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Everyone deals differently with the death of a loved one.
© Rue de Sèvres, Paris | avant-verlag GmbH
At the center of the plot is the young woman Fabienne, who is vacationing on a French beach with her partner Roland. Suddenly Roland dies while walking with Fabienne through a large metal sheet, which cuts off his head within the blink of an eye because of a strong wind. If anyone now thinks we're in the middle of the comic on page 37, they're wrong. The main characters were introduced within five pages and Roland lost his life – for me as a reader an incomparable moment of shock.
The comic covers Fabienne's reaction to this extremely bizarre and sudden death. It happens suddenly, without warning - it is a meaningless death, insofar as deaths can have meaning. Now she is standing there, Fabienne, in the middle of a holiday resort, surrounded by happy people. Actually, she should take care of the transfer of the body and attend the funeral in her home country, but to my surprise she stays and goes on "vacation". This trip was meticulously planned by Roland, Fabienne didn't even want to go to the beach, but Roland insisted. There are many activities on the list and Fabienne ticks them off one by one. But she shows no joy. She ignores calls from home and avoids Roland's brother, who is carrying the body in her place. She completely suppresses the situation, expressionlessness prevails in her eyes. Only when she meets a funny local resident named Paco, exchanges a few words with him and thus at least partially deviates from Roland's strict plan, does she manage to appear more alive, at least in part. The fact that this man collects a whole folder of newspaper articles full of senseless deaths complicates the situation and makes it all the more interesting for the reader.
The plot of I stay follows one clear narrative structure. There are no flashbacks and Fabienne is usually the focus. The illustrator Hubert Chevillard succeeds in an interesting feat with his drawings: In panels where Fabienne can be seen, everything seems empty and lifeless despite the wealth of detail. But when drawings of the surroundings suddenly appear, they are bursting with hustle and bustle. Fabienne's expressionless face manages to make everything around her look lifeless and suck out all happiness. Only when the local resident Paco is in the picture do the pictures become dynamic and alive and Fabienne then seems more like a living being.
The panels are all very neatly lined up. Classically, you will see rectangular and square images in the hardbound book that are lined up next to each other. Each scene is fully colorized and bursting with playful detail without being overdone. The speech bubbles are just as clearly structured and are conveniently pushed to the edge as a rectangle so that important picture elements are not covered. In contrast to this is the selected font, which is legible but appears to be written in a mess. Lilian Pithan succeeds in captivating the reader with the translation into German. The conversations seem natural and also offer a wealth of colloquial words.
In my opinion, the comic unfolds its greatest entertainment value not during reading, but much more afterwards. The plot is captivating and the unpredictability of the story is exciting, so that every page can be devoured. The end of the comic comes abruptly. Anyone who thinks about Fabienne's motivations after reading the comic will notice that the story is much more complex than the narrative while reading suggests. Inconsistencies are noticed, which cleverly question certain things that you took for granted at the beginning. It's never even talked about how Fabienne felt about Roland - they were planning a family together, but how did she feel for him? Why did she stick to this meticulous plan for so long, even though she wasn't entertained and even dismayed at times? Why didn't she want "them" (Roland's family) to be given her number? The deeper you dig, the more fuel for discussion emerges - at least this was something that the editors noticed and, in my opinion, makes the comic a real gem.
If you would like to get a small impression of the great drawings, you can view a reading sample online here.
I stay is published by avant-verlag .
Hardcover, colored ISBN: 978-3-96445-089-0 19.5x27cm, 128 pages 24.00 €
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Our online magazine ntower is a member of the affiliate networks Amazon PartnerNet, Awin, Webgains, Media Markt E-Business GmbH and Saturn online GmbH. If you order via one of our affiliate links, we receive a variable commission from the respective shop operator. There are no additional costs for end customers.