Maximilien Le Roy

Comme indiqué dans l’avant-propos, cette bande dessinée ne tient pas à relater l’entièreté de la vie de Gaugin, mais s’attache plutôt à la fin de la vie du peintre aux Marquise.

Et, en ce sens, c’est un portrait plutôt réussi, magnifié par un dessin fort en trait très affirmé et dont les "sales" couleurs renforcent magnifiquement le propos de ce rude personnage, monstre boiteux finissant.

Un album bien loin des vahinés alanguies pour un âpre portrait, certainement plus ressemblant que les images d’Epinal de l’imaginaire publicitaire. Et franchement, cet anarchiste, anticolonialiste et anticlérical me plait beaucoup.

Maintenant… pour ce qui est des très jeunes filles… une vision plus critique aurait peut-être été utile, et ce malgré le bien léger avertissement préliminaire… (més)

I like that this makes Thoreau's philosophy more accessible; however, overall, it's a pretty mediocre book. Much of the text is direct quotes from Thoreau's writing, and that's great, but the rest of the writing—especially the dialogue in the beginning—seemed very artificial. The text could also use a proofread ("oldtwon" and using "payed" instead of "paid").

The worst thing, though, was the inside of characters' mouths being GRAY. It's surprisingly disturbing. Please pay your colorist the extra bucks to color the inside of the mouths, too.… (més)

Note: I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.

Graphic novels can be a very good way to convey a real life story. One of the best examples is Maus by Art Spiegelman, another good one is Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. I'm always drawn to these types of works, so when I saw one about the painter Paul Gauguin I couldn't resist.

This work is about the last few years of Gauguin's life, when he moved to Atuona on the island of Hiva-Oa in the Marquesas Islands. It describes his last years, from his arrival on the island to his death, but also the visit to the island by Victor Segalen, when he is trying to piece together the life Gauguin led, between the auction of his possessions on Hiva-Oa and the auction of his work in Papeete. The story is told mostly through imagery, with some dialogue between the famous characters, all famous in their association with Gauguin. It flips between the story of Gauguin and Segalen.

Besides that he is a famous French painter who liked to paint Tahitian nudes, I know next to nothing about Gauguin, his life, his activism (a big part in this book), his work and his death. Because of that (I think) this book didn't really teach me about Gauguin's final days. I found it a very confusing mess, and I couldn't retell the story if I wanted to. I think this is a nice book if you already know quite a bit about Gauguin, to illustrate what you know. To learn about him, this isn't the right work. For me, this was three out of five stars.… (més)