Archives : Yslaire

Amoureux de l'ombre

Amoureux de l'ombre

When “Sambre” first came on the scene, bande dessinée was still in the throes of a “ligne claire” revival. A handful of authors (Chaland, Floc’h, Ted Benoit) brought a fresh, modernist perspective to the style, but the main body of BD artists seemed quite happy to continue with watered-down, uninspired works that echoed the style of Hergé and Jacobs but that lacked their breadth of vision. “I am tired of the dictatorship of this interpretation of ligne claire that forbids all shadow, both in regard to the graphic style and the scenario. I am tired of these characters whose psychology is so straightforward and self-evident that they scarcely exist. I need contrasts; light and shade; the explicit and the unsaid. Every human being carries within him an element of mystery, of shadow and of death. I fail to see why bande dessinée should take no account of this” declared Yslaire, in 1989, in “Les Cahiers de la BD.”

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