Inspired by a true evening, Louisiana[1] is a comic strip with historic contours that pays tribute to the courage of those who made America today. In the news, the work echoes the Black Lives Matter movement, which campaigns against systemic racism against blacks in America.
Moreover, seen from outside the United States, when one hears about the George Floyd affair, one can legitimately ask questions about living together in a country that has succeeded in electing a black country presidency [à travers la personne de Barack Obama], but which remains deeply corrupted by issues related to the color of the skin.
A captivating second volume
In bookstores since March of this year in Quebec, the second volume of Louisiana continues to deliver the secrets on which the fortune of the Soral family was built.
After a first album which allowed us to discover a whole society through a family saga which began in 1805 in a plantation near New Orleans, we plunge with this second number in the heart of the dark past of the women of this family, who forged in their own way their destiny in a society which, let us remember, was deeply misogynist.
We are in 1961 in New Orleans. Louise, who is retired, confides in her housekeeper. She leafed through old family letters dated 19e century. His great-grandfather Augustin Maubusson had landed with his wife Laurette and their children in the southern United States to cultivate the land. But now, the country has changed this family and misfortunes have befallen them generation after generation.
Marie Laveau, a follower of the voodoo cult and close to the family, influences the decisions of Lorette and Joséphine her daughter to resolve their marital problems. For the mother and her daughter, it is important to cultivate their social position well.
Black and white: voltage source
The ethnic mixing is not tolerated by the two women especially when it comes to sharing their bed as was the case with Augustin the husband of Lurette or concerning Jean, the son of Joséphine who falls in love with Caliste (a black) with whom he has a boy named Lazarus.
His mother threatens him: “If you go with them, I will have you arrested for slave theft.” You will be whipped and Caliste will be hanged ”.
Joséphine turns to Caliste and says to him: “As for you, I will not tolerate any interference in my son’s marriage if you do not wish to be sold to a planter who cares less about the well-being of his slaves”.
Jean agrees in spite of himself with his mother’s decision and leaves the family farm for a few months. On his return, he announces to her that he will marry Émilie Villebois, whose parents are owners of a plantation in the parish of Natchitoches. Josephine is convinced that the young woman will be perfect for her son.
Only here, even if Emilie is the daughter of a very respected white planter, she remains nevertheless a mixed race in the eyes of Josephine who says to her son: “She is not less black! “.
Together they will have a daughter whom they will name Louise.
The authors
We can imagine that in order to be able to provide so many details in the narration, there is a whole work of historical research that has been done upstream on the part of Léa Chrétien who has the idea of writing this story after a trip in the southern United States.
The story which, although it places women at the heart of the work, recalls the fragility of their social position, which forces them to surround themselves with men even if the latter are failing. The screenwriter is aware that the “what will we say” at this time. This is why Léa Chrétien takes as witness Louis the character of Louise who discovers in old letters the scabrous stories of her family more than a century later. The screenwriter keeps readers in suspense by divulging a little more of the well-kept secrets.
To bring his characters to life, Gontran Toussaint’s masterful work transports us to this America which is far from making us dream. The cartoonist who displays a solid mastery of graphic codes, is astride the details to help us discover New Orleans as well as the cotton fields. Nothing escapes the one who has already worked alongside Renaud Garreta and Laurent Granier on the historic series Reporter. More than anything, we realize the quality of the drawings through the eyes of the characters who are in a way witnesses of the trials they have gone through and of the time that passes.
While waiting for the third and last volume of the series, readers can discover at Dargaud the first two numbers of this story transported to another era.
Reda Benkoula
[1] Louisiana: the color of blood T.2 | By Léa Chrétien & Gontran Toussaint | Dargaud | 2021 | 56 pages
https://linitiative.ca/louisiana-la-couleur-du-sang-tome-2/https://linitiative.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Louisiana-la-couleur-du-sang-T.2-Lea-Chretien-Gontran-Toussaint.jpghttps://linitiative.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Louisiana-la-couleur-du-sang-T.2-Lea-Chretien-Gontran-Toussaint-150×150.jpgComicsInspired by a true evening, Louisiana is a comic strip with historical contours that pays tribute to the courage of those who made America today. In the news, the work echoes the Black Lives Matter movement, which campaigns against systemic racism against blacks in America. Besides, seen from the outside …Reda BenkoulaReda
Benkoula[email protected]AuthorL’initiative
–
