Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Mécanique Générale to Republish "The Cage"
:: Posted by max @ 1/17/2006 08:45:00 PM Mécanique Générale to Republish "The Cage":
An Interview with Jimmy Beaulieu
by Bryan Munn
2006 is the 5th anniversary of Mécanique Générale, the tiny perfect French-language comics publisher run by Montreal cartoonist Jimmy Beaulieu. Over the last few years, MG has built up a substantial catalogue of critically praised albums and anthologies. In honour of this landmark anniversary, Beaulieu's celebration is to be a year-long affair: "This is our fifth year of activity and we plan to celebrate it by releasing 12 books in 2006 (one per month)," says Beaulieu.
According to Beaulieu, who is scheduled to be at the Angouleme festival in France for a panel discussion with Jeffrey Brown, his biggest satisfaction in reaching the 5-year point is
"Having published very important books like Luc Giard's Le pont du havre
and Benoît Joly's Pour une personne and Démons d'après-midi. Having
built a coherent collection."
And what does he hope to accomplish as a publisher in the next five years?
"Release the best books ever. Well hey, you said 'hope' !"
It shouldn't be a problem, as Beaulieu is very enthusiastic about the state of cartooning in Quebec:
"Well, you'd have to be blind not to see a boom going on.
There's never been that kind of critical mass of good books available. You can spend a week just reading good comics from Quebec and Canada. Five years ago, you could
spend two days at the most, and people would tell you about all these hidden treasures that ran out of print. Hopefully, we'll be able to reprint more
and more of these."
Below are the forthcoming releases from MG, with the publisher's (translated) descriptions. Notable books include a new issue of the Cyclopes anthology and a re-issue of the seminal graphic novel The Cage by Martin Vaughn-James, the cartoonist and painter who published several books while living in Canada in the 1970s. The Cage was originally published in English by Coach House Press.
January:
Béatrice, by PhlppGrrd
"Beatrice is a collection of short stories whose heroine is the daughter of the author. The principal character, surrounded by her parents, her grandfather and her friends, evokes his perception of the world with words of children. Its universe, very feminine, is naive, amusing and spontaneous. Beatrice is up to now the most "POP" book published in the Mécanique Générale catalog."
_____________________
February :
Ma voisine en maillot, by Jimmy Beaulieu
"If the subject of -22 degrees Celsius was winter loneliness, Ma voisine en maillot is its perfect opposite. [...] During a big power failure, in the heat of the summer, two young Montréalers finally take the time to speak and spend a moment together [...] But the true vocation of the book is probably as an allegory of the vampirism of work and entertainment on our contemporary lives and the state of bliss in which we find ourselves in when we succeed in escaping from it."
_______________
March :
La cage, by Martin Vaughn-James (co-edition with "Les impression nouvelles")
"Reissue of one of the most important works in the history of comics. Closer to the nouveau roman (the author is regarded as one of the significant actors of this literary movement)."
(See article here)
_______________
April:
Cyclope, opus 3 : Plan cartésien
"Collection on the theme of The City, presenting our vision of the
new generation of quebecois comics creators. With more than 40
participants and 360 pages (!), it will be released at the Festival de bande dessinée de Québec."
_______________
and the rest:
June-July-August-September (no order yet)
-Dans un cruchon, de Pascal Girard
"Un jeune homme doit conjuguer désir, sentimentalité et respect de soi,
mais sa sensibilité à fleur de peau complique les choses. Ce sera le premier
livre de Pascal Girard, jeune auteur saguenayen demeurant à Ste-Foy."
Convers(at)ion, de Leif Tande
"Un avocat véreux vient de mourir, il rencontre Dieu et discute avec lui
sur quelque 80 pages. Un livre minimaliste et conceptuel."
Nénette cherche un sens à la vie, de Catherine Genest
Dans mes rellignes, de Iris Boudreau
Simone numéro 1, de Ray Pierrewitt, Evlyn M. et Hugues Tremblay
-"Revue-laboratoire où ces trois auteurs nous feront découvrir leur univers
unique."
Mécanique Générale
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