At the beginning of August, comic book author Quentin Zuttion decided to publish one post per day on his Instagram account. We see him showing the countdown to the release of his new graphic novel, Beauty salon (Dupuis, 184 pages, 24.50 euros). With a dozen copies of his album, he sometimes builds a small cabin, sometimes a bedside table, sometimes a display case… A way of profaning the book object that makes you smile.
August 28, at the Olympic Café, on the 18thmy district of Paris, entrusted the drag queen Sciatique with the organization of the launch party for his book. After a series of questions and answers as funny as they were touching (including a ” Do you love me ? “ (formulated in a joking tone), the extravagant artist delighted the sixty guests by repeating The world is stonedby Fabienne Thibeault, excerpt from the musical StarmaniaAND Me…lolitaby Alizée. Iconic pop hits from two very different eras, the 1970s and 1980s and the 2000s. Two songs that occupy, with intoxication. tainted Loveof Soft Cell, a privileged place both in the imagination of Quentin Zuttion and in his Beauty salon.
This apparent lightness contrasts radically with the tragic tone of this adaptation of the novel of the same name by Mexican author Mario Bellatin (Stock, 2000). Jeshua, Isai and Alex are three homosexuals who enjoy washing their clients’ hair with shampoo during the day as much as partying and frolicking in costume at night. A strange syndrome suddenly puts an end to their carefree everyday life. This disease that eats away at them manifests itself, among other things, by the appearance of fish scales on their skin… A graphic choice of a certain poetry, a clear metaphor for AIDS and Kaposi’s sarcomas, the skin tumors caused by the disease.
The discovery of the novel, which Camille Grenier, his editor at Dupuis, put in the hands of Quentin Zuttion, was a shock for the latter. “I had never read any fiction about AIDS. And although it is a work of fiction, the movie 120 beats per minute [de Robin Campillo, 2017] remains very inspired by real events »says the 34-year-old cartoonist we met at his home, a former janitor’s office located in the backyard of an 18th-century building.my Parisian neighborhood, in the lethargy of an early August afternoon.
Representations of the male body
Mario Bellatin’s short text, which contains no dialogue and does not name the characters, was at first glance an ideal canvas: “As I was reading, many images appeared to me and I told myself that the work would not be complicated. In reality, it was much more difficult.” It took Quentin Zuttion, who published his first comic book, two years to appropriate the original work. under the bed (Ediciones Lapin), in 2016. This laborious creative process was accompanied by a painful but saving psychotherapy, a topic that regularly arises in his comments, in the form of a joke or in a more solemn tone.
You have 56.19% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
