Through Writing Lille
Published on 6 Nov 20 at 15:00
–
–>
–
In the album of comic New York Cannibals, François Boucq and Charyn take you into a unique universe.
Man is a wolf to man
Paul / Pavel, the genius tattoo artist, survivor of the gulags, hero of the very dark Little Philip, immersed himself in the New York jungle. His talent intact, his survival instinct born in the sharp gulag, still ravaged by his memories …
When Little Philip was serialized in Release during the summer of 2014, it marked the spirits by its definitely dark side, even if the talent of colorist of François Boucq and his nephew Alexandre transformed it into a beautiful album of 80 pages.
New York Cannibals, its sequel, located two decades later, is played out in the same universe of violence where man is only a wolf for man, his first predator. In his tattoo shop, with his adopted daughter he met at the end of the previous episode, he is subjected to a new attack from those who want to take advantage of his talent as a designer.
By kidnapping an adopted baby, survivor of a terrible case of blood thieves, a veritable water of youth giving eternal life. The hero sets off in search of him, piloted by a legless who takes him to communities living in the slums that are the sewers of New York.
A society on the fringes
Jerome Charyn, the American screenwriter, excels at describing these margins of society, and François Boucq, the designer from Lille, brings to life characters deformed in their appearance: girl swollen on steroids, homeless people drained of blood, cannibal turned vampire , Mongoloid women, excessively tattooed beings …
We are in the margins, where a whole other society has developed with other canons of beauty, other ways of life, other social relationships, other morals. Women are dominant, positive or negative characters. They lead the intrigue, distorted to the point of becoming human. Only Paul keeps a real human trace in his silhouette and his drawing, even if dreamlike scenes of shamanism cross his thoughts and sometimes submerge him. It elevates tattooing to the rank of tenth art.
In a 140-page album, this somewhat complex story can be watched as the design and colors are mastered, making it a sumptuous album, against the backdrop of a court of miracles and a social cesspool.
Many boxes are worked like real paintings. The drawing is lively, the fights have rhythm. Insane characters – Mama-Paradis, Anna-la- Hyène, Albatros le cul-de-jatte – join the characters from the past: Pavel, soon in charge of Little-Paul, Nadya, the little prostitute of the gulag, who benefits from ‘eternal youth, Azami, become a police officer… No doubt they can continue their drift.
Jean-Michel Stievenard
“New York Cannibals”, Boucq and Charyn, Lombard editions, 145 pages. € 24.50.
–
