A comic strip for our History

Le Regard Libre N° 44 - Alexandre Wälti

It's a simple concept: follow in the footsteps of «anonymous» heroes or bastards who embodied their era, so many «men of the year» you won't soon forget! This is the promise made by Editions Delcourt on the back cover of a series of comics in which history and creation coexist in perfect harmony. Even if we deplore the lack of additional information or the few women at the center of the stories.

A series like Man of the Year may turn some of you away. On the one hand, because it omits a priori and secondly, because it aims to tell the story of an entire year through a single character. So far, we can all agree that there's a bit of injustice and a touch of megalomania in the whole story.

But when the series is drawn, scripted and colored by different creators and cartoonists from one issue to the next, the project becomes truly interesting. And when history is at the heart of the story, curiosity is aroused. The scenarios present human beings who, despite themselves, provoked or influenced a stage in certain major historical events: the First World War, the death of Joan of Arc or Che Guevara, the Battle of Waterloo, the Commune, revenge against Caesar, the Dreyfus affair, the discovery of America, the publication of the Communist manifesto, the fire in London or the construction of the Statue of Liberty.

A source of curiosities

Déjà vu and revu. Already learned in history class. Already heard about. Well, I haven't! Why not? Simply because all these events are told from the perspective of a man or woman - yes, there are, in the last three issues - in the shadow of the main protagonists. And so it is, The man of the year 1666 (Vol. 10), for example, is Thomas Farynor, the king's favorite baker. According to some sources, he was responsible for the Great Fire of London. In the case of Man of the Year 1894 (volume 7), the main character is neither Zola nor Dreyfus, but Ferdinand Walsin Esterházy. But who? And therein lies the appeal of this series of comics. He's a figure from the Tout-Paris of III^th Republic who, riddled with debt, wrote the Bordereau de l'Affaire Dreyfus and worked for the German enemy as a spy to urgently pay off his creditors. Or when the prevailing anti-Semitism of an era condemns an innocent man instead of the real culprit.

Or The man of the year 1492 (volume 6), in which Christopher Columbus is not at the center of the plot, since, according to history, another man showed him the way to the Indies before he left and discovered the Americas. This discrepancy gives the scenarios a fresh perspective, questioning historical truths while at the same time explaining and illustrating them. It also arouses the reader's curiosity. And the formula never runs out of steam, since the colors and drawings are always renewed.

Where's the additional information?

It's a shame, however, that Delcourt didn't provide a website with additional information for readers. This would have been a great way to learn more about the eras covered, and to reflect on the questions they sometimes still raise today! It would have been fascinating to have access to a database or to texts related to the different volumes of the series.

In the case of The man of the year 1492 (Volume 6), for example, the subject would have merited an open-access bibliography of literary and scientific works. Christopher Columbus's discovery of the Americas has the ability to capture the reader's attention, fascinates and still leaves many grey areas to be elucidated. This historical fact inspired Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier to write his excellent novel The Harp and the Shadow. In which the Lausanne-born author interweaves the fate of Pope Pius IX - and his desire to beatify the conquistador - with Columbus's confession to build a plot that's both piquant and tasty. Why not present such possible sources to readers so they can discover more? Or simply provide them with links to documentaries or other informative resources that relate to the themes addressed in the comics.

And the women? This is the series' other shortcoming. They're often just a pretext for telling the story of another character's fate, as in The man from 1431 (volume 2) or The man from 1886 (Volume 11). It would have made sense, for example, to highlight their involvement in the Resistance, whether during the Spanish Civil War or the Second World War. Other dates would lend themselves perfectly to this exercise: 1944 (the right to vote granted to women in France; 1971 in Switzerland), 1936 (the Pasionaria's «¡No pasarán!») and so on.

In the end, the series awakens the reader's curiosity and sensitizes him or her to the fact that history is neither a simple historiography of significant events nor a banal list of dates. It's alive and well! It was made, and is still made, by the men and women who lived it, and still live it, every day. Us and them!

Write to the author: alexandre.waelti@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Editions Delcourt