Author: rogerklaassen

I read the news that French comic artist André Juillard died yesterday, July 31st.

In 2007, Juillard and Cosey had a joint exposition at Galerie Daniel Maghen in Paris. Maghen had just published ‘Echo’ and republished ‘Entr’acte’, an art book by Juillard. From that time, I remember a video in which Juillard and Cosey discuss the colouring of their albums: Juillard used inks, Cosey gouache, and Juillard told he first coloured all the blue skies of an album, while Cosey worked page by page. At least, that is how I remember it.

André Juillard wrote the foreword for ‘Echo’, in which he admires how the drawings of Cosey, through the years, have become clearer and more transparent (Juillard uses the intranslatable word ‘limpidité’), drawings without embellishments, drawings that go to the essential.

In 1995, Juillard won the prize for ‘Album of the Year’ at Angoulême for ‘Le Cahier Bleu’. Rumours are that Juillard thought of offering the scenario to Cosey, but that finally he decided to draw it himself.

In an old interview in Swiss newspaper Le Temps, I found this quote by Cosey, about Juillard: “He is someone modest and level-headed, we share a taste for culture, painters, literature… What I especially appreciate is that he really loves comics, like me, and that he completely accepts this status as a craftsman and a comic artist and not a painter.”

This year, Derib (Claude de Ribeaupierre) celebrates his 80th birthday. As you will know, Derib took the young Cosey under his wings to teach him the works of a comics artist. To celebrate this 80th birthday, the association ‘Carouge fête la BD’ (Carouge is a town near Genève) organises several events this year – you can find all events on this website.

One of the events is the exposition ‘Autour de Derib’ at the gallery Séries Rares in Carouge. In this exposition, you will see original drawings by Derib, of course, but also some 40 to 50 hommages by other artists. One of them is Cosey and this is drawing, called ‘Les trois Totems’ (sometimes called ‘Les deux Totems’).

The exposition started in February and can be visited until 16 March. You can read more information and take a look at all the drawings (there is one more by Cosey) on the website of the gallery.

Another event in the celebrations is an evening with Derib and Cosey in the public library of Carouge, titled ‘Derib et Cosey, une amitié dessinée’. Derib and Cosey will be interviewed by Derib’s son Arnaud.

Whem: 14 March, 20-22.00. Access is free – for more information, click here.

Thanks to Olivier Bézy

Yesterday evening, the exposition ‘Panorama’ at Papiers Gras in Genève was opened… and we had reporter Olivier Bézy at the gallery! He made some pictures that give an impression of the exposition. Above, Cosey himself.

A magnificent collection of drawings – it may be too costly for me to have a wall like this at home. At the bottom row you see several drawings that have been used for stamps.

I love to see these kind of combinations: on the right the original drawing for the cover of the intégrale of ‘Le Bouddha d’Azur’, on the left the original coloured page with the black & white drawing on film.

A few more pictures, to give an impression of the exposition in Genève. You can see around 100 pieces at Papiers Gras, the expo ends 23 March.

The address:
Papiers Gras
1, place de l’Île
1204 Genève

More info: visit the website of Papiers Gras.

Thanks to Olivier Bézy

On the occasion of the Cosey-expo ‘Panorama’ at Papiers Gras (see my previous post), the ‘Tribune de Genève‘ publishes an excellent interview with Cosey, written by Philippe Muri. Cosey explains things about his way of working, his artistic troubles while writing a scenario and drawing, his ease with working on colours – I guess this is already well known by fans of Cosey. But he tells us also some new things – among others: a new album in the making!

I will summarize a few of the highlights of the interview.

Cosey explains how works for the exposition have been selected. The first selection is made by himself – he starts by selecting the drawings that he does not want to show. After his selction, the gallery manager makes his selection. All in all, you can see some 100 works at Papiers Gras, with an emphasis on the more recent albums.

Cosey tells that he keeps some pages that he doesn’t want to sell: only some ten pieces… I think we are all curious to know about which pages!!

Philippe Muri confronts Cosey with some quotes by Derib, that you can read in ‘Cosey, Une quête de l’épure‘ (2018, 9eArt+ éditions). First is that, according to Derib, Cosey is rather a story-teller then an artist – Cosey fully agrees. He says he only draws to tell a story, he doesn’t draw for drawing’s sake. Derib also told that Cosey might write a novel – in this, Cosey disagrees more or less: even if the idea of writing a novel is tempting, he wants to draw what is playing in his head.

Finally, Cosey tells a little bit about the new album he is working on. It is to be expected in 2025 and it will be published by LeLombard. It will have around 70 pages. The story will have scenes in the Alps (the Pays d’Enhaut region in Switzerland), in China during the cultural revolution, in Taiwan and some bits in London. What will the story be about: ‘human beings with feelings’…

Thanks to Bernard Matthey-Doret

Gallery Papiers Gras in Geneva (Genève) will host an exposition of works by Cosey, titles ‘Panorama’.

In the exposition, you will see several origanal pages from albums (Jonathan, Orchidea, À la recherche de Peter Pan), sketches and other drawings and illustrations.

The expo starts 29 February at 18.00 and ends 23 March.

The address:
Papiers Gras
1, place de l’Île
1204 Genève

More info: visit the website of Papiers Gras.

Merci à Olivier Bézy

Our reporter Bernard Matthey-Doret visited the exposition ‘Cosey – Une Tibet Dessiné’ in the Tibet Museum in Gruyère.

The Tibet Museum/Fondation Alain Bordier is housed in a former chaplainry and its chapel, very close to the Château de Gruyère. While the Château is a prime touristic spot, the Tibet Museum is much quieter.

A beautiful museum space is the Chapelle Saint Joseph. Stained glass windows, Tibetan objects from the collection Alain Bordier and – of course – the drawings of Cosey form a magical combination. Especially when you know that music (I assume Tibetan music) is being played, the atmosphere must feel sacred.

A closer look at this part of the exposition. Doesn’t it look magnificent?

Tibetan objects next to Cosey’s drawings. The colours of the page on the left (taken from Jonathan 12 – Celui qui mène les fleuves à la mer’) go well with the colours of the painting on the right.

A great sketch for the cover of the latest ‘Jonathan Intégrale’. Very different from the final version, except for the colour scheme.

A sketch of a tiger mask – the disguise used by Clifford in ‘Le Bouddha d’Azur’.

If you want to get an impression of the drawings of Cosey that you can see in the museum, go to the website of the Tibet Museum, and click on ‘Cherchez dans la collection’.

You can visit the exposition in Gruyère until February 4th, 2024.

Thanks to Bernard Matthey Doret

As you might know, since a few years Cosey signs his albums with the aid of stamps. He adds watercolour to the prints, mostly ochre. I have added a new ‘dossier‘ to the site, with a complete overview of the stamps Cosey has used so far.

Above you see a great print of Jonathan on his motorbike, below you see my favourite among the stamps: Saïcha.

Thanks to Cosey

This winter, you can visit the exposition ‘Cosey – Un Tibet Dessiné’ in the Tibet Museum – Fondation Alain Bordier in Gruyère (Swizerland).

In the expo we will see original drawings (many of which are pages from Jonathan and Le Bouddha d’Azur) and reproductions of the pages in colour, next to Tibetan objects of the museum, like sculptures and paintings. The museum is established in an old religious building and its chapel close to the Castle of Gruyère, which looks terrific on the pictures I saw.

The expo opens on November 19th and runs until February 4th, 2024.

More info: visit the website of the Tibet Museum.

Thanks to Cosey

The Mickey and Minnie albums are now available in Portuguese translations, published by Panini Comics.

‘Uma Misteriosa Melodia’ has been in shops for a year now, ‘O segredo da Tia Miranda’ has been published recently.

While Cosey doesn’t show Jonathan in his short story ‘Retour’ in the collective album ‘Tintin – Numéro Spécial 77 ans’, others do. Michel Rodrigue, Erroc and Marcy made a short story about Cubitus, the big white dog, originally drawn by Dupa.

The story ends on the roof of the Lombard building in Brussels, with a lot of famous characters of the Journal Tintin. In the lower right corner, we find Jonathan.

After closing the Jonathan series, fans of Cosey were surprised to read that Cosey would make a short Jonathan story for the collective album ‘Tintin – Numéro Spécial 77 Ans’. Cosey doesn’t disappoint with his 3-pages story.

In the story, titled ‘Retour’, we don’t see Jonathan at all. We see and hear people that met Jonathan during his motor ride from Japan back to Switzerland. It is funny and it is extra funny for fans who have read the last Jonathan.

Above, you see the first image of the second page, below you see a copy of the ‘bleu de coloriage’ – without its colours.

Thanks to Cosey

Last week, I got my copy of ‘Tintin – Numéro Spéciale 77 ans’, for which Cosey made the story ‘Retour’ (3 pages).

I will come back to that story later, because I discovered this cover of the ‘Journal Tintin’, for the last issue of 1964 (both Belgian and French edition), which is also shown in the ‘Numéro Special’. It was drawn by Dino Attanasio.

All Cosey-admirers will immediately think of this legendary cover, drawn by Cosey in 1983. I think Cosey would have liked to have his cover as clean as Attanasio’s!

Cosey’s reaction to this discovery: “Super cover by Attanasio! I didn’t know it – or maybe I forgot? It shows that you never invent anything, there is always a precedent!”

I already announced a few months ago that this autumn, a special album will be published by Le Lombard, to remember the first issue of Journal Tintin 77 years ago. In the press dossier, we can read more information.

The book will have 400 pages, with some 80 famous characters making their (re)appearance. A short Jonathan comic will start at page 134, probably a two-page story.

The book will have French and Dutch editions, both in a softcover edition and a hardcover collector’s edition. In your bookshop on September 8, 2023.

Last February, Bananas No. 15 had an 8 page article about the works of Cosey. Bananas is a magazine with reviews and articles about comics and graphic novels.

Olivier Jarrige has read all the albums by Cosey and wrote an interesting analysis of his oeuvre, titled ‘Cosey, une affaire de famille‘. In his study of Cosey’s albums, Jarrige discovered that Cosey’s stories develop around family connections, or family-like connections: the characters in his stories can be classified as children, mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers. Doing this, Jarrige discovered some recurring patterns in the stories of Cosey.

For an example, I pick one of the family roles – the mother. The different mothers in Cosey’s work are all fairly old (the exemption is Drolma in the final Jonathan): Thelma and Grace Henderson (Jonathan 11: Oncle Howard est de retour), the mother of Tallulah (Joyeux Noël, May!), the mother of Zeke (Zeke raconte des histoires). They all have some kind of secret to hide, which forms to a certain degree the engine of the stories. The fathers, in contrast, are mostly blind to these secrets – to busy with themselves.

Another interesting notion of Jarrige is the role of mountains as ‘judge’ in some of the stories of Cosey. Something that deserves further study – we all know mountains and landscapes are an important aspect of Cosey’s work, but to assign an active role to it, instead of being a passive surrounding, is quite new to me.

An interesting, innovative view on Cosey’s work, that invites re-reading of the albums!

• You can buy Bananas No. 15 in the webshop of Bananas.

Thanks to Bernard Matthey-Doret

We all know the street art of Banksy, but since twelve years, Lausanne and other Swiss streets are embellished by another, less known ‘pirate artist’: Léon Missile (not his real name – the artist is represented by Eric Martinet).

Léon Missile makes use of commercial posters in the city, glues a white sheet over them and makes his paintings. He picks out the uglier posters: he will not paint over a museum poster, he told the newspaper ‘24 heures‘ a few years ago.

At this moment, you can see a 44 meters long homage to the Jonathan series along the Avenue d’Enchallens in Lausanne – one painting for every album. Because of the ‘illegal’ character of the works, it is impossible to know how long they will be visible. I hope they will stay there for a while!