In 1963, France lent the Mona Lisa to the United States. It is a major diplomatic and cultural event. The most famous painting in the world is exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. John and Jackie Kennedy come to admire it. And it is General de Gaulle’s Minister of Culture, André Malraux, who accompanies him.
This little moment of history gives a comic strip that can be eaten like a sour candy. Hervé Tanquerelle draws like a Tintin adventure. The screenplay by Hervé Bourhis and Franck Bourgeron is solidly based on almost nothing, one question: Where is the Mona Lisa?
It’s a camera in motion, aboard the liner France. The characters are colorful, the dialogues tasty, it’s hand-sewn. Tanquerelle, Bourgeron, Bourhis… the trio had a great time.
“When I saw all these films on the France liner, I had the impression that it was a bit fake, very old France and at the same time extremely romantic, like arriving in New York.”
designer Hervé Tanquerelleat franceinfo
Famous writer, winner of the Goncourt Prize, adventurer, Republican fighter in the Spanish Civil War, great traveler, looter of works of art in Asia, stuffed with tics, opium addict, Malraux was already a real character in a novel. Without even caricaturing him, he is now an unforgettable comic book character.
The comic is titled The Minister and the Mona Lisapublished by Casterman.