Refinement always ends up paying off. Regularly cited to appear on the Grands Prix list of Angoulême, “finalist” three times since this distinction was the subject of a vote within the profession, Emmanuel Guibert finally reached the Grail, Wednesday January 29, on the eve of the opening of the 47e edition of the International Comics Festival (January 30-February 2): his peers preferred him to Catherine Meurisse and Chris Ware, who came first alongside him after the first ballot.
Born in 1964, Emmanuel Guibert is the author of a virtuoso and multifaceted work that weaves with ease between the graphic novel, children’s literature, documentary narrative and travel diary. We owe him an essential milestone in the recent history of European comics: The photograph (Dupuis / Aire Libre, 2003-2006), trilogy mixing drawings and photos, recounting the daily life in Afghanistan of the reporter Didier Lefèvre (who died in 2007) within Doctors Without Borders.
With Marc Boutavant, Emmanuel Guibert also hosts, as a screenwriter, a series for successful children, Ariol (Bayard Jeunesse), named after a young anthropomorphized donkey whose adventures are reminiscent of those of Little Nicolas de Sempé and Goscinny. His great, his immense project, finally, is still under construction: to tell, from his birth to his death, the life of his friend Alan Ingram Cope, a former American GI who stayed in France after the Second World War (Alan’s War, Alan’s Childhood, Martha & Alan, all at the Association).
A need to come and go between genres
This need to come and go between genres, but also techniques (innumerable, from the scratching of transparent films to the use of physiological saline for the nose), falls under the “ prophylaxis “ at home, as he confided to the World a few days before being designated Grand Prize: “Very soon after starting to work, I wanted to see if the readers of my first albums would try to follow me in certain swerves. Getting them used to 180 degree turns quickly proved to be a way to buy me a freedom. Since then, I like to find myself in front of my kitchen piano, where several pans are simmering, and flicking my wrist on the right, another on the left … “
There was a time when Emmanuel Guibert would undoubtedly have refused to receive an award such as that of the Grand Prize, awarded to an artist for all of his work. In a text sent to World in 2016, when his name was (already) among the candidates for the title, and inflated the controversy around the absence of authors among the shortlisted, he found “Inept” the award of this kind of medal:
“Competitions between authors, chosen without their knowledge but supposed to decide, vote, vote for themselves, vote for or against their brothers and sisters – when they are present in the selection –, supposed to respond to such or such controversy raised by decisions which they did not take, it is tiring, it is false. ” The designer ended his ticket with a pirouette: “To break with the double discomfort of being and not being awarded, I urge anyone who would be tempted to distinguish me to do so only posthumously. There, anyway, I will not be able to avoid being in an urn. “
In 2020 Ariol will celebrate its 20th anniversary
While finding today “Awkwardly written” this text, Emmanuel Guibert willingly accepts the Charente pompon, not without having an emotional thought for the American Chris Ware: “It is astonishing that this man, whom I place very high among the authors of our generation, is blackballed three times, which is more to my benefit. We don’t box in the same category, him and me. “
The year promises to be a busy one for the all-round winner. In 2020, Ariol will celebrate its 20th anniversary; the Alan saga will be extended with the release of a jazz CD produced by the label Vision fugitive; a catalog of drawings will offer a selection of live sketches in museums. In the fall, Emmanuel Guibert will also be out Mike, a 300-page story by Gallimard, without the slightest image, but inspired by an American architect friend who cherishes the observation drawing.
–
