berghahn journals presents a virtual issue from european comic art Featuring interviews with: Cabu Anke Feuchtenberger Joost Swarte Farid Boudjellal Morvandiau Baru Guy Delisle Karrie Fransman table of contents I. Interview with Cabu Tanitoc French editorial cartoonist and comic-strip artist Cabu (pen name of Jean Cabut) died in the January 2015 shooting attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper offices. In this interview, he talks about the evolution of political caricature in France, differing reactions of people to being caricatured by a cartoonist or being filmed, and the use of archetypes in caricature. Cabu also discusses the influences of other cartoonists on his own art, the high points of his cartooning career, his cartoon reportages, and various book publications of his work. II. Interview with Anke Feuchtenberger Mark David Nevins Anke Feuchtenberger is a German avant-garde cartoon artist (b. 1963) with a strongly caricat- ural style. In this interview she discusses her childhood and education in former East Ger- many, historical influences upon her – including Rodolphe Töpffer – and current inspiration, as well as creational techniques and work in progress. III. Interview with Joost Swarte Ann Miller Joost Swarte, the Dutch comic artist, designer and architect, and inventor of the term ligne claire [‘clear line’], played a major role in the conception of the new Hergé museum at Lou- vain-la-Neuve in Belgium. In this interview, he further elaborates on his role as scenographer at the museum. IV. Interview with Farid Boudjellal Mark McKinney Farid Boudjellal is a highly accomplished and well-published cartoonist, whose career now spans more than thirty years (he began publishing comics in 1978). He has received prizes at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée (FIBD), the national French comics festival in Angoulême: the Résistances prize for Ramadân (1989) and two Œcuménique [‘Ecumenical’] prizes for Petit Polio [‘Little Polio’]. V. Interview with Morvandiau Ann Miller Morvandiau is a political cartoonist and comics artist, and this interview focuses mainly on his 2007 comic book D'Algérie. VI. Interview with Baru: Part 1 and Part 2 Mark McKinney Hervé Barulea, known as Baru, is a French cartoonist of Italian and Breton heritage, who has spent much of his life in the region around Nancy, in northeastern France, his birthplace. VII. Interview with Guy Delisle Kenan Kocak Guy Delisle is a cartoonist and animator from Quebec City, best known for his graphic novels about his travels, such as Shenzhen, Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, Burma Chronicles, and Jerusalem. VIII. Interview with Karrie Fransman Ann Miller Karrie Fransman is the author of the comic book Over Under Sideways Down which tells the story of a young asylum seeker forced to deal with a series of harrowing events: exile, journey and displacement, and then the struggle to attain the right to remain in the UK. Cabu Reporter Interview of Cabu by Tanitoc* Abstract French editorial cartoonist and comic-strip artist Cabu (pen name of Jean Cabut) is interviewed by Tanitoc, French cartoonist and contributing artist to European Comic Art. They talk about the evolution of political caricature in France, differing reactions of people to being caricatured by a cartoonist or being filmed, and the use of arche- types in caricature. Cabu also discusses the influences of other cartoonists on his own art, the high points of his cartooning career, his cartoon reportages, and various book publications of his work. The most obvious function of the game of caricature is to provide a critical deforma- tion that tends to reform (or to abolish) what it deforms. The language of the artist here joins that of the ‘moralist’: the caricaturist accuses by accentuating a character trait [le caricaturiste accuse un trait], because he is the accuser of a moral attitude. Claude Roy, ‘Esprit de la caricature’1 You know, the 1970s represent a true archeo-world for us today. Those were the Pompidou and Giscard years, with the media bottled up and government ministers who called up journalists on the editorial boards of the public news media. […] Things that were funny in 1970 did not make anyone laugh in 1992 – and I am delighted about that, because the work of a humorist is to be a researcher and to invent new forms of humour. Philippe Val, interview December 20052 * This interview was conducted on 7 November 2007 and was originally published as ‘Cabu repor- teur’ in 303: Arts, recherches, créations 99 (2007), 50–63. It is reproduced here with the kind permis- sion of Cabu, Tanitoc and the editors of 303: Arts, recherches, créations (http://www.revue303.com). Notes by the translator (Mark McKinney) are indicated as such (Trans. note). All others are by Tanitoc, from the original French version. 1 Claude Roy, ‘Esprit de la caricature’, La Caricature, art et manifeste, du XVIe siècle à nos jours [‘Carica- ture as Art and Manifesto, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present’], eds. Ronald Searle, Claude Roy and Bernd Borneman (Geneva: Albert Skira Éditions d’Art, 1974), 13. 2 Philippe Val, interviewed by Alain Barbanel and Daniel Constantion in Médias 7 (December 2005). The quotation is from page 44. Trans. note: Georges Pompidou, after having served as prime minister for more than six years under President Charles De Gaulle, was president of France, 1969–1974. He was succeeded by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who was president 1974–1981. Both European Comic Art 2.1 ISSN 1754-3797 (print) 1754-3800 (online) © Liverpool University Press 132 cabu The history of printing techniques has accompanied artists since saunterers [le badaud] purchased wood-cut prints that narrated the hanging of notorious bandits. Etymology teaches us that ‘reporter’ is an English term from the nine- teenth century and derives from the old French term ‘reporteur’: ‘one who relates’. So what is so special about the idea of a confrontation between reality and a drawing, to create a narrative aimed at a multitude of readers? Some day one must write the history of all the cartoonist reporters, who, from Jules Grand- jouan to Ronald Searle, via Feliks Topolski, crossed social and geographical fron- tiers to capture words and gestures, thanks to their eloquent drawings. Cabu, who was born in 1938, was destined to become a professional sketch-maker and storyteller for the news press: he decided to become a ‘press cartoonist at the age of ten’, admired the drawings of Dubout and of the cartoonists of L’Assiette au beurre [‘The Butter Plate’] and produced a school newspaper, From A to Z (the principal banned its sale!). In 2003 Cabu went to Nantes to view the Jules Grandjouan exhibit: it seemed wise to compare their work of cartoon reportage for the press and to speak with someone who has been a key player in the history of the satirical press in France since the 1950s, focusing especially in this interview on his work as a reporter. Tanitoc: Recently you visited your hometown of Châlons-en-Champagne, to sit at the stand of the newspaper L’Union de Reims [‘The Union of Reims’]. I would like to go back in time, to your encounter with Jean-Marie Boëglin, in 1953, at this very same newspaper, when he was in charge of its local bureau. Cabu: I was fortunate to run into Jean-Marie Boëglin, because when I look back at my drawings from that period... they weren’t that great! Tanitoc: Thanks to that encounter, you began to draw fairground events for L’Union... Cabu: Yes, and town-hall meetings. I started out like that. Now when I go to the French National Assembly, I think of the municipal meetings of Châlons, but... it’s on a grander scale! Tanitoc: So you were doing reportage from the very beginning of your career. What form did this take? Sequences of images? Some drawings of important moments, with commentary? Or were you simply taking down visual notes? Cabu: Sometimes, but because I was not too good at sketching [en croquis], they were right-wing presidents. Philippe Val is a musician and journalist, who (with Cabu and others) helped relaunch the left-wing satirical Parisian weekly Charlie hebdo in 1992. He is currently its editor and publisher. On Charlie hebdo, and Hara-Kiri and Le Canard enchaîné, see Jane Weston’s article in this issue of European Comic Art. Interview of Cabu by Tanitoc 133 were really snapshots; not direct drawings [du dessin direct]. Not sketches such as I make now, on the spot, directly. They were a form of commentary on news items. For example, I made drawings about the week’s films being shown at Châlons. Tanitoc: Do you think that independent production is the best kind, and that in the end, when one looks at the history of the press in France, where a lot of bande dessinée writers and artists have launched publications (subsequent generations have generally come out of the fanzine scene), that cartoonists need to take charge of things for themselves? I’m thinking of [René] Goscinny at Pilote, and auteurs like Fred at Hara-Kiri… Cabu: I think that right now things are a lot easier for young cartoonists, with desktop publishing and computers. They can create a newspaper much more easily than we could: yesteryear, we did this with roneotype – you know, it was prehistoric stuff! But the main thing is to produce and sell a newspaper by oneself, even if it’s handwritten. Tanitoc: This might be jumping way ahead, but could you say something about your current positions at Charlie hebdo and at Le Canard enchaîné? What is it, how do you see yourself, as a cartoonist, in your position as editor, for example in your choice of editorial matter? And what do your professional responsibili- ties consist of? Cabu: At Charlie hebdo, I’m president of… what… what’s it called? [Laughter] Tanitoc: You’ve forgotten the title printed on your business card? Cabu: They gave it to me, because a title was needed, it’s rather… honorific! At Charlie, you know, the decisions are collective, even the choice of the cover is mostly collective.