Quebec cartoonist Simon Labelle is back with a new graphic novel, Laurence à son insu, exploring the often-unsettling world of dreams.
Fascinated by the universe of dreams, Labelle has long considered creating a story where dreams are predominant, realistic, and akin to his own—yet also revealing of what might be hidden in the dreamer’s subconscious.
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Labelle’s new work, Laurence à son insu, centers on a remarkably rational and intelligent woman, Laurence, who finds herself haunted by a hidden truth lurking in her subconscious. “Laurence is a fairly rational, fairly brilliant person. But there’s something hidden in her subconscious. There’s a fact trying to come out, to emerge. And then, she realizes that her dreams seem to mean something, but she doesn’t understand anything,” Labelle explained in an interview with Agence QMI.
As Laurence relentlessly seeks meaning in her disjointed dreams, she’s gradually consumed by sleep disturbances, pushed to her limits. Eventually, one dream offers a clue, prompting her to investigate her family and friends.
Simultaneously, her career throws her into a chaotic spiral. As a crisis manager, Laurence is tasked with rehabilitating the image of a vegan food company accused of concealing meat in its recipes, and a wealth management firm embroiled in a fraud scandal.
PHOTO LIANA PARÉ PROVIDED BY MÉCANIQUE GÉNÉRALE EDITIONS
“We live in a world of lies, of fictions. This leads us to wonder to what extent our dreams tell the truth,” Labelle emphasized, adding that he deliberately peppered his work with ambiguity to allow readers to draw their own conclusions.
“Her trouble is illustrated as a kind of metaphor for her life, ultimately, for her perception of what’s happening. I thought it was good to function like that. We see that the story is settled at the end, but it still haunts her in a way,” he added.
“I’m not a fan of Sherlock Holmes-style mysteries. He understands everything, he manages to demonstrate everything in a perfectly rational way. There’s no possibility that it could be anything else. He’s always right. He annoys me (laughs). It seems to me that that’s not life,” the cartoonist continued.
Growing Enthusiasm
The former president of the Association des illustrateurs et illustratrices du Québec (from 1992 to 1993) expressed his delight at the growing enthusiasm for comics and graphic novels in Quebec in recent years.
“The Montreal Comic Book Festival is very popular, and a lot of comics are being published in Quebec now. We’re also seeing more and more of them in the form of reportage, for example, and others that are now developing in a much broader sense,” he observed.
Laurence à son insu
Simon Labelle
Mécaniqe générale Editions
Comic Book
156 pages
