Manu Larcenet He is one of the greats of French comics. Furthermore, he is one of those artists not only capable of maintaining two or three parallel lines in his career without them ever coming into conflict, but also of ensuring that both define him as a creator. On the one hand we would have Larcenet, a friend of humor, both when adapting – or reinventing – with complete freedom the lives of historical figures (Freud, Van Gogh…) and in his indispensable autobiographical works – with “Everyday battles” to the head-. On the other, we have the dark Larcenet, the Larcenet capable of radically changing register both in its art and in the tone of the works. That’s where the hangover would fit “Blast”his overwhelming adaptation of “The Brodeck Report” of Philippe Claudel and now this “Road”.
On this occasion, Larcenet faces the shocking post-apocalyptic novel of the same name, the work of Cormac McCarthy and Pulitzer Prize in 2007. And although it is true that we already had a visual reference to the story through the film that John Hillcoat signed with Viggo Mortensen in the role of father and Kodi Smit-McPhee in that of son, the French cartoonist and screenwriter manages to immerse us in the cruel, devastating and nightmarish universe created by McCarthy in just a few pages. To do this, he uses his darkest drawing, countless detailed vignettes that describe to us the entire world in ruins through which the protagonists move and the right and necessary words for us to get into the heads of father and son. And who knows, maybe there are those who want to take advantage of the soundtrack that Nick Cave y Warren Ellis signed on for the film while you read this new essential title from Larcenet.
What is evident is that, although the Frenchman is a master when it comes to creating his own titles as friendly and relatable as the aforementioned “Everyday battles” o “The return to the countryside”his ability to convert other people’s texts into authentic works of art of the ninth art is today beyond all doubt.