Seven comics worth learning French for

1  Le Mur de Pan (Philippe Mouchel)

A very disconcerting discovery because of the near lack of colours, the drawing style – we are miles away from Hergé’s ligne claire – and the old style language used. But the intertwined storyline, the complex universe created and the poetry make for a compelling read. Unfortunatly, the author has not produced anything after ending the trilogy.

2  Valérian, agent spatio-temporel - Les oiseaux du Maître (Meziere/Christin)

This is one of the best episodes from a highly influencial sci-fi serie.

Valérian and Laureline are space-time travellers – they are agents of the Earth from the future. Their adventures are sometimes in time (visiting Earth’s past, which on numerous occasions is our present) and sometimes in space (discovering new planets, new civilisations, new species). The serie predates Star Wars by quite a few years – here are a few examples: Han Solo’s cryogenisation is reminiscent of Valerian’s own cryogenisation, Princess Leia’s outfit from Episode VI must be a second hand item from Laureline, and Darth Vader must have read “L’Empire des 1000 planètes”.

In “Les oiseaux du maître”, our heroes need to escape from enslavement on a planet ran by the mind controlling Master – and his birds. This is one of the serie’s running themes: slaves can defeat their masters, however powerful, if they work together. Or themes would be the environment, the denunciation of bellicism as archaic, and finally the place of women in our world. Laureline, originally a second role, quickly takes the lead – all the while knowing how to be very feminine at times.

The serie continues until today but the current episodes are not as visionary as the ones from the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s.

3  Lapinot – Slaloms (Lewis Trondheim)

The incredible adventures of Lapinot (Little Bunny in French) will remind you of Spirou.  Or your last weekend. Or of a spiced up version of your everyday life - all depending on your mood and the episode.

Slaloms, the first of these, follows Lapinot and his mates on a ski trip. You have all the usual characters – one is there just to meet girls, another litterally eats the slopes, while the geeky one wants calm away from the city. Humour is at every corner, if you’ve ever done a few days of winter sports you’ll laugh at every of Richard’s joke.

There’s a fair bit of nonsense, too. For example, the characters are clearly humans drawn as animals – until Lapinot tries to rent ski boots. He’s got huge rabbit feet.

The themes explored by the series are varied enough to please every reader – but the penultimate episode is really serious. Still hilariously funny, but schockingly serious. I mean it.

4  Isaac le Pirate (Blain)

Five volumes so far – I am eagerly wating for the follow up to this disconcerting adventure. Blain, like David B, Sfar and Trondheim – see above – have revolutionized the French speaking comics world with his non conventional graphism and story telling. You can still enjoy the classics, but have to peek at these relatively new comers. It’s a bit like with the French New Wave - ”A bout de souffle” being released to critical acclaim does not make “Gervaise” a bad movie.

Isaac is a painter that doesn’t really know what he wants. He embarks for America, mingles with pirates, becomes one of them… of course, the Isaac from volume 5 has nothing to do with the one that left Paris in volume 1. We also follow the parallel development of Alice’s character – she’s the fiancee he leaves behind.

I thought I knew where Blain had decided to take Isaac – back to Alice, after many adventures. After volumes 4 and 5, I am not sure anymore. Maybe Blain just lets his characters decide – he puts them in a situation and just sees what happens. This uncertainity (and the cliffhanger at the end of volume 5) makes me want to grab the next volume the minute it’s released.

5  Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi)

In fact you don’t need to learn French for that gem – it has been translated from its original French into many languages, including English. And, one would hope, Farsi.

Because Marjane Satrapi is of Persian origin. This bédé is an autobiography – from her childhood under the Shah’s regime and, later, the Revolution (volumes 1 and 2), to her discovery of life in Europe – in Vienna -(volumes 3 and 4).

This is another non conventional bédé by form – yet, an instant classic. It can be compared to Maus.

Or (pun not intended) to the “Lettres Persannes”.

Because you should not be fooled: it’s an autobiography from a child’s point of view, but, alongside her familly’s stories, it tells us about Iran’s modern history. How the Shah’s father got into power. The Iran/Iraq war. The persecutions (under the Shah, then under the Islamic revolution). The hypocrisy of the fundamentalists. The scarf. Torture. And how she, how her parents, how her neighbours, how every familly tried to survive.

By the way, these are the famillies the Bush administration and its UK ally want to bomb next.

6  Le Photographe (Guibert/Lefevre/Lemercier)

Didier Lefèvre is a freelance photograph who reported on MSF missions in Afghanistan between 1986 and 2002. This award wining story mixes real photos and comic strips.

We are far from Tintin’s world: even if you discover the country from the eyes of the photograph, this is not a story of westerners bringing light to the darkness of deep Afghanistan. Rather, it is two somewhat alien worlds discovering each other. And there is no manicheism. The enemy, if there is one, is never seen; this would offense Bozo, but the Soviets are not demonished.

And yet, this is Tintin at his best: a great adventure with open spaces, wonderful landscapes, and the MSF doctors are real life heroes. A lot of humor, too – you would need some to go through what these guys go through.

7  Les Schtroumpf – Le Schtroumpfissime (Peyo)

The third apparition of the smurfs in a comic (the first was in Johann & Pirlouit, and the second the Black Smurfs) features a comical analysis of a typical dictatorship – how it can start without people noticing (or caring), and how a society gets divided beyond repair. It even features a terrorist bomber. Like Montesqieu and others before, Peyo uses fiction to talk about our world. Of course, it’s still a children book, so in the end, the resistance does not wipe out the evil dictator. Instead, we have forgiveness and everybody accepts the dictator’s sincere apologies. The Smurfs, having behaved like us humans for most of the story, revert to their normal candid innocence.

The smurfs comics have been like that since – even the apparition of the Smurfette did not corrupt that innocence. Unfortunately.

FastTicket? Not!

If you have to get a train ticket in a hurry and are told you can use ‘FastTicket’, think twice. The British rail system is not integrated, and if the machines are out of work (like it happened in Fenchurch St to us today) you are stuck because the ticket issuer and the train operator will both claim it’s not their problem. You’ll have to buy another ticket and hope for a refund…

574.8km/h

 

A new world record for a train on rails is taken by the latest generation of TGV. A twin level TGV reached 574.8kph (356mph) today between Strasbourg and Paris. The previous record was held by another TGV.

Note that Japan’s magnetically-levitated Maglev prototype still holds the overall unofficial record after reaching a speed of 581kph (361 mph) in 2003.

However, the JR Maglev has several drawbacks:

• it is only a prototype (the V150 is just a modified TGV)
• it is inaccessible to passengers with pacemakers or magnetic data storage media (hard drives, credit cards…)
• vehicle must be wheeled for travel at low speeds
• cost is still considered prohibitive when compared to conventional trains. This explains why Maglevs have so far only been implemented for very short distances – for example the German built 30km long Shanghai Maglev

Compare to the TGV:

• it runs every day since 1981
• it turns a significant profit, and has completely paid for itself (including construction costs) in its first ten years
• it can use already built lines – this is what the Eurostar (the TGVs built for the Channel tunnel between the UK and the Continent) has been doing for the last 14 years; it just means the TGV is very slow when arriving in England

In fact there was a plan for an hovercraft train in France (with speed records at 430km/h) and even the UK (with engineering problems – the track was not even completed) until the 1970′s  but the TGV proved itself a better solution.

Regardless, Maglev, hovercrafts or rails, if we do not want to destroy this planet, the future of transport is for trains. Of course, long hauls trips will still require planes, but huge planes like the A380 will be used. Shorts polluting flights between myriads of small local airports are a thing of the past. As a matter of fact, the TGV (and its Eurostar and Thallys incarnations) has already taken most of the market between European cities like Paris, Lyon, Brussels and London.

Sunday’s Junk, Markets and Mash

 

Last Sunday we went around Brick Lane market and stumbled upon Christoph Büchel’s Simply Botiful installation. This huge space is curated by Hauser and Wirth. The exhibition has been reviewed elsewhere, so I won’t say anything else – apart that this was the last day, there were queues to get in, and it was at the same time unsettling and (for me) very new in its form yet very mundane in its underlying content.

The accumulation of junk, at first sight, doesn’t seem too much out of place in London’s derelict East End. This is supposed to be an area of markets, of flea markets to be more precise. But the area is changing. Cheshire Street, like Columbia Road or Broadway Market,  is attracting new trendy shops. With the afflux of tourists, police needs to patrol the area all day long. As a result the local gangs feel unsecure (but only on Sundays).

So now galleries are moving more East – there are a lot of new openings in Vyne Street, E8. At their place, E1 sees clothes shops, DVD rental clubs, bars, coffees, restaurants, restaurant chains… There is even a Startbucks Coffee in Whitechapel High Street (next to the new Tesco)!

We ended the stroll at SandM (Sausages and Mash) just south of the revamped Spitafields Market. I have never been to the Upper Street branch (because over there there are many other options), but I have to say that despite the apparition of many new restaurants in Spitafields, SandM is still one of my favorites around Liverpool Street/Brick Lane. It must be the only thing around that was not completely redone in the last 5 years or so. We enjoy going there when it’s freezing outside - even if they like to keep the door open (probably to let you enjoy the hot food better).

Le Photographe is dead.

Didier Lefèvre, co-author of the acclaimed “Le photographe” (the photographer) graphic novel about his first mission with MSF in Afghanistan, died of a heart attack on January, 29th.

Of course I didn’t know him. I knew about the novels’ success, but only read all three volumes last month, because European graphic novels is next to unavailable in London. Luckilly I subscribe to the French Institute’s library and was able to borrow a copy.

I do feel sad for his family and his friends. But, in a way, happy for him. He lived many a great adventures, and lived to tell us about it. He escaped from the death in Afghanistan, and still came back multiple times.

The novel must have inspired many – people coming to health care, coming to photography. I only wish it was translated into English. There are not enough doctors in Britain (when compared to France, Germany, Italy or Ukraine… or just about every country on the continent!), but still a lot more than in countries in need. French Doctors is good, but we need more than that. We just need more doctors.

Thank you, Didier.

Bus ride

I’m in a bus crossing the EastEnd, but in a sense the same scene could happen anywhere: I can hear the music coming out of my neighbour’s headphones.
Why is it that people buy expensive mp3 players, and can’t invest 10 pounds for a decent headphones? Case in point, the low quality deafness inducing device that comes with iPods.
I guess it’s the same people you see roaming the Mac support forums.

Mobile posting

It’s now becoming easier to post on the move – I am writing this from my mobile. On Blogger, you can even post via SMS. And thanks to ShoZu, I even post pics right to my Flickr. All of this means one horrible thing: more txt spk on the Internet

City Views

 

Today we had lunch on top of a London building – with a view across the Square Mile, the East End and Canary Wharf. Far from the trendy crowds typical of a busy Sunday in Shoreditch. Far from the smells of Brick Lane‘s curry houses. Far from the knives of the local thugs: from time to time the local disaffected youth remind the passing tourist that Jack the Ripper used to roam those very streets.

A lovely day, one would say.

Despite the freezing wind – but at least it’s not raining (yet).

Despite the noise – police helicopters that hover around the streets wary of any uncontrolled crowd, cars zooming unaware of the pedestrians… only the planes criss crossing the pale but blue sky are silent.

Despite the display of wealth in front of me – the City and its Canary Wharf extension is one of the world’s financial hub – casting its shadow on the poorest area of England at its feet – the council of Tower Hamlets.

Despite the total apathy of the British people – in our selfish pursuit of material happiness, we are leaving behind many a castaway. We, the Public (it’s not “the People” any more) seem content with having to work to repay our mortgages.

The Public?

Watching sport instead of playing sport. Reading about celebrities instead of making it in the world.

Watching the BBC bitching about other countries’ social systems helps forget how we ourselves are failing our youth.

Watching utter nonsense on Channel 5 to forget about the long commute home (the longest in Europe – the most expensive, too).

Going to their local pub to forget about it all.

Presentations Brunch

Today we invited a few friends over and prepared crêpes for the Chandeleur.

Our master cooks for the day hailed from Czechia and Algeria, but, maybe because “Chandeleur” is French for Candlemas, the brunch quickly turned into a French speaking party! We indulged ourselves to servings of savoury crêpes, followed by sweet crêpes – but always nice and thin crepes. Which made a change from the undercooked 0.5cm thick pancakes I got served at the office canteen this week.

The picture is not from our crêpes… it’s today’s first result from a flick search on the word ‘crepe’… We did not take pictures of the preparation, and by the time I thought about it I got busy welcoming guests and introducing them to one another. A couple of our friends just had a baby girl, and while she was presented to everyone, I remembered that Chandeleur originally celebrates the presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

Well today is also the day Segolene Royal presented her electoral program – one hundred proposals created after an innovative 4 months consultation with the general public, mainly via the web. Note that I say “the public” instead of “the people”… Yet, can we consider this a step towards a better participative democracy? I am still taking time reading the proposals, but one thing is already clear: unlike other candidates, unlike a well known controversial president, she does not play with people’s fears. It would be easy.

Instead, she brings hope to a whole country.

Last but not least, we got some good news from the Six Nations

Eat like the French

Being healthy can be as simple as “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

But as this article states, it’s in fact more complicated. The interesting part (because, really, the paper states the obvious) is the description of when and how our food got, little by little, replaced by nutrients.

Now I wish the people who write that kind of paper were using their brain to analyse the society they live in the same way they analyse the content of their plates. In particular, the effects of “liberal” economics – why we drive polluting cars, why we always want more, why we get all these diseases…

Maybe they’ll then say: think like the French!