One of Michel Houellebecq’s most emblematic novels is presented in the form of a comic strip. The French author has teamed up with designer Louis Paillard to produce a new version of The Map and the Territory, his 2010 Goncourt Prize, in the form of a graphic novel. Very rare in an interview, she relied on the microphone of RTL about this project posted by Flammarion.
The two artists are friends. Michel Houellebecq hired Louis Paillard as an architect to renovate his house:
“We were talking about literature, but I didn’t know I was doing comics,” he explains. “I was really surprised, and to tell you the truth, I liked it right away.”
Passionate about comics in his youth, the author of The possibility of an island he discovered the graphic novel with Louis Paillard: “It is richer, more varied than the comic strip I knew.”
“He’s not trying to be consistent, and neither am I”
This is how the collaborative work that will lead them to this first comic strip begins, both for one and for the other: “He sent me an email every two, three pages. Sometimes I gave my opinion, he had ideas”.
“Louis Paillard doesn’t try to be consistent, and I’ve never tried to be consistent either,” continues Michel Houellebecq.
“I try to make the pages as strong as possible, and I change as much as I want. He also changes his style a lot. It’s very surprising when you read a comic to go from black and white to color, to extremely detailed drawing. (…) to much more abstract things. It’s completely free.”
Until the design of The Map and the Territoryposted in calendar format: “Some things are unlike anything that’s ever been done before, and here we are in the presence of that. It doesn’t happen often in life.”
Source: BFM TV
