Review by Frank Plowright
In the late 1990s the loose collective of L’Association were the hot young turks of French comic publishing, iconoclastic and ambitious, but most of all talented, meaning each new release was eagerly awaited. The peak of their ambition was to celebrate the millennium with a 2000 page hardcover, soliciting contributions from artists around the world. The strips were to connect with the 20th century, and be wordless so they could be understood anywhere on the planet. The Holocaust, repression and sex are recurring themes, while stretchy limbs also feature several times. That’s Comix 2000.
It’s a monster of a book, begun with a clean slate of David B, Killofer, Jean-Christophe Menu, and Placid sifting through 7000 pages of submissions. Names weren’t prioritised, so the really obscure sit alongside the really famous, and while comics from French creators predominate, it’s not a massively weighted project. Menu’s editorial is presented in 14 languages, but from then on the only printed words are the credits.
Inevitably, 324 authors from 29 countries are going to produce a mixed bag, and only the editors are going to like everything. Good luck to anyone working out what Pakito Bolino’s getting at, although they’re far from the only inscrutable contributor as self-indulgence is common. Menu’s editorial mentions some forms of comics don’t travel well outside their homelands, so superheroes, for instance, are absent. The strips range all over the shop, from comedy to political statement, some opaque and some oblique, with the styles as varied as the form permits from abstract to excessively rendered detail. Every contributor supplies at least two pages, and while a few creators exceed the 15 page maximum by a page or two, only David B hits a length of 27. It’s the reward for an editor, and he delivers a dreamlike take of aliens exploring a town at night.
By virtue of the start and end of the book supplying the only pages that will copy adequately, Jessica Abel and Zou provide the sample art and they’re a decent representation. Then Mexican resident Abel offers four whimsical pages celebrating the Day of the Dead, while Zou comments on brand obsession. Brian Biggs supplies a nice concept, Tom Hart running his strip in reverse is clever, M. Culbuto’s strip about barman meeting former French President Charles DeGaulle funny, and among the absurd content Michél Pirus hits the spot. As for the opposite side of the coin, the beautifully realised collaboration of Cizo and Winshluss takes some beating for a bleak worldview, although Faujour’s dark comedy about faulty goods comes close. In terms of talent spotting, the fifteen finely crafted pages about a diver by Hervé Tanqerelle was only his second published strip.
Creators who have a considerable following or peer admiration include Edmond Baudoin (5 pages), Christophe Blain (4), Émile Bravo (3), Guy Delisle (4), Julie Doucet & Max (4), Eric Drooker (6), Dylan Horrocks (14), Jason (4), Megan Kelso (4), Roger Langridge (9), Manu Larcenet (4), Marc-Antoine Mathieu (7), Mats! (5), Massimo Mattioli (4), Thomas Ott (16), Frederik Peeters (12), Ron Regé (4), Joann Sfar (5), R. Sikoryak (2), Stanislas (3), Lewis Trondheim (2), Chris Ware (3), Skip Williamson (4), Winschluss (12) and Danijel Zezelj (6).
As the surreal and experimental considerably outweighs the conventional and concept outweighs talent, for many readers the ambition will outweigh the result. Given so many creators have so little to say, there’s a case to be made for Comix 2000 being the world’s bulkiest and most expensive fanzine.
