{"id":33744,"date":"2025-09-04T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T08:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33744"},"modified":"2025-09-03T16:47:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T16:47:43","slug":"approximate-continuum-comics-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/09\/04\/approximate-continuum-comics-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Approximate Continuum Comics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Lewis Trondheim<\/strong>, edited & translated by Kim Thompson<\/strong> (Fantagraphics Books)
\nISBN: 978-1-60699-410-8 (TPB)<\/p>\n

With well over 100 books sporting his name (which isn\u2019t actually Lewis Trondheim but Laurent Chabosy), the writer\/artist\/editor and educator is one of Europe\u2019s most prolific comics creators: illustrating his own work and working with the industry\u2019s top artists; overseeing animated cartoons of print successes like La Mouche<\/em><\/strong> (The Fly<\/strong>) and Kaput and Z\u00f6sky<\/em><\/strong> and even editing younger readers book series Shampooing<\/em><\/strong> for Dargaud. His most famous works are the global hits Les Formidables Aventures de Lapinot<\/em><\/strong> (translated as The Spiffy Adventures of McConey<\/strong>) and, with Joann Sfar, the Donjon<\/em><\/strong> (Dungeon<\/a><\/strong>) series of nested fantasy epics (see the translated Dungeon: Parade<\/strong>, Dungeon: Monstres<\/strong> and Dungeon: the Early Years)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Tireless and prolific, he has written for everything from satirical magazine Psikopat<\/em><\/strong> to Le Journal de Spirou<\/em><\/strong> and Walt Disney. His scripts for the continent\u2019s most popular artists include Le Roi Catastrophe<\/em><\/strong> and V\u00e9n\u00e9zia<\/strong> <\/em>with Fabrice Parme, Les Cosmonautes du futur<\/em><\/strong> (Manu Larcenet), Allez Raconte<\/em><\/strong> and Papa Raconte<\/em><\/strong> (Jos\u00e9 Parrondo), Politique \u00e9trang\u00e8re<\/em><\/strong> (with Jochen Gerner and which Trondheim adapted into an opera in 2009) and Petit P\u00e9re No\u00ebl<\/em><\/strong> (Thierry Robin).<\/p>\n

He is a cartoonist of uncanny wit, piercing, gentle perspicacity, comforting affability and self-deprecating empathy who prefers to control scrupulously what is known and said about him…<\/p>\n

I first became aware of Lewis Trondheim\u2019s subtly engaging comics mannerism in Fantagraphics\u2019 Mome<\/strong> anthologies which reprinted excerpts of his utterly entrancing comics blog Little Nothings<\/strong>, wherein Trondheim\u2019s friends and acquaintances, rendered and simultaneously masked as anthropomorphised animals (with him a dowdy, parrot-beaked central figure) revisit episodes of his life, flavoured with philosophy, personal introspection, whimsical inquiry and foible-filled observations.<\/p>\n

These mini-treats were gathered into four terrific tomes of drawn diaries for constant re-reading (Little Nothings: Curse of the Umbrella, The Prisoner Syndrome<\/strong>, Uneasy Happiness and My Shadow in the Distance<\/strong>). You might still find the first three available as collected gift set Bigger Nothings<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

However, before all that, in 1993 Trondheim first explored the idea as a 4-issue American-styled comic book project and those prototypical slices of wry and winning reportage are finally available in a translated black and white softcover collection. Some of the very first autobiographical works on the French bande dessin\u00e9e<\/em> scene, these little gems were a genuine game-changer for cartoonists and storytellers, prompting a rise in personal stories that has generated many works to rival the best of Harvey Pekar himself and created a new (sub)genre of graphic narrative…<\/p>\n

In this collected Approximate Continuum Comics<\/strong> the signature blend of visualised introspection and self-condemnatory flagellation finds the younger Trondheim questioning his own professional integrity; violently and graphically wish-fulfilling his way through rush-hour crowds (haven\u2019t we all?); planning – for which read risk-assessing – his forthcoming marriage and dealing with his unfathomable Japanese publisher during the early days of creating his multi-media hit La Mouche<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

He regularly gets lost in his own free-associating daydreams and rightly fears being castigated by his own conscience for swimming in megalomania, indecisiveness, forthrightness and deference. Trondheim\u2019s many inner voices don\u2019t like him very much: there are myriad incidences of self-abuse where his alternate egos beat the crap out of him; counterbalanced with gloriously loaded \u201creal-world\u201d episodes where he lampoons and embarrasses his fellow studio-mates of publishing collective L\u2019Association<\/em>. (To be fair these are fabulously balanced by a marvellous section at the book\u2019s end where such maligned and injured creative colleagues as David B., Emile Bravo, Didier Tronchet, Jean-Christophe Menu, Killofer & Philippe Dupuy among others, as well as civilian friends, his wife Brigitte and even his mother all get a trenchant and routinely hilarious right-to-reply.)<\/p>\n

The first inklings of the artist\u2019s perennial problems with technology in general and computer games in particular appear here, as do many childhood memoirs and sundry diatribes against people and places either experienced or sometimes only imagined. One of the best sequences concerns the trip-of-a-lifetime to America (first of many, but he didn\u2019t know that then…) and his apparent inability to think of one single strip idea about it, only surpassed by his behaviour at a raucous party held in his beloved studio.<\/p>\n

During the course of these cartoon capers, Trondheim married his fianc\u00e9e, sired his first child and moved into a new home, but although these major events are thoroughly and compellingly covered they still pale into insignificance against the spectacular battles against his inevitably spreading paunch, obsessively mean-spirited self-criticism and the thunderbolt-like occasional phone call from his mum. …And whenever that\u2019s no longer painful enough there\u2019s always the violent physical assaults and punishment-beatings from his inner selves…<\/p>\n

Personal favourites of mine include Les petits riens<\/strong><\/em>, Tiny Tyrant<\/strong>, Ralph Azham<\/strong>, Mr. O<\/strong>, Archives of Lost Issues<\/strong>, Mister I<\/strong>, Infinity 8<\/strong> and A.L.I.E.E.E.N.<\/em><\/strong> but if you fancy other kinds of fare, Trondheim\u2019s probably covered whatever you fancy and done it with wit and aplomb…
\n\"\"
\nSuperbly skilled at switching imperceptibly from broad self-parody to cripplingly honest and \u00a0painful personal revelation; wild surrealism to powerful reportage and from clever humorous observation to howling existentialist inquisition, Trondheim\u2019s cartoon interior catalogue is always a supremely rewarding and enjoyable experience and, as these ancient texts prove, always has been…
\n\u00a9 2001 Lewis Trondheim and Corn\u00e9lius. This edition \u00a9 2011 Fantagraphics Books. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lewis Trondheim, edited & translated by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics Books) ISBN: 978-1-60699-410-8 (TPB) With well over 100 books sporting his name (which isn\u2019t actually Lewis Trondheim but Laurent Chabosy), the writer\/artist\/editor and educator is one of Europe\u2019s most prolific comics creators: illustrating his own work and working with the industry\u2019s top artists; overseeing animated … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Approximate Continuum Comics”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[113,239,63,104,125,217,111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","category-drama","category-european-classics","category-graphic-autobiography","category-humour","category-philosophy","category-satirepolitics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8Mg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33744"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33748,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33744\/revisions\/33748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}