Redrawing French Empire in Comics

301 Pages·2013·0.42 MB·English

StudieS in ComiCS and Cartoon S
LuCy She Lton CaSwe LL and Jared Gardner, Serie S e ditorS
À Valérie et Louise, encore et toujours.
R e d Raw i n g FRe n c h em p iRe i n co m i c s
mark mc kinney
the ohio State u niverSity PreSS • Co LumbuS
Copyright © 2013 by The Ohio State University.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McKinney, Mark, 1961–
Redrawing French empire in comics / Mark McKinney.
p. cm. — (Studies in comics and cartoons)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8142-1220-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8142-1220-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8142-9321-8 (cd)
1. Comic books, strips, etc.—France—History and criticism. 2. Imperialism in popular
culture—France. 3. France—Colonies—In literature. 4. France—Colonies—History. 5. Alge-
ria—History—1830–1962. 6. Indochina—History. I. Title. II. Series: Studies in comics and
cartoons.
PN6745.M39 2013
741.5'35820971244—dc23
2012043008
Cover design by Laurence J. Nozik
Text design by Juliet Williams
Type set in Adobe Sabon and Formata
Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Mate-
rials. ANSI Z39.48–1992.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Conte ntS
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
ChaPter 1 Redrawing French Empire in Comics: An Introduction 1
ChaPter 2 Redrawing Colonial Algeria 35
ChaPter 3 The Fall of French Indochina 84
ChaPter 4 The Algerian War and Its Aftermath 145
ChaPter 5 The Voyage Out and the Voyage In 211
Notes 225
Works Cited 244
Index 267

i LLu Str ation S
1.1: Jambon-Beur: Les couples mixtes, life and death in the Algerian War 2
1.2: La décolonisation, the French repression at Sétif 11
1.3: Le cimetière des princesses, colonial genealogy 13
1.4: D’Algérie, recalling the murder of Audin 15
1.5: Les oubliés d’Annam, quoting a historical study 21
2.1: “Enlèvement de la sultane favorite,” a harem fantasy 42
2.2: “Une visite sous la tente,” Algerian violence symbolized 47
2.3: Les mésaventures de M. Bêton, a Turco in Paris 49
2.4: Les voyages d’agrément, tourism and colonial otherness 51
2.5: “Nous civiliserons ces gaillards-là . . . ,” satire by Raffet 60
2.6: “Nous civiliserons ces gaillards-là . . . ,” an engraving redrawn 61
2.7: An Intercepted Correspondence, Cairo, a harem painting redrawn 71
2.8: Le centenaire, colonial postcards redrawn 74
3.1: Bernard Chamblet et l’Indochine, courageous legionaries 97
3.2: Bernard Chamblet et l’Indochine, temple ruins 98
3.3: Les oubliés d’Annam, a photo of a rallié 119
vii
viii • iLLuStration S
3.4: Les oubliés d’Annam, a murder by a legionary 123
3.5: Les oubliés d’Annam, a mythical confrontation 125
3.6: Les oubliés d’Annam, Joubert is tortured 126
3.7: Le choix de Hai, Hai dies 131
3.8: Le choix de Hai, retaking Saigon 132
3.9: Quitter Saigon, an American promise 135
3.10: Quitter Saigon, hiding métissage 137
3.11: La décolonisation, satirizing Dien Bien Phu 140
4.1: La décolonisation, satirizing the OAS 150
4.2: Journal d’un embastillé, OAS autobiography 156
4.3: Azrayen’, a father’s post-war journal 163
4.4: Azrayen’, a French and Algerian couple 165
4.5: Azrayen’, murder in wine vats 167
4.6: Azrayen’, the Philippeville massacre 170
4.7: Azrayen’, an interrogation 171
4.8: Algérie française!, the casbah of Algiers 175
4.9: Algérie française!, Ahmed as a romantic figure 177
4.10: La guerre fantôme, an improbable mixed couple 179
4.11: D’Algérie, ancestors as colonial settlers 188
4.12: D’Algérie, Le Pen justifies torturing 189
4.13: Le cousin harki, abandoning the Harkis 196
4.14: Petit Polio, Mahmoud seeks solace 198
4.15: Petit Polio, redrawing a Canadian story 199
4.16: Fais péter les basses Bruno!, an explosive war memory 204
4.17: L’ascension du haut mal, a child imagines the war 205
4.18: L’ascension du haut mal, stories of torture 206
5.1: D’Algérie, a Pied-Noir missionary uncle 217
5.2: Les oubliés d’Annam, a métisse granddaughter 222
aCknowLe dG m e ntS
I thank my colleagues at Miami University, who have been extremely sup-
portive of my research over the years: Jonathan Strauss, Chair of French
and Italian; my other departmental colleagues, who have heard and com-
mented on my presentations of this material in our Irvin works-in-progress
series (2000, 2009); Juanita Schrodt, departmental Administrative Assis-
tant; and the university colleagues who awarded me a Hampton Grant in
2006, allowing me to carry out research at the Cité Internationale de la
Bande Dessinée et de l’Image, in Angoulême.
Several colleagues read drafts of the manuscript at various points and
made invaluable comments on it: Bernard Aresu, Cécile Danehy, Valérie
Dhalenne, Ann Miller, Todd Porterfield, Dominic Thomas, Rusty Witek,
and two anonymous readers for The Ohio State University Press. I am
deeply grateful to all of them for their excellent suggestions and for their
kind encouragement.
Colleagues also provided very useful feedback and support when I pre-
sented drafts of portions of this study as invited lectures and conference
presentations: Peter J. Bloom, Paul Cohen, Anne Donadey, Sylvie Durmelat,
Hugo Frey, Laurence Grove, Alec G. Hargreaves, Pascal Lefèvre, Fabrice
Leroy, Wendy Michallat, Adrianna M. Paliyenko, Kees Ribbens, Matthew
Screech, Vinay Swamy, and Jane Winston. I presented this research at sev-
eral fora, including: MMLA (Chicago, 1997); France: History and Story
(Birmingham, 1999); Faculty Lecture Series, Department of French and
ix
x • aCknowLedG mentS
Italian, Miami University (2000); 20th/21st-Century French and Franco-
phone Studies (Urbana, 2003; Tallahassee, 2004); Georgetown University
(2004); KFLC (Lexington, 2003, 2008); IBDS (Manchester, 2005, 2011);
Technologies of Memory in the Arts (Nijmegen, 2006); Graphic Engage-
ment (West Lafayette, 2010); Florida State University (2012); and the Uni-
versity of Toronto (2012). I much appreciate the efforts of the colleagues
who organized these conferences, panels and lectures, and am grateful for
the feedback received then.
I assigned comics studied here in several classes at the university, and
thank the students who took the courses. They contributed in many ways to
my reflection on the meaning and value of the works.
I am grateful to The Ohio State University Press for publishing my
study: I especially thank Malcom Litchfield, Director, Sandy Crooms, Senior
Editor, as well as Lucy Shelton Caswell and Jared Gardner, Series Editors.
Catherine Ferreyrolle, Jean-Pierre Mercier and Catherine Ternaux at the
Cité Internationale de la Bande Dessinée, in Angoulême, and the staff of the
Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée, in Brussels, were most helpful during my
research trips there.
Various cartoonists kindly and generously shared their thoughts and
sources, and in some cases welcomed me into their studios or homes. For
this I am deeply grateful to Yvan Alagbé, Clément Baloup, Baru, Nadjib
Berber, Farid Boudjellal, Pierre Christin, Jacques Ferrandez, Frank Giroud,
Annie Goetzinger, Kamel Khélif, José Jover, Lax, Leïla Leïz, Larbi Mech-
kour, Amine Medjdoub, Séra, Slim and Jean-Philippe Stassen.
I put final touches on the manuscript in 2012, as events commemorat-
ing the end of the Algerian War and fifty years of Algerian independence
unfolded. Azouz Begag, Farid Boudjellal and Alec G. Hargreaves kindly
gave me access to pre-publication copies of two comic books scheduled for
release on the anniversary.
Cartoonists and publishers very generously granted permission to
reproduce the illustrations in this volume. I warmly thank: Yvan Alagbé;
David B. and L’Association; Clément Baloup and Mathieu Jiro; Baru; Farid
Boudjellal; Rebecca Byers and Editions Plon-Perrin-Presses de la Renais-
sance; Michel Deligne of 2e Souffle; Jacques Ferrandez and Editions Caster-
man; Frank Giroud and Lax; Grégory Jarry, Otto T. and Editions FLBLB;
and Morvandiau and L’oeil électrique/Maison rouge. I also thank Jeanne
Strauss-De Groote and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton
County for assistance with illustrations.
I gratefully acknowledge kind permission granted by the editors of jour-
nals that published earlier versions of portions of this study: parts of Chap-
ter 2 appeared in Modern and Contemporary France; and parts of Chapter