“Justine and the sons of the King”, wacky the system – Liberation

2023-06-11 02:10:00

First published in 2010, Iris Boudreau’s comic strip is now republished by PowPow. A rich idea that allows us to dive back into the lunar and satirical universe of the Quebecoise.

By skimming only the first boxes, one could believe in an intimate graphic novel like there are so many, a young woman who is a little picky in a roommate who is a little useless, who has a nose that is a little too trumpet and burns his toast in the morning. But Iris Boudreau has been nurtured by Daniel Clowes and does not expect more than a page and a half of Justine and the King’s Sons to sow the first seeds of unease: the roommate in question is a horrible moth in a wheelchair who literally enslaves the heroine on the pretext that the latter only pays a reduced rent. Pow Pow editions had the rich idea of ​​republishing this marvel originally published in 2010 by La Pastèque, a comic strip that served as a diploma project for the Quebec author from Gatineau, where she studied at the Multidisciplinary school of the image before moving to Montreal.

Best friend of Cathon, the hilarious creator of the dog remained Sgoubidou whose praises were sung here two years ago, Iris Boudreau produced a series with her, but also made herself known in the rich era of comic book blogs with the sum cat ostia produced in the company of the no less brilliant Zviane. Justine just astonishes in the gallery of surprising characters who follow one another there, starting with the event that puts an end to the stifling routine in which the young anti-heroine has encysted herself for lack of money and luck: she finds work . “Receptionist in a sports club”, he is told on the phone, except that the club in question has this particularity that everyone, from the staff to the customers, looks like Elvis Presley.

Although puzzled on her way home (“That was a pretty weird idea”), Justine accepts the job, if only to free herself from the grip of her torturer in a wheelchair. A broken nose quickly cuts short this lunar professional experience, which is nevertheless enough for the candid post-teenager to meet Guillaume, a young bipolar who likes to dress as a tiger and with whom she falls in love despite alarming behavior. From Ghost World, we had rarely seen such a perfect cocktail of idleness and gentle deviance, disturbing but never cruelty to its characters. At each corner of this dreary suburb, a soul in pain can arise who asks: “Do you want to pet my elephant?”all are damaged, and the city does not help them.

Justine and the King’s Sons by Iris Boudreau, Pow Pow editions, 88 pages, 17 euros