Author: rogerklaassen

Casemate no 151 (november 2021) has a six page interview with Cosey, richly illustrated with images from the new album.

What struck me when I leafed through the magazine (digitally) was the presence of Cosey throughout the issue. It surely is an event, the release of new books!

On opening the magazine, we immediately find this advertisement of LeLombard on page 2.

A few pages further on, this advertisement of Daniel Maghen. Further on, we find another advertisement featuring the Jonathan album – new subsribers to Casemate will receive the album as a welcome present.

And finally, there is the interview. The interview is two pages and I think the most interesting part is where Cosey explains that he has considered Jonathans death to conclude the series, but that he just couldn’t bring himself to do it: ‘He deserved better.’

After the interview, Casemate publishes four pages of ‘La Piste de Yéshe’, with notes by Cosey himself.

All ends with a hopeful remark for us admirers: ‘[I have] no concrete grand project in mind. I would like to allow myself, this one time, a sabbatical pause for a little while… But do not think that I will put away my brushes. Stop making comics is the last thing I dream about: I hope to draw right until my last day. To die on stage, like Molière, in a way…’.

---

Thanks to Jean-Christophe Defline

Some additional information about ‘Cosey raconte des histoires’ de Ralph Doumit:

• Release date: spring 2022
• Number of pages: around 120
• 4 Chapters (plus a bonus):
  • overview of Cosey’s career
  • thematic analysis of the works of Cosey
  • pages commented (one page from each album)
  • reflections about Jonathan and his place among other travelling characters in comics
  • bonus: two interviews and one hommage with/by three comics personalities

The book will include information about the new album, Jonathan 17.

---

Thanks to Ralph Doumit

In the Sunday edition (Ocotber 24th) of the swiss newspaper Le Matin, you can find an interview with Cosey – not the first and not the last in this busy period.

For Cosey fans, the interview by Jean-Philippe Bernard does not contain much new information – something we may expect from the other interviews the coming weeks.

Let me take the opportunity to direct you to my interview with Cosey: click here.

---

Thanks to Jean-Christophe Defline

Finally! Ralph Doumit has been working on his monography about Cosey for many years. Already announced for 2020 (under a different title) it will be published soon, by PLG Éditions. It will be part of the collection Mémoire Vive.

Ralph Doumit is an author, illustrator and teacher/researcher at the Académie Libanais des Beaux-Arts in Beyrouth (Libanon). He has written many articles and studies about comics and he has made lots of interviews with comics artists – you can read many of them on the blog ‘Les images qui racontent‘. He contibuted to ‘Cosey – Une quête de l’épure’, the catalogue of the Cosey exposition in Angoulême in 2018.

Years ago, I proofread one of the first chapters. I don’t know if this chapter made it to the new book, but if Ralph continued his work at the same level, we may expect an intelligent, expert view on Cosey’s work, in a highly readable style.

More information will follow…

The mural painting in Morges is finished and restored to its old glory. Let’s hope the painting will be left untouched by other ‘artists’.

Where to find the wall painting? It can be found on the wall of a building behind the house on 1, Avenue de Riond Bosson in Morges/Tolochenaz. The mural is painted to the wall facing the railway, I don’t think you can see from the road.

---

Thanks to Ivan Micello

The restoration work on the ‘Santa Fe’ wall painting is almost finished.

Monday, Ivan Micello and his team will apply an anti-graffiti coating and remove the scaffolding.

---

Thanks to Ivan Micello

On the instagram account of LeLombard (click here), you can find a competition to win this poster. It is a map (80 x 60 cm) of the region around Nepal, Tibet and India with some characters from the Jonathan series.

The competition is only open to people living in Belgium, France or Switzerland. For more regulations, see the post of LeLombard on instagram. On 22 October, 5 winners will be drafted.

LeLombard has lanched its publicity campaign for the 17th Jonathan album.

One of the great ideas is to have a playlist of ‘Jonathan- music’ on YouTube! You can listen to all the music that has been recommended on the backsides of the Jonathan albums. Listen here.

The playlist starts with a promo-video for the new album and it ends with an interview with Cosey about Jonathan 17: click here for a direct link to that interview. Strange enough, the uncoloured version of the album cover is used.

And on the ‘Actu’-page of LeLombard you can read the press dossier (scroll down) going with the album: click here.

Men at work in Morges, to restore the wall painting to its old glory. Ivan Micello and his men got some help yesterday of Cosey himself.

The picture below shows that the wall painting goes around the corner as well – something I didn’t know. Nice!

---

Thanks to Ivan Micello

I have made an interview with Cosey about his two new books: La Piste de Yéshé (Jonathan 17) and A l’heure où les dieux dorment encore.

I made it based on two sources: an e-mail exchanges between Cosey and me and thee Dossier de Presse going with Jonathan 17. I haven’t read the books yet.

Spolier alert: in the interview I have tried to avoid spoilers, but there are still some quotes and images that may unveil some secrets.

Read the interview: click here.

In no. 139 (October/November) of Canal BD, you can read an interview with Cosey, written by Ronan Lancelot.

The interview of four pages starts with some well-known questions ans answers (about the start of the series, the first documentation on location), but I particularly liked passages about the use of colour.

If you don’t like spoilers, be reassured, the interview does not unveil anything about the new Jonathan album.

---

Thanks to Thierry de Thibault

More than five years ago, I made a message about a mural painting by Cosey in Morges (Switzerland), that was heavily damaged by graffiti painters (see my message here).

At last, restoration works have been started. Ivan Micello has put the scaffolding in place, has cleaned the wall and has started painting!

I know Ivan from the great mural painting in Pully he made last year (look here), so I am convinced that he will keep us informed about the progress of the work, and that he will do a good job!

---

Thanks to Ivan Micello

In number 16 (Oct-Dec 2021) of ‘Les Cahiers de la BD’, you can find a ‘Cahier Héroïque’ about Jonathan, on the occasion – of course – the final album of the series.

The Cahier has 20 pages, richly illustrated with images taken from Jonathan. Readers who don’t want to know anything about the new album can be reassured: the articles do not disclose any secrets about Jonathan 17.

The main part of the Cahier is an article about the character of Jonathan, written by Nicolas Tellop. Tellop describes why Jonathan is a uncommon character in comics history. He is not a western hero that solves a problem or brings order in a bad situation in an exotic environment – imposing a western view on different cultures – but he is a character that aborbs the different cultures in which he moves around. Also, he is not a very active character, he is mostly an observer. Jonathan is open to different enviroments and people, he has the open mind of a young child. Through all this, Tellop emphasises te importance of the way of working of Cosey, using documentation, photos en sketches made on location as a foundation for his stories. At least: this my my very short summary of an intelligent article.

The Cahier has also some more or less original side-articles: one about the music of Jonathan (a short playlist) and another about some locations through which Jonathan has travelled. More interesting is a short article about the book that will be published by Daniel Maghen later this month: ‘À l’heure où les dieux dorment encore’ – book filled with sketches that Cosey made over the years during his travels.

---

Many thanks to Olivier Bézy