Current mood:	bouncy
Entry tags:	char: philémon, creator: fred, medium: bande dessinée

And now for some more Philémon:



At the end of the first album of the series, Philémon got separated from Barthélémy in a labyrinth. Now he must go back to find him. But he doesn't know how to return to the letter islands. So his uncle, who's more open-minded than his father about fantasy, gives him a hand. With a magical telescope he shrinks Philémon and places him on top of a globe (don't ask me how that works, I dind't make this up):



But alas, Philémon falls on the ocean.

Fortunately he can walk on it and there he meets a kindly traveler who lets him sleep in his tent, sheltered from the harsh elements outside:



Finally he arrives on the Island of N, where people use butterfly wings as means of transporation. Now this gets Philémon in trouble because stepping on the grass is a serious crime!



Being a dangerous menace to society, the judge wisely sentences him to life in prison:



But Philémon regains his freedom after defeating a savage piano in a gladiator's arena:



Free once more, he goes looking for his friend. After finding him, they get lost in a huge hotel. Looking for a way out, they rudely barge into this room without knocking...



... where they meet quaint collage people.

(Fred is a virtuoso with images, there's no doubt about that)

Once back in Philémon's world, Barthélémy notices his shadow is missing. Luckily there's a handy traveling shadow-maker nearby hawking his trade:



Unfortunately, he makes the shadow too small:



And if that isn't bad enough, his old shadow comes back, so now he's a freak with two shadows:



I guess that'd get anyone downbeat.

I personally prefer this album to the first; I think it's way more imaginative. I love Fred's art; at a first glance it seems very crude and childish. Masters like François Schuiten and J.H. Williams III certainly are more realistic, and perhaps have a better sense of design. But for sheer visual imagination and playfulness, I think Fred is second only to Winsor McCay. This for me is comics' equivalent of Alice in Wonderland.

(44 pages)