∎ Libro Maybe Later Charles Berberian Philippe Dupuy 9781896597218 Books

Maybe Later Charles Berberian Philippe Dupuy 9781896597218 Books

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Maybe Later Charles Berberian Philippe Dupuy 9781896597218 Books

I love these guys and this series. This one didn't fail to deliver. The art is always good, the stories written well, and with characters that relate to you like a Seinfeld episode.


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Maybe Later Charles Berberian Philippe Dupuy 9781896597218 Books Reviews

I keep buying books and now I am collecting them. There will be a time when all these books will end up as orphans and no one will care for them. Ah screw that thought. I can't stop now. A man needs a hobby, needs a collection. I can't collect what Bill Gates collects, at least I can collect comics. Correction comics with a flair, and this one is one of those precious few.

The book is actually two in one. The first part by Dupuy and the second part by Berberian, their struggle to get this book out, amidst the struggle of day to day life. Comic book writing is not easy, if you want to earn a reputation to keep writing more. People are very choosy when it comes to this method of expression. Although it may be just a couple of nerds that are driving this industry it is a very competitive niche.

Its really a change from the ordinary themes. A comic book about the making of a comic book. That and a sort of parallel memoir of Philippe Dupuy and Charles Berberian in their own struggle to write this book.

I loved it.
In this "meta-commentary" on the trials of collaborative artistry and comics publishing, the celebrated French duo of Dupuy and Berberian give us a revealing look into their lives as the "lovable losers" behind the popular Monsieur Jean comics series. They conceive of their project as a "journal," documenting their everyday struggles in trying to bring the third M. Jean book to fruition.

There's much to like about this volume, including the rather bizarre flights of fancy that each artist indulges, whether questioning his love life or negotiating his artistic ambitions in the publishing business. Although they alternate writing and drawing various sections of the book, Dupuy and Berberian are clearly attuned to each other's foibles and predelictions, sometimes poking fun at the other in a particular frame or sequence.

By and large, though, I found the writing in this volume to be incoherent and sometimes tedious. It's not that I was looking for a narrative arc -- I realize this book is a kind of "fragmentary pleasure" in comics culture more generally. My concern was that the *tone* of the writing varied wildly from one section to the next, thus diminishing any sense of continuous readerly interest over the course of the book.

I like that Dupuy and Berberian have rather different personalities; but their game of narrative "tag" detracts from the raw emotions they're trying to express on the page. In a sense, I wish they had allowed for non-narrative creativity without foregoing their ingenious chronicling of everyday human feeling.
Maybe Later is a non-fictional, behind-the-scenes look at how Charles Berberian and Phillippe Dupuy create their Monsieur Jean comics. The two have an unusual relationship in that they both write and draw the books together, so it’s interesting to see their differences here as they write and draw separate journals.

Berberian’s comics have a bouncier, more fun feel to them initially. He’s in rural France on a mini-book tour/holiday with his family, and recounts an amusing night when he goes to give a talk on comics and finds only the organiser and a couple waiting for him. The kids he was expecting to see went on a hike elsewhere and Dupuy’s car broke down so it’s just him and three others - and the couple only came for the free crepes!

You can see what Berberian brings to the Jean comics with his flights of fantasy - he depicts himself as an alien when he explains to people his job as a full-time comics artist - and his love of buying books and records mirrors Jean’s own preoccupations.

Dupuy’s contributions are different but equally fascinating. Rather than jump into stories, he shows us how he can’t quite get into the habit of writing these non-fiction comics about himself. He procrastinates, he talks about his jealousy of Berberian for how easily he took to the project, and generally there’s an soulful vulnerability to him in comparison to Berberian.

Dupuy’s comics become more serious as the perspective shifts from Jean/Berberian to the death of his mother and the breakdown of his marriage. The “life in six panels” page for his mother was really beautiful, and Dupuy’s heartache over he and his wife’s growing distance, especially with their kid caught in the middle, is depicted with looser lines, to the point where he’s made up of wisps of ink on the page.

I don’t want to make Dupuy out to be a drag though - some of the funniest panels are in his comics. When Dupuy’s writing the script for the new book, Jean appears in the seat next to him and the two have a matter-of-fact talk about where the series is going. Dupuy’s steepling of his hands as he raises his nose and says to Jean “Charles insisted...” is unexpectedly hilarious, as is the reappearance of the medieval knights from Get a Life, this time talking directly to Dupuy.

And that’s the other surprising aspect to Maybe Later - their art styles. They’re both distinctly different but it’s easy to see the art of Jean in both of them. When you’re reading either artist’s comics, you think this style is predominantly Jean’s, but really somehow there’s this wonderful alchemy between the two where they come together to create the unique visual look of the Jean comics. This book’s art is sketchier than the Jean comics but are in no way poor quality. In fact, the lack of colour shows the skill in their line-work, even if it’s more free-flowing.

The ready audience for this book would be fans of the Monsieur Jean comics but the quality of the work and the unexpected directions it goes in, supersedes just those readers. It still retains the wit and intelligence of that work but really anyone interested in great comics, whether or not they’ve read Jean, would enjoy this as it’s the story of two artists’ lives - their highs, their lows, a look into their psyches, and a fascinating glimpse into the creative process.

As difficult as it is to create the comics they want and make a living from it, there’s a pureness to their love of their art that’s felt in their work and you can see that in every page of this book, and their other books, which is what makes them so good. Both Maybe Later and their other Drawn & Quarterly book, Get a Life, are highly recommended for readers looking for quality comics.
I love these guys and this series. This one didn't fail to deliver. The art is always good, the stories written well, and with characters that relate to you like a Seinfeld episode.