under the influence of One piece For years now, French manga has finally freed itself from this unbeatable model to find its own identity. Imagined by Loui, a young designer from Ghana, Red flower (Glénat) proves it, mixing the aesthetics of rahan AND Lanfeust to West African tales.
“Customs are changing,” Loui rejoices during an interview held last July at the Japan Expo, the great mass of manga. “The public no longer sees manga as absolutely Japanese. Manga is no longer always synonymous with Japan.”
Planned in five volumes, this coming-of-age story follows an African teenager, Kéli, who dreams of overcoming the “Katafali” ritual to become a man in the eyes of his tribe. But this impetuous young man struggles to understand the peaceful philosophy that his people espouse. As his village is threatened, he sees it as an opportunity to prove himself.
A unique mythology
“This story was born over the years, like many of my projects: thanks to meetings with readers who entrusted me with the characters they wanted to see represented,” explains Loui, who was inspired by the stories his mother told him when he was little. . Up in Ghana.
“He used to tell me the stories of the spider Anansi. He is a crazy and ambiguous character who is the West African equivalent of Renart. He uses his intelligence to pass tests and take on the other animals around him. The hazing. In my story , I turned him into a magician.”
An unprecedented mythology in the Franco-Belgian comics scene. “It’s a lived experience. It’s important,” Loui insists. “People who tell something that doesn’t transcend them and doesn’t push them to improve themselves have fallen on the easy path or maybe they tell something that doesn’t matter to them.”
“If the story you’re telling doesn’t change your life, it’s not worth telling,” he continues. “Keli’s character is a reflection on the things that question me at the moment: the transition to adulthood, the relationship with violence, the importance of communication to resolve conflicts.”
Inspired by martial arts
The martial arts, which he has practiced since he was a child, have guided him in the conception of his “afro-manga”: “There are traces of karate, judo, ju-jitsu, sumo, capoeira, de dambe, a traditional boxing from northern Nigeria. Drawing which I like to stay motivated. I am inspired by the spiritual dimension of martial arts.”
“I started with judo and karate when I was a child. The first thing my sensei told me was: we don’t teach you this so that you go to fight, but so that you learn to control yourself. It has stayed with me.” my whole life,” says the 28-year-old designer.
Martial arts practice helps you draw. “It helps to get a better idea of what a real pose, a real armbar, a real sequence, a real punch looks like,” she explains. “It is better to have practiced. Many times we see that the author does not master this type of drawing, because he has not practiced these sports.”
Franco-Belgian comic classics such as rahan AND Lanfeust and latest manga like Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura also inspired him a lot. The man who discovered manga in 2010 before dedicating himself professionally just three years later, extracted from it everything he knows about graphic art.
“Inside Vinland Saga, Makoto Yukimura brilliantly addresses the issue of nonviolence,” he analyzes. “It’s a great manga that identifies things with many subtleties. The characters are very endearing. It’s a reference if only from a script point of view.”
Create a drawing school in Africa
Loui already has in mind the whole story of Red flower. “Everything is written in broad outlines, but everything is destined to change. The more I evolve, the more I have new ideas for scenes, ways to illustrate. But I know what the ending is, how the character will grow, the most important events.”
Red flower It is planned in five volumes, not one more. “Five volumes is exactly the right balance. We have time to develop a good story and characters, to have graphic and narrative fun without falling into One piece [qui a dépassé les 100 tomes, NDLR]. The reader will know the ending very soon.”
Volume 2, already fully written, will be published in 2024. Finally, Loui hopes to stop drawing to focus on his scenarios: “I don’t like to draw,” says who looks good in “Stan Loui.” in reference to Stan Lee, American comic figure at the origin of works such as Spiderman, The Fantastic Four AND X Men.
Loui also dreams of supervising a new generation of Burkinabe, Senegalese or Congolese afromanga authors discovered on social media. A growing scene. “I would like to create a drawing school in West Africa. But for now I want to establish myself as an author and then I will see what I can do.”
Red Flower, Loui, Glénat, 240 pages, 7.90 euros.
Source: BFM TV
