Conversational Euro-Comics: Menu Announces L’Apocalypse

By Bart Beaty

The first actual change that I noticed at L'Association after the discontent of the first half of this year was when I received a box last week with review copies of three new books -- Christian Rosset's Avis d'orage dans la nuit, La Bande a Foster by Conard Botes and Ryk Hattingh, and Viva la vida by Baudoin and Troubs (which is excellent, by the way) -- and they included press sheets. That might seem like a small thing, but for a publisher who resisted having a web site and once described their press officer as "not really" in their catalogue, this concession to marketing and promotion (some would say to professionalism) seemed oddly amusing. Further, the comics had printed barcodes on them -- a first for L'Association, who had previously used removable barcode stickers. Welcome to the twenty-first century and the new L'Asso!

This morning brought an email, labelled "collective but private," in which Jean-Christophe Menu announced the vague outlines of his new project. Now separated from L'Association, although with a large number of books that he signed and edited (including the three noted above) still at the press, he has announced a new label: L'Apocalypse.

Perhaps the biggest news in his semi-news release is that Menu will be working with Etienne Robial, the founder of Futuropolis, and one of the most important figures in French comics during the 1970s and 1980s. What is promised is a vast catalogue of comics, art books, collections of drawings, texts and music (on vinyl!), all of which will position comics within an expanded field of artistic production. As he says, "The Apocalypse will be rock 'n roll."

With regard to the comics, Menu suggests that a number of former L'Asso artists will be following him to his new publishing house, as well as others not previously associated with that endeavor. He is promising a renewed commitment to the avant-garde in which he can publish "weird projects" in total freedom. I, for one, will look forward to it with great interest.

As with the Mayans, Menu's Apocalypse will arrive in late 2012.

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