Louis au ski / Louis à la plage

European Comics
Louis au ski / Louis à la plage
By Patrick Bérubé
January 4, 2009 - 12:00

Delcourt
Writer(s): Guy Delisle
Penciller(s): Guy Delisle
Inker(s): Guy Delisle
Colourist(s): Etienne Simon
ISBN: 978-2-84789-970-2 / 978-2-7560-1458-6
$15.95 CAD each

I like Guy Delisle work's and that's no secrets so seeing both of these volumes on sale recently made my day when I bought them. Do they hold their own against Delisle previous comic book ( Shenzhen, Pyong Yang, Albert and the Others, etc.)? Let's find out.

First, I decided to do a double review mainly because both comic are similar in many ways and both feature Guy's son Louis. If you have been reading The Burma Chronicle, Louis au ski was the ''album'' Mr. Delisle was working on while being in Burma.

Both the stories are of these comic books are simple but extremely fun. They focus on Louis (who is approximately three years old) spending the day at the ski station and then at the beach with his dad. Once there he is more or less left to mend for himself and misadventures soon follow. And what does the beloved kid does when a disaster is bound to happen? He merely hide his eyes and his stuffed pig comes to the rescue! And that's where the fun of this comic book lies. The catastrophe is always averted while Louis is not looking but it's very cute to see how he imagines the event getting resolved.

As for the art, if you are familiar with Guy Delisle's work you will easily recognize his cartoony style here. The events are clearly depicted and there is a fluidity that makes the story quite easy to understand even if the comic book is wordless. The layout is all the same and is 24 (4 by 6) panels per pages. Delisle used the same thing in Albert and the others. That might not please everyone but for my part I liked it and it makes is work a lot closer to animation than a traditional comic book. As an added bonus, the right and left corners of every page contain a small drawing and can be used as a flip book.

So are these volumes good. I will say yes even if I don't think they will be considered classics in the year to come. They are definitely lighter and more naive than his previous work and I have to admit that this is a bit refreshing If you are like me a fan of Delisle but do not have the chance to speak French this is a nice chance to get more of his works without waiting for a translation.

I rate them both 8 out of 10