Retrospective “Posy Simmonds. Illustrated Literature” at the Pompidou Center pays tribute to the queen of the comic novel, the author. Gemma Bowery, Tamara Drewe And Cassandra Drake. A chance to discover true lovehis first graphic novel, which was published around the exhibition.
The Center Pompidou BPI is dedicating an exhibition* to designer Posy Simmonds, consisting of three hundred pieces by the literary creator. Gemma Bowery, Tamara Drewe, Cassandra Darke and the Literary Life, all published in the Denoël Graphic collection, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Studying this work so britishhe invites you to delve into the work published on the occasion, Real lovewhich includes an extended interview, an exhibition catalog and unpublished works, including the author’s first graphic novel, Gemma Bowery.
Madame Figaro. – The path of the author of comic books seemed to you to be more difficult than the path of the author.
Posy Simmonds. –With more women making comics now, we can only hope that the era boy’s club Finished. But some women have told me how complicated it can be. My experience was different because I worked mostly for the press at a time when newspapers had a lot of illustrations. the time Keepermy bosses were women and I painted for them Women’s page. But finding a job was not easy. at first weeks could go by without an order and I would pay the rent by working as a cleaner, babysitter or dog walker.
How were these hybrid works born? Gemma Bowery, Tamara Drewe and Cassandra Darke ?
I have only heard of hybridization when Gemma Bowery In France. Before, I was not aware of the format of comic albums. Gemma Bowery first published Keeper. The newspaper imposed a vertical format of more than a hundred episodes. I used a lot of text to fit all these stories into a hundred episodes. Then I discovered that 19th century novels provided fertile ground for developing my modern stories. Madame Bovary, by Flaubert, was a choice, I loved this novel and was intrigued by the contrast between the restrictions of Emma Bovary’s bourgeois life and the (relative) freedom of Gemma. For Tamara Drew, it’s an editor’s suggestion Keeper that I took from another 19th century novele. Away from the madding crowdBy Thomas Hardy, formed my basis as Christmas storyBy Charles Dickens, Vol Cassandra Dark.
A word from your graphic novel Real love ?
In 1980 I was asked to do a full story book. This was new to me because before that I was drawing a sheet for a newspaper, each weekly episode on its own. I have chosen love, youthful love, married love, adulterous love, etc. as a topic. Real love it’s partly a pastiche of the romance comics I read as a teenager; convoluted prose, gloomy heroines, pure kisses… These comics have adopted a style that we owe to the Spanish illustrators. It was these things that attracted me, not the bland plots.
* “Possie Simmonds. Illustrated Literature”, at the Center Pompidou, November 22-1eh April 2024.
Source: Le Figaro
