Home > Bart Beaty's Conversational Euro-Comics

Dateline: Geneva
posted April 12, 2005
 

A relatively painless EasyJet trip from London deposited your roving comics reporter in Geneva, there to attend the opening of "How Should I Know?", an exhibition of drawings and comics by Nicolas Robel. I, along with a couple of other writers, had contributed essays to the accompanying catalogue, published by BuLB, but, unfortunately, it was not back from the printer as of the opening. Nonetheless, a good time was had by all at the Bibliotheque Saint-Jean, as we mixed and mingled amidst the art from various Robel projects. The exhibition travels to the Fumetto Festival in Luzern at the end of this month, and I'll review it in greater detail at that time.

The next morning, I was back at the library for a round-table on the state of Genevois independent comics publishing, featuring three publishers -- Nicolas Robel (BuLB), Daniel Pellegrino (Atrabile), and Christian Humbert-Droz (Drozophile). I was not anticipating a huge turn-out for a publishing panel at 10:00 on a Tuesday morning. How foolish of me. About eighty or so people filled the side room in the library to hear about the way that each of the publishers conceptualized their work, particularly situating the small press movement within the tradition of the art book, and the beautiful object.

Particularly symptomatic of this tendency is Drozophile, who make spectacularly beautiful seriegraphed comics at an atelier in Thonex, a suburb of Geneva on the French border. In the afternoon I made my way to the atelier, talking with Christian about his past work and several upcoming projects, including, for the first time, books printed with an off-set press -- a huge change from the past. We talked at length about the intersection of posters and politics that defines the Genevois comics scene. Because the people of Geneva are constantly voting on one issue or another, the various political parties -- particularly on the left -- use illustrators to design the posters that flood the city walls. Walking the streets, for example, I frequently saw Exem's anti-privatization of public transit posters, and I've previously seen political posters by Helge Reumann and Wazem in the city. Many of the posters for the left wing parties are printed by Droz, and we looked at a large number of examples before I was totally overwhelmed by the aroma of the seriegraph paints. Leaving the atelier I had a vague sense of having been poisoned, like I'd just smoked four packs of cigarettes.

Finally, I passed a bit of time in Papiers Gras. I don't know if Papiers Gras is the best comics store in the world, but it is certainly the most beautiful -- all the windows looking out into the lake. The beauty was considerably enhanced this trip by a large show of comics work by Pierre Wazem, who has recently begun carrying on the traditions of Hugo Pratt for Casterman. This show included works from all eras of his career, including a number of very charming pieces. I was sorely tempted to buy one of his gag strips, but the one that I really loved had already been sold. Oh well.

And then, it was time to move on to Aix-en-Provence, to catch the tail end of their comics festival. More on that next time.

*****

Photos neither I nor my tech guy could open, but maybe you can:

1. Nicolas Robel defends himself from his son -- robel.jpg

2. "How Should I Know?" by Nicolas Robel, in Geneva -- robel-1.JPG

3. The Drozophile atelier -- drozophile.JPG

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