Review of a History of Quebec Comics
As editor
Andy Brown sets out in the foreword of this collection, BDQ refers to Quebec
comics or bande dessinée québécoise,
just as manga refers to comics from
Japan. Unsurprisingly Quebec is unique in terms of its comics culture, which draws
heavily on the Franco-Belgian tradition due to the shared language and is also
strongly influenced by North American trends, in particular the US underground
comix movement of the 1960s and zines in the 1990s. Brown, also the publisher
at Conundrum, acknowledges that the collection is only “a smattering” of what is
available on Quebec comics. But obviously the featured artists, images and essays,
in his view, reflect important moments in BDQ history. The collection is
divided into four time periods with the longest section devoted to The
Nineties, evidently an ebullient period for sequential art, particularly in
Montreal.
“The Early
Years” focuses on Quebec comics that were published in newspapers with little
or no text. The strips published between 1904 and 1909 were intended for adults
and mirrored the social concerns of the day, such as urbanization, the woes of
the working poor and the arrival of new Canadians. There is a particularly
interesting essay on the style, technique and influences of Albert Chartier in
his well-known strip Onésime.
“The Middle
Years” takes us to the 1980s and introduces us to artists who include Réal
Godbout, the creator of Red Ketchup,
and Jimmy Beaulieu, a principled creator who refuses to turn his back on Quebec
comics. One of the most interesting pieces in this section is a never before
published letter from Julie Delporte to Sylvie Rancourt about the feminist
significance of Rancourt’s Mélody and
the sensitive intelligence of her work.
The party
really gets started in “The Nineties,” and the two reigning stars of this
section are underground superhero Henriette Valium and internationally
acclaimed comic artist Julie Doucet. But the BDQ community apparently had its
cultural clashes. In response to an article penned by Marc Tessier, “The
Montreal Comix Scene,” published in a 2005 special edition of The Comics
Journal, a group of people took issue with Tessier’s portrayal and let him
know, point by point, in Letters to the Editor of The Comics Journal #274
(February 2006). In a previously unpublished essay on Fish Piss, Andy Brown refers to the zine that ran from 1996 to 2006
as truly bilingual. Its comics, essays, poems and stories were published in
French and English without translation since its audience was as bilingual as
its editor, Louis Rastelli.
The final
section, “Modern Times,” introduces comic artists who have had some recent commercial
success. It features interviews with the late Geneviève Castrée, Michel
Rabagliati, Zviane, and Diane Obomsawin, in addition to essays on the creator
of Mile End, Michel Hellman, and the
collaborative work of Zviane and Iris in L’hostie
d’chat.
This
collection is a great primer for anyone interested in graphic novels or
sequential art from Quebec. Among the essays, I preferred those that touched on
the artist’s approach to stories and their work methods. Editor Brown also did
a commendable job of focusing on comics created by women when the BDQ scene has
long been dominated by men.
Personally,
I found the interview with Henriette Valium unreadable, but I’m nevertheless
interested in seeing more work by this apparent iconoclast. Another
unsatisfying read was the Roundtable on 1990s Quebec Comics. Although some
interesting points were made, the number of participants made it hard to follow.
My final criticism was the collection’s very small print.
As the
publisher at Conundrum, Brown has a vested interest in the success of BDQ, but
it’s also apparent from this collection that he has made an almost selfless
commitment to the vibrancy of this community. Conundrum has translated many
high-profile Quebec bédéistes,
including Michel Rabagliati and his seminal work The Song of Roland, for the English-speaking world to discover.
With support like this, we might soon see comics finally recognized as a true
art form in Canada.
The review has been cross-posted at the Montreal Review of Books.
The review has been cross-posted at the Montreal Review of Books.
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