ã…rets Unge, Simon Bukhave. Ankommet til byen blev delegationen modtaget med åbne arme af den danske eksiltegner, Terkel Risbjerg, som havde anvendt sit omfattende franske netværk til at sørge for indkvartering til alle mand. Efter en hurtig runde i messeområdet kunne det også fastslås, at Christopher Ouzman og Sivert Ibbo fra Danmarks nye klassikerforlag Faraos Cigarer er i byen (da Team Metabunker stødte på dem, sad de dog i koncentrerede forhandlinger med Castermans folk) – G. Floys Christine Jensen er her også et sted, og pludselig sad Thierry Capezzone og signerede HCA JR. i forlaget Jokers stand. Længere henne, i Soleils friske pust af en diskostand, luntede en glad Teddy Kristiansen rundt, og varmede op til signering af sit nye album, Carnet Rouge. Strip!s Poul Petersen har vanen tro slået pjalterne sammen med Bild & Bubblas folk, anført af Fredrik Strömberg, som også blogger (og blogger flix!). Til det røvkedelige og elendigt forberedte Charles Burns-sceneinterview, dukkede BLÆK og Free Comics-star Christian Skovgaard (som overraskende nok havde tøj på) op. Og så er der selvfølgelig manden, myten, legenden Erik Svane, dansk-fransk amerikaner, som i anledning af sit nye album General Leonardo, går rundt i fuld Leonardo-udklædning hernede, nice! Alt kører perfekt, alle er glade, og STRIP!-redaktionen har endnu ikke slået undertegnede ihjel i kølvandet på svadaen nedenfor et sted…
Photo: T. Thorhauge
So, we’re at the press centre which is the mirror-lined, gilded stucco-banquet hall of the Town Hall, and Lewis Trondheim just dropped by with a camera crew, talking nonsense and doing a little dance for us. No shit.
We exchanged a few words – he in Finnish, me in Chinese. Nice chap.
More later.
Photo: T. Thorhauge
Danmarks førende MC, Jokeren, har skrevet en kort og koncis tekst om sit syn på hip hop, tydeligvis tænkt som en grundtekst til alle newbies, der ikke har læst på lektien, men samtidig også en art mission statement fra manden selv. Vi ved alle, at Jokeren er god med sproget når han tager sig sammen, og teksten her er sgu i det store og hele on point. Man kunne ønske sig, at han udtrykte sig på skrift oftere. Desværre rummer den samtidig et par paradoksale problemer, affødt af den storefar-attitude der naturligvis tilkommer ham men samtidig også får ham til at lyde en kende forstokket.
Jokerens præcisering af hvor hip hop kommer fra og hvad der er dens animerende kraft er både malende og skarpt formuleret og bestemt et velkomment bidrag til en dansk hip hop-kritik der ellers savner den slags fundementale indsigter. Det er følgeslutningerne, der er problematiske. I sin iver efter at bevise, at han bestemt ikke er player hater – det havde vi heller ikke regnet med, hr. “Gigolo Jesus” – tager han den værste spekulations-hip hop i forsvar.
Since it’s Tintin-creator Hergé’s centennial this year, the rights holders at Moulinsart have organized a large retrospective showing of works from his whole career in collaboration with Paris Beaubourg (that’s the Pompidou Centre to anyone not on the team). The show takes up a large part of the basement area that opens to the main hall, as well as the catwalk behind it. We get a little of everything Totor, the boy scout, and Quick and Flupke, the street urchins, to illustration and publicity work and, of course a large selection of original pages spanning the almost 60 year-long career, as well as sketches other drawn and written preparatory work (no models!)