The Humanoids Blog
Welcome to the Humanoids blog. Here you will find posts, editorials, stories and the like from members of the Humanoids staff.
List of posts
Archives
Tags
List of posts
Preview: Different Ugliness Different Madness
Different Ugliness Different Madness from Marc Malès will be in stores on December 9. Below are some more previews of this upcoming title.
Izuna: Character studies
Saverio Tenuta joins Carita Lupatelli and Bruno Letizia to expand the universe of Legends of the Scarlet Blades with the upcoming release of Izuna, a new mythical series that also takes root in Japanese mythology.
Below are studies of this soon-to-be released title (Feel free to click on the images to make them appear larger).
Spotlight: Different Ugliness Different Madness
Different Ugliness Different Madness
Story & Art by Marc Malès
AMERICA, 1930, THE GOLDEN AGE OF RADIO. WHEN TWO PEOPLE FROM SEPARATE WORLDS COLLIDE, THE DARK SECRETS THEY'RE BURDENED WITH START TO SPILL OUT.
A stunningly beautiful woman, Helen, travels aimlessly, across the United States, taking the first train that comes without knowing the destination. Her path crosses that of the reclusive Lloyd Goodman, better known as the attractive and sexy voice of the "playboy of radio." But he has a secret... His voice is as dazzling as his face is repulsive. Lloyd, embarrassed by his appearance, disappeared from the limelight. As Helen struggles with the terrible memories of a personal trauma, her meeting with Lloyd will change their lives forever.
Marc Malès' lyrical prose and expressive art tell a heart-wrenching story of the healing power of human connection.
Quick facts about Different Ugliness Different Madness:
• Marc Malès has written and illustrated many European graphic novels, including several for Humanoids, such as Katharine Cornwell, Thousand Faces with Philippe Thirault (Miss: Better Living Through Crime), and short story work in Métal Hurlant.
• Malès is passionate about U.S. history and many of his works reflect that.
• Perfect for fans of intelligent and emotive fiction like One Day and The Fault in Our Stars.
• Rendered in stark black and white, it is ideal for fans of Alex Toth's work.
Available below is the desktop wallpaper of Different Ugliness Different Madness. Click the picture to choose your resolution
Different Ugliness Different Madness arrives in stores December 9, 2015 with an MSRP of $19.95/£14.99
Spotlight: Izuna
Izuna
Story by Saverio Tenuta & Bruno Letizia, Art by Carita Lupatelli
Since the dawn of time, the spirits of nature created the Kamigakushi, a magical veil that hid them from the impure eyes of man. The Izuna wolves were entrusted as guardians of this invisible boundary against the evil spirits known as the Noggo. But the mysterious birth of a wolf cub in the shape of a young girl threatens to upset the delicate balance between the two worlds and plunge both sides into chaos.
Saverio Tenuta and Bruno Letizia's lyrical script expands the wondrous Japanese-set world of the bestselling series Legend of the Scarlet Blades, and is brought to life by newcomer Carita Lupattelli's delicately painted art. Includes a bonus art section.
Quick facts about Izuna:
• Saverio Tenuta is an Italian creator whose work has appeared in Heavy Metal, JLA: Riddle of the Beast (DC Comics) and the creator of Legend of the Scarlet Blades. He teaches at the International School of Comics in Rome.
• This is Italian artist Carita Lupattelli's first graphic novel.
• Takes place in the same universe as one of Humanoids most popular titles, Legend of the Scarlet Blades.
• Ideal for fans of manga like Vagabond and Lone Wolf & Cub, and Studio Ghibli films.
Available below is the desktop wallpaper of Izuna. Click the picture to choose your resolution
Izuna arrives in stores December 9, 2015 with an MSRP of $29.95/£21.99
Press Release: The Tipping Point
The first truly international graphic novel, featuring 13 creators from 3 continents and simultaneously published in 4 countries.
This highly original anthology allows some of the world's greatest sequential artists to explore the key moment when a clear-cut split occurs, a mutation, a personal revolt or a large-scale revolution that tips us from one world into another, from one life to an entirely new one: The Tipping Point.
From slice-of-life tales and science-fiction adventures, to amusing asides and fantastical fables, witness these major changes and evolution through the eyes of 13 visionaries from the worlds of manga, bande dessinée, and comics. Each of them has written and drawn an original story, and taken a personal approach to the theme of "the tipping point." The anthology is by turns, humorous, moving, perplexing, horrifying, pensive, uplifting, and hopeful.
The contributors are some of the most cutting-edge and influential creators from the USA, UK, Japan, and France:
Boulet - Eddie Campbell - John Cassaday
Bob Fingerman - Atsushi Kaneko - Keiichi Koike
Emmanuel Lepage - Taiyô Matsumoto - Frederik Peeters
Paul Pope - Katsuya Terada - Naoki Urasawa
Bastien Vivès
The book also features a brand new cover by legendary European artist, Enki Bilal (The Nikopol Trilogy).
Humanoids' publisher, Fabrice Giger notes, "Humanoids, since its very inception 40 years ago, has always had a leitmotif of building bridges between American comic books, Japanese manga, and European bande dessinée to help them inspire each other—or better yet, to cross-pollinate. The Tipping Point does just that, and features some of the medium's best creators working today. It's a very unique and special book that will land—like a shimmering UFO invasion—simultaneously in different languages around the planet, unifying global fans of the sequential art form."
The Tipping Point will be released in two separate editions:
A Hardcover Trade Edition (8.3in x 11in/275mm x 210mm, 132pp), MSRP/RRP $29.95/£20.99.
An Ultra-Deluxe Edition (8.3in x 11in/275mm x 210mm, 132pp), MSRP/RRP $499/£349. This edition comes in a slipcase, is printed on luxurious 150gsm paper, includes 14 individually signed bookplates, and is limited and numbered to just 100 copies. A unique opportunity to own a ground-breaking piece of comics art.
Both English-language editions will be released in the US and the UK in January 2016. French and Japanese editions to be released in their respective territories.
Interview: Mandalay - Butch Guice
With tomorrow's release of Mandalay, we wanted to speak with some of the team behind the book. Today we interview superstar artist, Butch Guice. This interview was conducted by Jo Witherington (Marketing & Social Media Director for Humanoids) and Tim Pilcher (UK Liaison).
What's the difference been like working with an American writer (Geoff Johns) and a French one (Philippe Thirault)? Were there any communication problems or different writing styles and approaches?
Both Geoff (along with Kris Grimminger) and Philippe were/are great collaborative partners, very fun to work with script-wise, very visual in their stories -- and each of the projects provided me the opportunity to illustrate some great exciting scenes.
What sort of visual research did you do for both books (Mandalay and Olympus)?
With Olympus, as far as setting and creature design, it was primarily out of my own head -- there was a lot of freedom to simply play and have fun -- go where my imagination took me. As best as I recall, the only hard research I did for that one involved the various guns being carried, and the urn which was front and center in the story.
Mandalay being based within historical time frames did require a bit more research -- the uniforms and some of the settings, the planes in a couple of scenes, the World War II stuff -- but I have always enjoyed that side of the job -- these type of stories -- so it is much more fun than actual work to track down the visual scrap reference needed.
Were you a fan of the old Ray Harryhausen movies?
Oh yes -- I grew up on them -- was the perfect age to be seeing them as they were being released. I was crazy over Jason and the Argonauts as a kid, and all the other Harryhausen classics, the Sinbad stuff, etc. I haven't re-watched any of them in decades, but the intial imprint made upon me as a kid is still strong. I'm sure much of the imagery I ended up using for Olympus came directly from my recollections of those movies -- especially the scene with the Cyclops.
Were there any mythological creatures you'd like to have drawn that didn't make it to the final book of Olympus? Manticore, Cerberus, Griffen, etc?
I'm not sure where we could have fit any more creatures into the story. The characters were almost under constant attack from one creature or the other after landing on the island. If I could have worked another in I would choose the Manticore. We had the Chimera make a brief appearance, as well as The Sphinx, so we could have gotten the Manticore somewhere into the mix if space had permitted. A Manticore would have been fun to draw.
When working, do you always keep the color in mind, or just focus on doing the black and white work and not worry about the colorist?
No question in my mind, I tend to focus on the black and white. What I'm imagining -- while I'm visualizing the story in my head -- is in color, but the actual physical work, the penciling and inking process quickly takes over and my focus while drawing is the black and white image. Thankfully, I had the awesomely talented Dan Brown doing the color work on Olympus, so I was in the very best of hands. I feel Dan did an incredible job on the story.
What's the difference, creativity, for you working on Humanoids style books, rather than superheroes?
I prefer the Humanoids style of books, the extended tale. While I grew up primarily reading superhero comics in the late sixties/early seventies -- and was crazy about them as a kid -- as a working artist I find the creative appeal of the genres and settings in the European material to be far more exciting.
Mike Perkins inked your work in Mandalay. What do you think he brought to the project?
All the best parts. Mike is simply one of the best inkers any penciler could hope to have as a collaborative partner. He is respectful of what he is given in the pencils but always finds a way to elevate the work. He makes you, the penciler, look better than you really are so who doesn't want that?
What appealed to you to work on Olympus and Mandalay?
The genres -- the chance to illustrate stories which did not involve capes and skin tight costumes. It's not that I dislike drawing superhero comics -- some of my favorite periods of my career have been working on them -- but as with anything in life, too much of it will sour your appreciation of it. My taste in music and movies and books is wide ranging. I like my projects to be, as well.
9. What's next for Butch Guice?
Next up is ARCHANGEL with science-fiction author William Gibson to be published through IDW. It is a time travel tale involving World War II.
Thanks to Butch Guice for answering some questions. Mandalay will be available November 11, 2015 on our store and wherever Humanoids titles are carried.
Interview: Mandalay - Mike Perkins
With Wednesday's release of Mandalay, we wanted to speak with some of the team behind the book. Today we interview inker extraordinaire, Mike Perkins. This interview was conducted by Jo Witherington (Marketing & Social Media Director for Humanoids) and Tim Pilcher (UK Liaison).
You'e inked LOTS of people of the years, including Butch Guice on Mandalay. What, in your opinion makes a good inker?
Butch always used to say to me; "Don't ink what I put on the page - ink my intent!" I'm guessing he was only half joking. As an inker it's important to add a sense of depth to a panel through line thickness and the use of shadow. It's important to be respectful to the pencils you'll be inking - study the underlying structure of the construction of the illustration and then, when embellishing, make it pop!
Given the choice, would you rather pencil, ink or do both on a project?
Given only the one choice - it would be to produce the pencils and inks. I have been inked by many excellent inkers in the past and I feel that it's never truly my artwork when all is finished. Conversely, though, I DO love to ink other artists work. You can learn so much and with the diversity of artists I've worked with - George Perez, Rick Leonardi, Steve Epting and Butch Guice as a brief example - you can teach yourself multiple techniques which you can then employ in your own pencils.
Having worked with publishers all over the world, is there any difference in the approach to comics in different countries, and if so, what?
There's definitely a more static, multi-paneled approach in the European market than the dynamic fireworks of the superhero comic but I think that probably originates with the more cerebral tales being told.
You've worked alongside Butch on Ruse (CrossGen) back in the late '90s/early 00s, so presumably you've known each other for quite a while. Did that make working on Mandalay easier?
Undoubtedly so as we'd already sparked up a rhythm in working together and a trust in our respective disciplines. Butch could leave things a bit more open in the knowledge that I would go in there with the added shadow and texture. I also know how Butch likes to ink himself and - given the opportunity - I always like to study how a penciler inks themselves as that's probably how they would like to see their finished product. What really helped in the flow of Mandalay, though, was that we were sharing studio space and Butch could just pass me the pages!
Anything you'd like to tell us about your recent project with Mike Carey?
This is a project - Rowans Ruin - that I've had in my head for the longest time and I had attempted to get it down on paper myself but found it difficult to swap between my writing head and my drawing head. I always enjoy working with Mike and so I asked him to collaborate with me on the book. It's a haunted house, murder mystery with the tagline of "What if the vacation home of your dreams…is full of nightmares!"
What's one of your favorite covers you've worked on in your career?
I love the iconic shots. Captain America holding a flag. Thor, swinging Milojnir, in a storm. Spider-Man webbing his way through Manhattan. I truly enjoyed the 5 issue sectioned cover from the first arc of Stephen King's The Stand and one of my all time favourites is the figure of Union Jack standing in front of a targeted Tube map.
What is next for Mike Perkins?
I'm currently wrapping up Rowans Ruin and concurrently illustrating Carnage [for Marvel]. Written by legendary creator- Gerry Conway - this is our take on Tomb of Dracula…albeit set firmly within the Spider-Man universe. Its massively fun to illustrate!
Thanks to Mike Perkins for answering some questions. Mandalay will be available November 11, 2015 on our store and wherever Humanoids titles are carried.
The Comet of Chaland
THE COMET OF CHALAND
September 2008. I've come to Paris to see The Divine Comedy perform 'an evening of chanson'. They opened with Brel's 'Amsterdam' and closed with two of my favourite songs, seguing Françoise Hardy's 'Je Changerais D'Avis' into their own 'Tonight We Fly'. The only thing that could have made the evening better was if my feet weren't hurting so bad. I had donned an old – and soon to reveal themselves very ill-fitting - pair of boots before rushing off to catch the first Eurostar that morning and had spent the entire day exploring Paris. But I kept on walking, after the gig to where I was staying in a hostel behind Montmartre. Pausing in my painful perambulation as something in a long-closed-for-the-night comics shop caught my eye and arrested my step. A book cover on display. I stared for a very long time, knowing - despite my grasp of French being little better than my ability to choose proper footwear – that I would love to immerse myself in the world it proffered.
The next day I was to see this cover again and again in book shop windows. It had just been released. The utter sadness of the bald man with the monocle shedding a tear at the framed photo in his hands. A podium with whisky bottle and glass next to him on the snowy Belgian street (it could only be Brussels, with the Atomium haunting the background). A robot lying dead in the snow with a bellhop and a rain-coated man standing over it. And compositionally that streetlight (always pleasing to me whenever they pop up in art), that streetlight dead center, shining above the title square:
CHALAND
COEURS
D'ACIER
I wrote it down for later investigation, all further purchases in Paris having been cancelled. I had new boots to buy, after all.
When I got back to London I looked up this Chaland on the internet. The only information I could find on him in English was one paragraph in Paul Gravett's 'Hergé & The Clear Line'. Luc Cornillon, long-time friend and early collaborator with Chaland, would later tell me that Chaland had bad memories of learning English at school and that he chose to study at the academy in Saint Etienne because, unlike all the other art schools, Saint Etienne did not require one to take English classes. There's a nice resonance between this and the lack of info on him in English.
One of the wonderful things about comics is that you don't necessarily need to be able to know another language in order to read a comic. Though it does help. And thankfully I found that Humanoids, in collaboration with DC, had indeed released one translated series by Chaland – Freddy Lombard. Out-of-print at my time of discovery (but thankfully no longer!), I ordered the collected five stories second-hand. And my appreciation of Chaland's work grew.
The following year Gravett's 'In Search Of The Atom Style' would tell me a little more about this French genius. Of course too, the excellent Lambiek Comiclopedia. And a recent discovery has been the No. 3 'English Edition' of 'Le Journal des Amis de Freddy' by Le Club des Amis de Freddy. In 2013 Gravett would write a great piece on Chaland and his Spirou book mentioned above .
But that's about all there is. Which is why I decided to do a little investigating myself. Many thanks to Hanco Kolk, Luc Cornillon, Didier Pasamonik, Bruno Lecigne, and Joost Swarte who took the time to chat with me about a man whose work should be much more widely appreciated in the English-speaking world.
"You'll never be able to know all he did," Luc Cornillon informs me, "Even I, who knew him very well, don't know all he did. He worked very hard, from early in the morning until late at night." To those who knew him, Chaland's drive was as big as his talent. Joost Swarte picks up the theme - "Chaland had enormous production. He worked very, very hard, and was very, very busy." Swarte laughs, "He always used to say to me 'you don't work hard enough!" Cornillon continues, "He was a perfectionist. More than a perfectionist! And at the time all this computer stuff didn't exist. If it wasn't perfect, he took his ruler and another sheet and drew it again until it was. Sometimes he did this three or four times. Even if there were only very small differences. He was interested in technical things too, like Ben-Day printing. He liked what Joost Swarte was doing with that. If you knew Chaland, he always used to have little pieces of Zippotone stuck to parts of himself (laughs)".
At school, Cornillon and Chaland made a fanzine, L'Unité de Valeur (the title 'doesn't mean anything in English, and not too much in French' laughs Cornillon). "I sent it to (Métal Hurlant co-founder) Jean-Pierre Dionnet. He quickly wrote back to us at my home and a few weeks later we went to Paris to meet him. He was thinking of us for a new adventure comic, to be called 'El Dorado', but it was never finished. We started to work on it but ended up working for Métal Hurlant (Chaland doing lay-outs). We began to publish stories in 1978 and from there we did our first book together, Captivant."
Captivant made quite the impression. Swarte: "Immediately you could see the talent of Yves Chaland. He had this feel of the quality of the old masters, but he wasn't strictly trying to redo something from the past, he also added a humour that was more linked to the underground." Hanco Kolk remembers, "I was working for underground magazines and Humanoids sent me Captivant to see if there was a chance for a Dutch edition. When I read Captivant, it changed my attitude to comics completely. Before that I thought 'the Belgians, the classic school, that's commercial stuff, you don't want to deal with that'. Then I saw the love in Captivant for the classics, and I thought 'well, he's right, it's wonderful stuff'.
Didier Pasamonik tells "In 1979, my twin brother and I had a bookstore in Brussels called 'Chic Bull' (an allusion to the comic book Chick Bill by Tibet). And one day three guys came in for all the Spirou, Tintin, and old comics we had. And I could read on the checks they signed that they were M. Chaland, M. Serge Clerc, and M. Cornillon. That's how we met them. Of course we knew them because they were beginning to publish Captivant in Métal Hurlant. Captivant was a kind of parody of the old Belgian comic books."
It was this parodic element, lovingly done, that especially appealed at the time. Humanoids' Bruno Lecigne explains, "Yves Chaland, like many others, learned comics by reading Tintin, Spirou, all the comics magazines for children. He liked the Belgian artists - Hergé, Franquin - very much and wanted to do something like these masters. But we were in the 70s, things had changed, and so he has to think about comics in another way. He won't do adult comics, he won't do children's comics, so he does something like a parody. With a very satirical, sharp-witted, attack. Chaland worked with the style of the old masters but with the intention of turning his love of the Belgian comics into something new, in between the traditional and modern style. He was really one of the best who used the work of the past to do something new. Taking the classical Belgian style and using it to tell more modern kinds of stories. It was like a critical homage."
The Pasamonik brothers would soon form the company Magic Strip and publish a good amount of Chaland's work. Didier: "Chaland explained to us that he was working on a character called Bob Fish, a detective living in Brussels. Immediately we said to him 'don't make any mistake, we will help you'. So I sent him things like old packs of cigarettes from the 50s. In Bob Fish there is a lot of allusion to the old Belgium. On the first page you have a policeman in exactly the costume of the Belgian police in the 30s. And every few months he came to Brussels. Right next door to us was a big shop called Pêle-Mêle ('Mess') where you could buy old Belgian magazines from the 50s for a few cents. For Chaland, it was a kind of Ali Baba's cavern. So we worked together in collaboration for the Bob Fish book. And we decided to publish him because we were very young at that time (laughs). I have to explain that in the beginning it was very easy to be a publisher. You just had to contact the author and we knew all the big names in Belgium. They were glad to see their old work remembered by the people and to earn money from it. We were friends with Franquin, we knew Hergé and Jacobs etc., all of whom Chaland admired. I organized a meeting between Chaland and Franquin in Brussels. Isabelle Chaland still has the paper where I indicated to Chaland where Franquin's house was and which tram to take. After the meeting Franquin told me, 'I don't understand why he draws in the 50s. He's a very good artist, I don't understand why he's interested in such an old way to draw' (laughs) This was something Franquin could not imagine. But actually it was an aesthetic movement, even in the music and the movies. Remember that musically at that time the punks were explaining that there was no future. But some artists were looking back to the 50s and interested in rebuilding that naïve vision of the future from the old pictures and comics, when everything was so simple. For the future we just had to go to the Moon. That's really Chaland's background. But Chaland wasn't the only one. Joost Swarte was making a new modern style of Hergé, Floc'h was drawing a modern Jacobs, and Chaland was doing a modern mix of Tillieux and Jijé."
Hanco Kolk agrees. "He was fascinated by the past. A man out of time, I think. He preferred to live in the 50s. He had a great original by Franquin on his wall. Not just an original but the original cover of his favourite story. I think what fascinated him was the overall spirit of the time. There was a big optimism, where people regarded science as something magical, that we were going to make a new world. Whereas today the future is a threat, at that time it was a challenge, and everybody was up for it. Scared, but optimistic anyway. And the Atomium is a symbol for that."
Joost Swarte adds "It was fashionable in those days to not only show your love for the older material in the drawings but also in your appearance. The new wavers often dressed in classy suits made of good material. Chaland paid attention to his clothes and liked to dress in the old-fashioned manner. His girlfriend Isabelle, who later became his wife, worked in the fashion industry and probably had some influence with that too."
It is worth noting somewhere, so why not here, that Chaland was the colourist for the first book of Jodorowsky & Mœbius' game-changing The Incal, and Isabelle coloured books 2-4. Kolk: "Those warm, rich colours, he and Isabelle translated that into the universe of Mœbius. It worked like a dream." Of his other work there is the futuristic Adolphus Claar (Cornillon's favourite, "It was very fun") and Le Jeune Albert, an English translation published by Humanoids in 2012 as Young Albert (my Quietus review here). The character of Albert was first seen in Bob Fish, and is, according to Swarte, "what they call in Brussels a 'Ketje', a little brat". Lecigne considers Le Jeune Albert to be Chaland's masterpiece.
But, as Pasamonik explains, "Chaland's main business was not the comics. At that time advertising was very important. And Chaland was the best paid artist in France." Cornillon: "He had two careers in parallel, half of his time he did comic strips, the other half advertising. He did a lot of advertising when he was in Paris. I don't think there was anyone who did more than he did. He could do anything, and did do anything when he first started. But afterwards he was called for his own style. All the big companies – Citroën, Quick, many more - used to hire him because he was Chaland and they wanted something signed by Chaland, with his distinctive look." Kolk: "His style was really commercial and spot on for the time."
It is interesting to look at the development of Chaland's style over the course of the five Freddy Lombard adventures. Pasamonik explains "He created Freddy Lombard for us, it was the first title for our 'Atomium' series. The name was inspired by Les Éditions du Lombard and the 'Freddy' comes from Jijé's first character, 'Freddy Fred'. It's a very referential book." Already a master of his beloved ligne claire, with Freddy Lombard he began to take risks compositionally and even more so with how he told the story. Swarte: "You could see him further developing his craftsmanship. Especially the pencil inking of his drawings was very effective." Cornillon: "Each Freddy Lombard is very different from the one before. The first, 'The Will of Godfrey de Bouillon', is an adventure for kids in the Spirou way. The second one was an African story. He was such a big fan of Belgium that when his heroes went to Africa, it had to be Belgian Congo."
Kolk picks up on a curiosity from the second book. "That Eppo cover he did for 'Cimetière des Elephants'! (Eppo #4, January 28, 1983) I'm studying it all the time, wondering 'what kind of decisions did he make with the inking?' I can't grasp what he was thinking, but it works. It's like that classic story of Matisse visiting Picasso and showing him this little still life. Picasso said 'this is a horrible painting, the composition is all wrong and this and this and this…' 'Yes', replied Matisse, 'but it works, doesn't it?' Picasso went 'yes, but…' and Matisse kept on replying 'but it works'. It drove Picasso mad, and that's what that drawing does to me. It works but how does he do it?!"
It's the third, center, story where things really begin to change. With Yann Lepennetier now collaborating on the scripts with Chaland, the series raced far away from the Spirou and Tintin pastiches of the first two. Cornillon: "'Comet of Carthage' is quite dark. He went to Cassis in the south of France to take pictures and look at everything. And after that he started working on 'Comet'. It was first published in Métal Hurlant and looking at it there, he thought, 'oh my god, I'm not so sure everybody understands what I'm making'. So he redid some pages to make the story a little more understandable. 'Comet' was something very different, something more intellectual."
Kolk: "I read 'The Comet Of Carthage' and thought 'this is a weird album'. There was only one panel for the important things and the seemingly unimportant stuff takes pages. So I wrote to him and made a couple of suggestions, exactly what I tell you now, and I got a letter back. It said 'Dear Hanco, you understand exactly what it's about'. And I thought 'Do I?' (laughs) But it's a great ride."
'Holiday in Budapest' deals with the events in Budapest 1956. Chaland told Sapristi! magazine in 1990 that he 'felt this was a book that should have been written back then' as all the comics from those days 'were about current events' but never even mentioned the Russians crushing the Hungarian rebellion. And the final story 'F.52', published just before he died, pushes things even further, full of style and intrigue. Cornillon: "Story was something important for him, and he worked hard on the stories themselves. Psychology is something that's become more important nowadays, but it was always important for Chaland." Ken Steacy notes in his appreciation of Chaland in The Comics Journal Feb 1991, 'F.52' "is indeed a horror story…genuine, deep-seated psychological and emotional horror as experienced from the point of view of a child intractably mired in a situation of nightmarish dimensions…Chalands understands perfectly that suggestion is more powerful than depiction…It is storytelling at its finest."
Chaland told P.L.G.P.P.U.R. in 1982, 'ultimately, my work is my autobiography.' Although Yves Chaland was to pass away in a tragic car accident on July 18, 1990, that life in his work is still here, very much alive, for us to appreciate. And now for the eighth year running Isabelle Chaland has organized the Festival Recontres Yves Chaland in Nérac, France, (where Chaland grew up) celebrating his life and work. I hope one day to attend.
A nice closing thought from his friend Hanco Kolk: "He was fascinated by the past but I would have loved to see him draw a contemporary comic. Maybe with the Chaland touch this world would look very nice (laughs)."
Aug Stone is a writer and musician. He was Comics Editor for The Quietus from January 2012 – June 2015. There he reviewed as many great comics as he could, interviewed Joost Swarte, Renaud Dillies, Frederik Peeters, Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie, Denis Kitchen & John Lind, and Steve Moore, and wrote a feature for Humanoids 40th Anniversary. He is currently working on his comic The Beekeeper with artist Steven Horry. Aug's first novel, Off-License To Kill was published in 2014. A more complete list of his work can be found at AugStone.com.