Home > Bart Beaty's Conversational Euro-Comics Happy 40th, Jean-Christophe! posted February 11, 2005
At this year's Angouleme Festival, the most talked about book (well, at least among fans of independent/alternative comics) wasn't released until late Friday night. In fact, it wasn't really released at all. Instead it made its way around the festival floor on Saturday morning like some sort of samizdat book, instantly separating the haves from the increasingly desirous have-nots.
The book? M le Menu, a 168 page L'Association-published anthology created specifically, and exclusively, to honor the 40th birthday of L'Association president Jean-Christophe Menu. Printed to match, or even exceed, the L'Association standard, the book features the work of dozens of L'Asso published cartoonists creating comics ranging from one to four pages in honor of one of the most important figures in contemporary comics.
On Saturday morning, where most people who hadn't attended Menu's birthday party the night before first glimpsed the book, the striped blue and white cover (a tribute to Menu's wardrobe, which consists almost exclusively of horizontally striped sweaters) immediately caught the eye of passers-by. What was this strange book that Lewis Trondheim was grabbing from the box at the L'Asso booth, and why wasn't it for sale?
M le Menu has a print run of just 255 copies, with each of the contributing artists receiving two and Menu receiving the rest. Obtaining one, therefore, was no easy task. You had to know Menu well enough to have been asked to contribute, know Menu well enough to convince him to give you one of his copies, or know one of the artists well enough to talk them out of their extra copy. I traded some DVDs for mine, although I'm forbidden from revealing who coughed up the copy, since s/he doesn't want to deal with the inevitable "why did you give it to him!?" outrage from other fanboys.
So, is the book worth begging for? Yes, it pretty much is. I've long been a fan of Menu's work, not only as a publisher (where, frankly, he is without peer) but as a cartoonist, a calling that he has (sadly) often had to put second behind L'Asso's business interests. This book is about equally split into three parts: Cartoonists who honor his work at L'Asso; cartoonists who honor his cartooning; and cartoonists who honor the man.
In the first category, strips from the likes of L'Asso co-founder Stanislas pay lyric tribute to Menu's tireless work as a publisher of the highest order, and with the highest standards. On the other hand, many of the contributors (Laura del Pino, Olivier Josso, Christophe Blain, Thomas Ott) do their own variations on Menu's characters in strips that often link the artist to his creations. Yet the best material in the book is undoubtedly those that play most directly to the birthday boy. Fanny Dalle-Rive provides a series of sketches of Menu that wonderfully capture his personal idiosyncracies. Luz provides the book's longest strip, with a comics essay about their personal relationship. Mattt Konture recalls a life in comics and the punk music scene spent with his friend. Overall, it is a touching, and for the most part, flattering tribute.
Not that there aren't a few odd moments, just begging for analysis. What is it about the Menu/Trondheim relationship that finds Goossens drawing a two page strip in which Menu battles a giant-sized manga version of Lewis? Since all of the text is in Japanese, I may never know. Emile Bravo's strip, the funniest in the book, relies on Trondheim's retirement for its punchline, and Jean-Michel Thiriet's strip ("Le mail de Lewis") is a mute strip featuring a frustrated Menu that requires a deeper knowledge of the politics of L'Asso to really fully comprehend. In strips like these, one is reminded that this is the consummate insider's book -- something not intended for public circulation, and a series of gags that will only make sense to those in the know. (Trondheim, for his part, contributes a one-page strip in which Menu gets fatter in every panel).
The exceptions to the highly personal nature of the work are a series of strips that could easily be published elsewhere. Dominique Goblet's work, for example, owes no special debt to Menu, and serves only as a reminder of the fact that she is a pre-eminent talent in this field. Winschluss and Majane Satrapi collaborate on one of the book's most memorable pieces, and one that deserves wider circulation. A three-page story in which Menu never meets Marjane (L'Asso's best-selling artist, and the winner of this year's Best Album prize at the festival), the artists send her instead to Ferraille publishing, where the Iranian artist is cruelly taken advantage of by the commercial press. Persepolis becomes PersePolice, a story in which the Persian princess falls in love with a CIA agent -- inspired by a true story! It's a genuinely funny piece that, hopefully, will be read by more than 255 people.
There is, I think, an interesting article to be written someday about comics that aren't intended to be circulated beyond a small circle of friends. I've seen many such projects over the years, many produced with just as much care, but few with such amazing production values. A professionally published limited edition tribute book is an extravagant birthday present. The publication of M le Menu serves as an instant reminder of the high regard in which Menu is held by his peers, and it is a reminder that the artist deserves to be far better known in American comics than he is now.
In the first category, strips from the likes of L'Asso co-founder Stanislas pay lyric tribute to Menu's tireless work as a publisher of the highest order, and with the highest standards. On the other hand, many of the contributors (Laura del Pino, 
