Yvan Alagbé

Colonial history haunts this stunning, spectral-looking graphic novel, a spiritual sequel to the author's Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures. In Misery of Love, a spiritual sequel to the acclaimed Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures, Yvan Alagb continues his interrogation of race and family in modern France. The book focuses on the dream-like memories of a woman named Clare, who is spending time with her family for her grandfather's funeral. Alagb shifts between narratives of the family, all haunted by the legacy of France's colonial subjugation of Africa. Alagb works in stormy grayscale washes, using comics, as he puts it, as "a sacred dimension which celebrates, questions and perpetuates life.... I believe that life is not damnation but grace." This is another ambitious, devastating masterpiece from one of France's best contemporary cartoonists.

One of the Globe & Mail's 100 Best Books of 2018A timely collection of work about race and immigration in Paris by one of France's most revered cult comic book artists. Yvan Alagb is one of the most innovative and provocative artists in the world of comics. In the stories gathered in Yellow Negroes and Other Imaginary Creatures--drawn between 1994 and 2011, and never before available in English--he uses stark, endlessly inventive black-and-white brushwork to explore love and race, oppression and escape. It is both an extraordinary experiment in visual storytelling and an essential, deeply personal political statement. With unsettling power, the title story depicts the lives of undocumented migrant workers in Paris. Alain, a Beninese immigrant, struggles to protect his family and his white girlfriend, Claire, while engaged in a strange, tragic dance of obsession and repulsion with Mario, a retired French Algerian policeman. It is already a classic of alternative comics, and, like the other stories in this collection, becomes more urgent every day. This NYRC edition is an oversized paperback with French flaps, printed endpapers, and extra-thick paper, and features new English hand-lettering and a brand-new story, exclusive to this edition.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS IN C'EST BON ANTHOLOGY vol. 3 James Jean (cover) Susanne Johansson Koren Shadmi Yvan Alagbé Stefano Ricci Andrea Bruno Gorg Mallia (text) Jessica Kurki Mattias Elftorp Daniel Novakovic

Yvan Alagbé on yksi näkyvimmistä hahmoista Ranskan taidesarjakuvakentällä. Hän on syntynyt Pariisissa 1971. Alagbén äiti on ranskalainen ja isä Beninistä. Lapsuuden Alagbé vietti pääosin Ranskassa mutta asui Afrikassa kuudesta ikävuodesta yhdeksään. Keltaiset neekerit kertoo Beninistä Ranskaan tulleesta mustasta sisarusparista, joka asuu ja työskentelee laittomasti Pariisissa. Alagbé kuvaa vahvasti muutaman hahmon kautta afrikkalaisten siirtolaisten todellisuutta Pariisin lähiöissä. Kuvat ovat tummia ja voimakkaita. Piirrostyö on pelkistettyä mutta yksityiskohtaista. Keltaiset neekerit on graafisesti loistelias ja lahjakkaan piirtäjän taidonnäyte mutta myös sisällöllisesti merkityksellinen ja eittämättä yksi merkittävämpiä ranskalaisen uuden aallon sarjakuvateoksia.