Author: rogerklaassen

The ‘Jonathan Intégrale – tome 17’ will contain only one episode of the Jonathan series, the finale volume 17 – La Piste de Yéshé. A dossier of some 40 pages will precede the Jonathan story.

The dossier is written by Nelly Rieuf Bista, a french woman who has been living in the Himalayas since she was 23 years old. She worked on art projects in Mustang (Nepal) and Ladakh (India), founding the Matho Monastery Museum. Among others, she works with teams of restauration artists to preserve mandalas and wall paintings – as you can see on the photo above. Not only has she been working on art projects: she also worked on a drink water system that works at the low temperatures in the high mountains.

Title of the dossier is ‘Vivre sur le toit du monde’ (‘Living on the roof of the world’).

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Thankas and mandalas were an inspiration for Cosey while working on Jonathan 17, where we see Jonathan assisting a thanka painter. It also was a inspiration for the magnificent cover of the Intégrale.

The dossier will be illustrated by photos taken by Cosey, and… of course, by many drawings – most of them preparatory sketches for Jonathan 17. Among them, we will see some cover designs for the album.

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All pictures in this ‘news message’ are taken from the dossier of the ‘Jonathan Intégrale – tome 17’. Photos and drawings are made by Cosey.

The album will be in shops by 4 november 2022.

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Thanks to Cosey

A new volume of the Jonathan Intégrale has been announced for November 4th.

The album will contain the last Jonathan story (‘La Piste de Yéshé’), and more… it will have 104 pages. Above, you can see the marvellous cover.

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Thanks to Bernard Matthey-Doret

Salleck Publications/Eckart Schott Verlag announces the release of the german edition of Jonathan 17 – De Weg nach Yeshe for the second half of 2022. A release date has not yet been confirmed.

As far as I know, this is only the second translation of the 17th Jonathan album, after the dutch version.

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Thanks to Dinu Logoz

I finished reading ‘Cosey raconte des histoires’, written by Ralph Doumit and published by PLG. I have written a full review of the book here, but I can give you my conclusion here: it is an excellent book. Ralph succeeds in bringing to light some themes and characteristics of Cosey’s work that give insight in the peculiarities of Cosey storytelling.

Please read my review and go to your favourite bookstore!

Since last Friday, the book ‘Cosey raconte des histoires’, by Ralph Doumit, is available in your bookstore. The book is published by PLG in its collection ‘Mémoire Vive’.

Ralph call the book a ‘hommage’ to the stories Cosey has made. the book has a biographical part, Ralph’s personal lecture of Cosey’s albums and his notes going with some typical Cosey pages. The book also contains interviews or notes with or by Gilles Ciment, Jean-Pierre Grandjean and Jean-Luc Cornette.

100 pages; 15 euros.
Avaialble in all major french online bookstores.

50 Years ago, the career of Cosey took a turn for the good: only 22 years old, he was offered the opportunity to make a comic for the Lausanne newspaper ’24 Heures’. It was his first publication as a ‘complete’ comcis author: writing and drawing his own story.

In the ’24 Heures’ edition of april 9th, this 50 years jubilee was celebrated. Interesting anecdote: Cosey presented another project to the publisher Marcel Pasche. This project was about a story in… Tibet. Pasche suggested to make stories that played in the region where the newspaper was read, the region around Lausanne.

The result was the development of Paul Aroïd. Cosey made two stories that foreshadow his typical page layouts and drawings that capture the atmosphere of the Alps.

After the two Paul Aroïd stories, Cosey and ’24 Heures’ continued their cooperation. Cosey made a story with the character Séraphin Ledoux, a graphical predecessor of Jonathan. We are talking of the year 1975, the same year that the first Jonathan story was published in Journal Tintin – another decisive step in Cosey’s monumental career.

This drawing was published last saturday, in remembrance of the 50th birthday of Paul Aroïd.

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Thanks to Bernard Matthey-Doret

Jonathan has become ‘godfather’ of the Chislay Tolop Khang organisation. The organisation runs a library where children can borrow books for free in Choglamsar, near Leh (India).

The main goal of the organisation is “to make Chispay Tolop Khang a place for kids to explore their land, as the whole world, through books and literature. A place of reading and knowledge”. On their website and their Facebook-page, you can get an impression of the many actvities of this sympathetic organisation.

The library was founded by Sophie Samdup, born in France but now living in India. We wish them luck with their new godfather!

I saw an announcement of the 12th issue of ‘Tintin, c’est l’aventure’, a beautiful magazine around Tintin and adveturous travels. On the cover, you can see it will include an article about Cosey. I assume it will be an article about ‘À l’heure où les dieux dorment encore’, but – who knows – it might have some extra content.

We must be patient, because this numer 12 will be published in June 2022.

Next week, the dutch translation of ‘La piste de Yéshé’ will be published by Le Lombard. Dutch title: ‘De Weg naar Yeshe’.

The album will be published in a softcover edition

At the end of 2021, ‘Rencontre au sommet’ (‘Meeting at the summit’) was published by swiss publisher Splotch. In this book (a comic), Gilles-Emmanuel Fiaux tells the story about his fascination and admiration of the works of Cosey.

This story begins when Gilles-Emmanuel discovers Jonathan at the age of 13. Soon, he also discovers that Cosey lives at a walking distance from his grandparents home. The start of several attempts to meet Cosey and trying to get Cosey’s advice on Gilles-Emmanuel’s comics and drawings, etc. … a somewhat frustrating experience.

On one of the first pages, Fiaux gives his readers a warning that he will change drawing styles throughout the book. The comic is also a report of a journey of artistic discovery. From several posts on his website, I learned that Fiaux already worked on the album in 2013.

The album is a very personal piece of fan-art, and I think that many admirers of Cosey’s work will recognise the enthusiasm of Gilles-Emmanuel.

A very peculiar experience was that I read my own name in the album… in 2013, I participated in the exposition ‘Des couleurs pour Cosey‘, for which several professional artists coloured a page of ‘Celle qui fut’ (there was also a competition). Gilles-Emmanuel Fiaux was among them, and he shows an impression of the exposition, featuring my page next to his and others’.

You can order ‘Rencontre au Sommet’ by contacting Gilles-Emmanuel Fiaux directly: go to his website and send him a message via the contact page.

Yesterday, the retrospective exposition of works by Cosey was opened at the Galerie Daniel Maghen in Paris. Jean-Christophe Defline was one of the first visitors and made some photos.

The exposition is open until 11 december, from Monday-Saturday 10.30 – 19.00. You can find the Galerie Daniel Maghen on 36, Rue du Louvre in Paris.

More info about the expo – with a possibility to visit the expo ‘virtually’: go to the website of Daniel Maghen.

Cosey himself, posing a little uneasy, so it seems.

On display are original drawings of pages from the albums, sometimes accompanied by the ‘mise en couleurs’ – the sheets with the colouring by gouache.

I like the variety of objets that can be seen at the expo.

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Thanks to our reporter in Paris, Jean-Christophe Defline

In number 158 of dBD (november 2021), we can read a 8 page interview with Cosey, written by Frédéric Bosser, about – of course – Jonathan 17 and ‘A l’heure où les dieux dorment encore’.

Questions and answers are more or less along the usual lines: why a new Jonathan and why put an end to the series, Cosey’s way of working, his trips to Tibet, etc. But still, it is an interesting interview because Cosey got some more space to answer the questions.

The interview is illustrated with images from both new books – beautiful as ever.

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Thanks to Jean-Christophe Defline

The Cartoonmusuem Basel, in Basel (Switzerland) of course), announces a retrospective exposition of the works of Cosey. We need a little patience, because the exposition is scheduled for 11 November 2022 – 12 March 2023 – more than a year from today.

On the site of the museum, we read: ‘Cartoonmuseum Basel is honouring this multi-award-winning artist’s oeuvre in a retrospective – the first in the German-speaking world. It encompasses original drawings, including pages from the latest and final volume of Jonathan, as well as sources of inspiration, photographs, sketchbooks and films.’

More information: click here (german and english website).

Daniel Maghen announces that a special, limited edition (Tirage de tête) is available for ‘À L’heure où les dieux dorment encore’.

The limited edition consists of a box with the book (with a special cover) and an additional ‘cahier’ of 32 pages. 150 copies, numbered 1/150 to 150/150, signed by Cosey.

More information on the website of Daniel Maghen