By Nicole Claveloux, Donald Nicolson Smith (Translator), Daniel Clowes (Introduction)Published: New York review Comics (November 29, 2017)
Hardcover 108 pages
This
collects a series of comics that originally appeared in the late 70s to early
80s in Métal Hurlant magazine (the
French version of Heavy Metal
magazine). If you haven’t heard of this illustrator before, don’t beat yourself
up, she is somewhat obscure. Even I, with my reading addiction, was unaware of
her name before picking up this book. I had seen her work before but never
registered a name to go with the art. The plan is to rectify this gap in my
knowledge as quickly as I can. That is, once more of her stuff is published in
English.
It
is difficult to discuss the artistic style of Nicole Claveloux. Upon first
viewing I was taken in by the shading, the round - nearly glossy - style, all
of it one step removed from reality. At the same time, I was nearly at a loss
for words on how to describe the material. Then I read other artist’s comments
on her work (including the introduction that Dan Clowes provides for this
volume) and realized that I am not alone in this. It is unique, but it isn’t.
Like the surrealness of her stories, it is just one step out of sync with the
rest of the world. Occasionally there seems to be an awkwardness in limb
drawings or perspective, but strangely these add to the surrealness of the
overall piece, rather than detract.
The
common theme running through the pieces deal with the dangers, uncertainty, and
banality of growing up. The greatest joy to the author, it seems, is to remain
the eternal child and dwell in a never-never land, one step beyond reality. The
stories collected here are not coherent in the regular sense. They follow a
logic of a dream. Some of them don’t seem to have been plotted out beforehand
and drifted along as the author’s imagination drifted. These don’t make the
stories bad, but just be warned. Don’t expect concrete stories with a definite
character arc. These are one step aside from that.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.
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