History and Politics in French Language Comics and Graphic
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History and Politics in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels This page intentionally left blank History and Politics in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels Edited by Mark McKinney UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIppI / JACKSON www.upress.state.ms.us The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Copyright © 2008 by University Press of Mississippi All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First printing 2008 ∞ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data History and politics in French-language comics and graphic novels / edited by Mark McKinney. p. cm. Papers from the conference entitled History and Politics in French-language Comics held at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, Nov. 11–13, 2004. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60473-004-3 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Comic books, strips, etc.—Europe, French-speaking—History and criticism. 2. History in literature. 3. Politics in lit- erature. 4. History in art. 5. Politics in art. I. McKinney, Mark, 1961– PN6790.E9H57 2008 741.5’3580917541—dc22 2007045711 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available à Louise, qui a appris à lire grâce à Astérix et aux Barbapapa, dans sa langue maternelle and her father tongue, et qui vient de terminer son premier stage de dessinatrice de bandes dessinées This page intentionally left blank Contents xi Editor’s Acknowledgments xiii French-Language Comics Terminology and Referencing 3 ChAPTER ONE Representations of History and Politics in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels: An Introduction —Mark McKinney Part One History, Politics, and the Bande dessinée Tradition 27 ChAPTER TWO Trapped in the Past: Anti-Semitism in Hergé’s Flight 714 —Hugo Frey 44 ChAPTER ThREE Re-imaging Heroes / Rewriting History: The Pictures and Texts in Children’s Newspapers in France, 1939–45 —Clare Tufts 69 ChAPTER FOUR The Concept of “Patrimoine” in Contemporary Franco-Belgian Comics Production —Bart Beaty viii Contents Part Two Political Reportage and Globalism in Bandes dessinées 97 ChAPTER FIVE Citizenship and City Spaces: Bande dessinée as Reportage —Ann Miller 117 ChAPTER SIX Games Without Frontiers: The Representation of Politics and the Politics of Representation in Schuiten and Peeters’s La frontière invisible —Fabrice Leroy Part Three Facing Colonialism and Imperialism in Bandes dessinées 139 ChAPTER SEVEN The Algerian War in Road to America (Baru, Thévenet, and Ledran) —Mark McKinney 166 ChAPTER EIGHT The Congo Drawn in Belgium —Pascal Lef èvre 186 ChAPTER NINE Distractions from History: Redrawing Ethnic Trajectories in New Caledonia —Amanda Macdonald 212 ChAPTER TEN Textual Absence, Textual Color: A Journey Through Memory— Cosey’s Saigon-Hanoi —Cécile Vernier Danehy Contents ix Part Four A French Cartoonist’s Perspective on the Working Class and Bandes dessinées 239 ChAPTER ElEVEN The Working Class and Comics: A French Cartoonist’s Perspective —Baru 259 Bibliography 277 Contributors 281 Index This page intentionally left blank Editor’s Acknowledgments This book, like any, is a collective accomplishment, but more obvi- ously so because it is an edited volume, with many visible contributors. Moreover, it grew out of a conference, “History and Politics in French- Language Comics,” held at Miami University (Ohio) on November 11–13, 2004. That conference was funded principally by the L. P. Irvin Fund of the Department of French and Italian, with additional generous fund- ing from the College of Arts and Science, the Department of English, the Department of History, and the International Studies Program. For their crucial support of the conference, I thank Jonathan Strauss, Chair of French and Italian; Steve Delue, then Acting Dean of the College, who made a wonderful opening speech; Charlotte Newman Goldy, then Chair of History; Keith Tuma, Chair of English; and Jeanne Hey, Director of International Studies. My departmental colleagues generously gave of their hospitality, time, ideas, and many skills: Michel Pactat produced a beauti- ful poster for the event; Jesse and Diana Dickson welcomed us to their home for a pre-conference reading group; Elisabeth Hodges, Chloé Hogg, and Michel Pactat assisted in various important ways with the hosting of our guests; and many other colleagues attended the events, asked ques- tions at the talks, and helped out in innumerable ways. As always, Juanita Schrodt, our departmental Administrative Assistant, was very helpful with the many conference arrangements and attendant paperwork. Bill Wortman, then the Humanities Librarian, worked together with me to set up a special exhibit on comics at King Library. Daniel Meyers kindly shared his expertise on how to make the audio-visual systems work. Sean Duncan loaned his portable computer at a very opportune time. Christine Armstrong, from Denison University, drove several hours to attend the conference with some of her students. To all of you, I am deeply grateful. xi xii Editor’s Acknowledgments Of course, there would have been no conference without those who pre- sented their research findings. This one was a real treat for many reasons, includ- ing the fact that it was one of the very first in the United States to be devoted solely to French-language comics. The presentations were outstanding, and most of their authors traveled from far away to participate in the conference: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and from elsewhere in the United States (Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachussetts, Michigan). I offer my warmest thanks to Dominique Le Duc, François Le Roy, and Randy Scott, who made fascinating presentations on important topics and who contrib- uted greatly to the discussion and debate. I also owe an enormous debt to the contributors to this book: Baru, Bart Beaty, Cécile Vernier Danehy, Hugo Frey, Pascal Lef èvre, Fabrice Leroy, Amanda Macdonald, Ann Miller, and Clare Tufts. They invested much careful thought and effort in reworking their conference presentations to produce book chapters. The kind patience, good humor, and collegiality of all have been fabulous and made my editorial tasks far easier. The anonymous readers of the manuscript provided helpful advice. I also thank Seetha Srinivasan at the University Press of Mississippi, whose interest in, and support of, this project have been exemplary. I offer my grate- ful thanks to Walter Biggins, Anne Stascavage, Mary Cicora, and all the staff at the Press, who have helped bring this project to fruition. I thank the cartoonists and publishers who generously agreed to let us reproduce the artwork in this book. Finally, I thank my family, who have helped out in ways too many to tell. My parents introduced me to bandes dessinées long before I could have read them in French: the copies of Astérix, Tintin, and Lucky Luke stories in English translation that I, my brother and my sisters read countless times are now in tatters—a testimony to the pleasure that we derived from them while we were growing up (I also enjoyed Rupert, the Bash Street Kids, Donald Duck, and Mickey Mouse). My parents-in-law have been very supportive of my continuing interest in bandes dessinées and have helped out during many comics-related expeditions to Lille, Brussels, Paris, and Angoulême. As I have worked on this project I have often consulted the BDM that they gave me. Valérie carried much of the weight of this project from beginning to end. She provided a great deal of help with the conference. Her intellectual contribu- tion to my research and writing has always been crucial. Her encouragement has been essential to the completion of this volume. I also thank Louise, for her patience and for the inspiration that she has given me. I wish her a long and happy time with the bandes dessinées that she loves, and shares with others. French-Language Comics Terminology and Referencing Album: In French-speaking Europe and many other French-language regions, comics are mostly sold in book form, oftentimes hardbound and almost always in the European A-4 paper format, which is a bit taller and narrower than U.S.-size letter paper. Paper is often of good quality and glossy (not pulp paper). A comic book is called “un album (de bande dessinée).” Some of the contributors to this volume have preferred to use the term “album” in order to distinguish French-language comic-book formats from other types. Bande dessinée: “Une bande dessinée” translates literally as “a drawn strip (or band).” “Une BD” or “une bédé ” are less-formal versions of the term. As has often been noted, it has an advantage over the English term, “com- ics,” insofar as the French-language term contains no suggestion that the material is comic or funny. It also draws attention to the way that the art is generally produced (through drawing) and the strip-like form in which it has often been created, and thereby to its sequentiality (like the term “comic strip ”). However, this last aspect of the term can also be misleading, because for decades the overall page layout (as opposed to the strip) has been an essential aspect of the art of many cartoonists and comics. Contributors to this volume use either the English-language term (comics) or the French- language one (bande dessinée), or both. Bulle: The English-language equivalents of “ une bulle” have generally been used in this volume: “speech bubble” or “speech balloon.” xiii xiv French-Language Comics Terminology Case and vignette: Both “une case” and “une vignette” refer to a comic-strip “frame” or “panel” (the latter two terms are generally taken as synonyms here). The English-language terms have generally been used. The chapters in this volume contain references to both specific pages and panels/frames. The latter are usually given in the format “3.1 ”—this would designate the first frame or panel of the third page of the comic book.