“Journal de 1985”, “Ava”, “Pizzica Pizzica”… Comics that play with time

How to tell a story without asking the question of how it unfolds? Comic strips have long exploded their frames, with a few pioneering cartoonists, while screenwriters continued to expand their possibilities of intervention, from the questioning of memory to autobiographical stories, including historical frescoes. With, most often, a reflection on the relationship with time, resolutely close to literary creation.

What will the weather be like tomorrow?

With Journal of 1985Xavier Coste extends the adaptation of 1984imagining a sequel to George Orwell’s chilling story. Presumptuous exercise? No, because its graphic universe strives to render the timeless and frozen atmosphere of a world outside of time. The chronology no longer exists, the seasons always seem to be identical, history is undone as much as it is fabricated, nothing seems to be able to evolve. With his graphic palette, the designer makes radical choices. Two, even three colors, in sovereign flat areas, per page: gray and yellow, gray and beige, gray and red, red and white… Characters and settings, brushed to the point of erasure, seem to float in a fog of oppressive darkness.

Two, even three colors per page: the radical choices of Xavier Coste in Journal of 1985. | Sarbacane Editions

The metro looks like that of Transperceneige (Lob and Rochette), while the representation spaces of Abraxas de Noisy-le-Grand (Ricardo Bofill, 1983) recalls that Terry Gilliam was inspired by Orwell to film Brazil and that some scenes ofHunger Games (The Revolt: part 22015), as many other totalitarian universes. The square format, unusual for a comic book, is perfectly appropriate.

The spaces of Abraxas are represented in the comics. | Sarbacane Editions

Out of time

This is Japan of the 22nd^e century. Silent, the first thirty pages give us a sober temporal indication, that of the tomb of Hideo Hisimaru (2095-2155). However, there are few futuristic images here, because the island of Kino remains resolutely anchored in the past, refusing to bend to new technologies, notably the robots now widespread in the archipelago.

The island of Kin, resolutely anchored in the past: a simple utopia. | Sarbacane Editions

But this “outside of time” is a utopia: it can only be overtaken and destroyed. Like Hélène, a French pianist who chases time and age, risks losing her place in the philharmonic orchestra and notices that her husband’s desire is fading. Here she makes a Faustian pact with herself, offering herself her double as an android (the theme is fashionable, as evidenced by the vampiric variation of The Substance). She, but young. Of this illusion, she will be the first victim, also overtaken by the identity withdrawal of Japan, which decides to refuse Western influence in order to find itself – that is to say, to delve into its past.

Thomas Hayman’s graphic approach aims for purity, almost abstraction, halfway between the extreme stylization of an EP Jacobs or a Yves Chaland and the sophistication of traditional Japanese pictorial art. Quickly, it imposes the logic of a frozen future, of a timeless Japan, with carefully immutable landscapes, a universe under a bell jar. Everything is still here, except time, an invisible threat that we try to ward off.

Thomas Hayman almost aims for abstraction. | Sarbacane Editions

Forty-eight hours in the life of a woman

In 1954, Ava Gardner was at the height of her fame. For the promotion of The Barefoot Countessa tailor-made film, she begins an international tour which includes two days in Rio, where nothing goes as planned. Poor organization, paparazzi, fans, gossip, possessive “protector” (Howard Hughes), whims of a star who no longer belongs to himself, these forty-eight hours turn into a fiasco. The actress seems to have only one concern: to escape, to flee, to scrounge up a few minutes, a few hours to herself, in a timed life where she decides nothing. She realizes, helpless, resigned and furious at the same time, that she is wasting her time.

Ana Mirallès (Djinn…) illustrates this eventful story with the caressing touch of his brush, firm line, vigorous colors, giving pride of place to luminous contrasts, where the Brazilian night is declined in oppressive darkness.

Nothing goes as planned in Rio. | Dargaud Editions

Time regained

In Pinch Pinchit is the crushing of the present that is at stake. Apolline met Erwan, with whom she fell in love. She sinks into a violent and toxic relationship, immediately perceived when reading but which the young woman does not understand. She is caught in the present, crushed by the inability to analyze this story as it unfolds: what she has experienced and is experiencing announces what she will experience, but she is unable to see it. She decides nothing and each moment is imposed on her by her companion. What we know when reading, she only perceives little by little and this narrative figure leads to a progressive cathartic catching up.

He will need an image (a couple in Pompeii frozen in death), an accident, followed by a liberating swim and a traditional, timeless dance, to regain control of his story. What Solène Rebière gracefully recounts in her first comic book is exactly that: a toxic relationship extracts you from your life to build a parallel space-time that you cannot control, a prison where your time is limited.

Solène Rebière’s sense of narration in her first comic strip commands admiration. | Futuropolis

The designer uses careful washes, where we can see the work of Emmanuel Lepage or Christian Rossi – she underlines their encouragement. Perhaps also in the brightness of a smile we will remember the frank naivety of Mitacq. But his style is already strongly anchored and his sense of narration, alternating accelerations, ruptures and hesitations, commands admiration.

In times of war

With On the Korean FrontDupuis welcomes in its “Aire libre” collection adaptations of major reports, which have earned their authors the Albert-Londres prize, in conjunction with the INA and the AFP. It is therefore a dive into immediate history, a particularly delicate exercise in journalism. Henri de Turenne’s reports during the Korean War (1950-1953) demonstrate in some way a failure of this exercise.

Attached to the description of the conflict, the journalist sometimes gets lost. He talks more about the fate of other journalists than that of Koreans, a fault of the profession, while he is confronted with terrible situations. Above all, it struggles to restore the conflict in its historical and geographical dimensions, a victim of immediacy, current events and the impossibility, when one is at the front, of having perspective. In 1950, the internet did not exist and information and contextualization were rare data. We guess we postpone it sometimes «embedded». In this sense, his testimony is precious because it bears the mark of a profession in his time, and shows the difference between the short time of journalism and the long time of the historian.

Henri de Turenne’s reports during the Korean War are illustrated. | Dupuis

The following publication is expected in January 2025: Memories of the Shoahtestimonies collected by Annick Cojean (Albert-Londres Prize 1996), adaptation by Théa Rojzman and Tamia Baudouin.

The world of yesterday

Let’s return to Japan thanks to the reissue ofIn the Time of Botchanmasterpiece by Jirō Taniguchi, in homage to Botchan (1906), very popular novel by Natsume Sōseki. The five volumes of this manga appeared between 1987 and 1996.

Botchan No Jidai. | Papier / Jiro Taniguchi, Natsuo Sekikawa, 2021

Natsuo Sekikawa’s screenplay takes us to Meiji-era Japan, shortly after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905painting the lives of a few intellectuals: Natsume Sōseki, of course, but also other literary figureslike Takuboku Ishikawa, “the Japanese Rimbaud,” or again Raichō Hiratsukawriter, journalist, resolutely committed and feminist.

Botchan No Jidai. | Papier / Jiro Taniguchi, Natsuo Sekikawa, 2021

Taniguchi (My father’s diary, The Summit of the Gods…) is today to manga what Hugo Pratt was to comics in the 1980s. “I don’t read comics, but Corto Malteseit’s not the same”we said then with snobbery. “My children read manga, I read Taniguchi”we could now say. The precision of the mangaka’s features plunges us into a radical change of era for Japan. A graphic work as much as a literary one. Like most of his stories, In the Time of Botchan is a contemplative work, which stretches out the days, takes the time to establish plot and characters, slows down sometimes, speeds up only slightly.

Traditional comics have long operated in a simple manner with a chronological sequence which simply adds up the events, leaving suspense at the bottom of the page if possible. In this, she followed the proven recipe of serial novels. This comic book where the story moves in a linear manner is now strongly questioned by the advent of the graphic novel. And it is no coincidence that it is named like this: literature no longer has the prerogative of a privileged relationship with complex narration. It is no coincidence that almost all of these stories take the time to stretch over several dozen, even hundreds of pages.