Graphic Novel Review... France's Claire Bretecher
Frustration, By Claire Bretecher, Methuen
CLAIRE BRETECHER captures the futile ridiculous moments of our life then flaunts them in our faces until we’re forced to raise a smile, and even more – as all great humour does – to make us think a little.
From assisting the great Rene Goscinny, to co-founding the still influential L’Écho des Savanes comics magazine, she has created comic strips and cartoons aplenty, with her Agrippine character being developed into its own popular TV series in her native France.
This review copy of Frustration is an old 1982 collection from Methuen, Bretcher had already printed two editions in English herself by then, and its subsequently seen print in the UK. It is at once vicious, silly, daring and highly observational in its intellectual dumbing-down of our presumptive affectations and self preoccupations.
It appears no stone is left unturned, from self-loathing by the female gender of their own bodies to males never really growing up, and all the conflicting relationships they share with each other, their friends and extended families.
From one to several pages long, nearly every single story has something to offer, works on more than one level, and can leave you with food for thought.
Below we see Claire Bretecher featured back in the 1970s on the French TV show Tac au Tac from a clip seen on Youtube:
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