Le Coup de Grâce

This the catalogue for the 2006 Quinzaine de Bande Dessinée collecting the works from a large number of comics artists directed by Xavier Lowenthal and myself. From the participation call, one can feel a glimpse towards a conceptual approach to comics. Thierry Groensteen decribes the anthology as following: Le Coup de Grace [The Death Blow], a collective work published in Brussels in 2006 by la Cinquieme Couche, includes the following proclamation: “We long for startling transitions, improbable links, new kinds of narrative associations. We find conventional narrative functions boring and stifling.” On the publisher’s website the ambition that inspires the authors is described in ore detail: they aim to invent “new proposals for narrative articulation” between the images. These transitions will not be “functional” but will operate on a poetic, visual, and formal level through likeness of metaphor…” Because meaning is not a matter of cause and effect leading up to narrative resolution. Because meaning does not lie in clarification.” These words summarize, in exemplary fashion, the historical situation as experienced by many young artists today. This conjuncture has produced heightened awareness that comic art is not ontologically destined only to perpetuate a canonical model dominated by the categories of narration and legibility, but that its spatio-topical apparatus for the display of images- lend themselves to the exploration of new forms, new configurations, new ambitions.

144 pages ｜paperback CMYK ｜335mm x 240mm｜2006｜SOLD OUT