By Julien Ducouret
Published on 6 Mar 21 à 15:24
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In 2011, theillustrator of Val d’Oise Romain Ronzeau and screenwriter Yann Le Quellec received the Deauville Teen Award for Love is in the Air guitar.
Ten years later, their new graphic novel, still with a musical background and just as ambitious as the first, has just been published by Delcourt editions.
The success is such that the comic book went to reprint eight days after its release! In The Lovers of Hérouville, a true story, there are indeed all the ingredients of a bestseller: flamboyance, genius, madness, excess, sulphurous charm and decadence. Everything is united in the same character: Michel Magne.
Legendary studios
The hero of their comics is the greatest French composer of film music from the 1950s to the 1960s. The original tapes of Uncle gunslingers, Barbouzes, d’A monkey in winter, from the Fantômas and Angélique series, that’s him!
Following a fire which destroyed his scores, the visionary musician spends without counting to rebuild the castle of Hérouville, his damaged residence.
Happy New Year Twitter!
To get 2021 off to a good start, a preview of the album I have been working on for years (my entourage knows only too well) and which will FINALLY be released on February 17: “Les Amants d’Hérouville” at @DelcourtBD (thread) pic.twitter.com/j1WQT33D8t
– Romain Ronzeau (@RomainRonzeau) January 4, 2021
In this former coaching inn, which once housed the love affairs of George Sand and Frédéric Chopin, he set up the first residential recording studio in France.
“His brilliant idea was to make his studios, the 57 rooms of his building, its park and its swimming pool available to visiting musicians. The meals he offered were feasts. Chef Serge Moreau served them while declaiming Rimbaud. And in this place of worship, the sense of celebration was excessive. “
At the time of its heyday (1970-1974), the property of Michel Magne attracted the biggest stars of pop and rock – Elton John, David Bowie, Johnny Halliday, Bill Wyman, the group Grateful Dead… – who recorded there famous compositions. But the artist with the all-consuming ambition is not a good manager and his fairy tale has turned into a nightmare.
“Our album is the fruit of seven years of work to tell its abundant and colorful story. We chose to have it begin in June 1970 when his love affair began with the Vexinoise Marie-Claude Calvet, who became his second wife. All his life before is told in short literary interludes that punctuate each chapter. “
David Bowie and Mick Ronson working at Chateau D’Herouville, 1973. pic.twitter.com/BeJ0Id5oXR
– Château D’Hérouville (@ChteauHrouville) April 15, 2015
Known for his collaboration with Thierry Gaudin on Espions de famille (a series of seven youth comics published by Okapi), Romain Ronzeau confirms his great talent as an illustrator.
J.B.
Useful information
The lovers of Hérouville, a true story (ed. Delcourt).
264 pages. Price: € 27.95.
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