Mitchum

by Blutch

Tel un musicien virtuose faisant corps avec son instrument, Blutch repousse ici les voies de la narration clique pour se lancer dans une fulgurante improvisation. Se défiant de ses propres facilités, il part à la rencontre d'un geste et d'une inspiration rénovés par la spontanéité, ne conservant de la thématique déjà traitée dans les précédents volumes qu'un canevas narratif sur lequel plaquer ses accords. Ce quatrième opus de MITCHUM marque un stupéfiant tournant stylistique dans l'oeuvre incroyablement variée de cet auteur toujours plus surprenant.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Bande Dessinée, France, Short Stories

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Pseudonym of Christian Hincker. Born 1967.

Reviews

[Williwaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very evocative . . . of what, I'm not quite sure. Nightmares, maybe. Drawings are scratchy and messy, but quite effective and obsessively sexy.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Writer/artist Blutch seems to rely on the "write what you know" maxim, as the short stories in this collection -- mostly done in pantomime -- focus frequently on the erotic charge between artists and their models. If there is anything deeper than horniness going on here I'm too dumb or lazy to suss it out. Blutch also uses a lot of dream logic and dream sequences in these stories (one actually features actor Robert Mitchum), neither of which appeals to me.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mitchum collects five comic books by the French cartoonist Blutch, plus a batch of unfinished pieces, all intended to evoke the noir spirit of Robert Mitchum. Told with dream-like imagery and speed, the stories fall more on the surrealistic side of dreams rather than the joyful or horrific, so the pleasure here (for me, at least) was largely taken from the artistry, the page layouts, the energy in the lines revealing a craftsman behind the dashed and scribbled panels.

[Keith Kavanagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

having no previous knowledge of blutch prior to last night, I absolutely barreled through this book, admiring his textures and brushwork along the way
I always find its sign I really like a comic when it makes me eager to practice the medium it was made with

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly silent comics with bold sketchy line work. Seems to mostly be about drawing nude models. I didn't get much out of this.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 3 out of 5]

The narrative flow of the short stories is as erratic as abstract slam jam-packed with dancehall/arcade action->freestyling<-->among-a-cast-of-fools-and-fanatics! It's very theatrical in an off->off->broadway fashion. Slapstick and butts kicked while besides the backhands of Mitchum, it's the chicks tracking each other as the bad-asses! While entertained, I had to read back too often.

It's my type of "avant-garde" but I don't swing that way with the art. He gets too looose with his sketches when it seems that he's having fun drawing the thing. Get's a bit spirited? It's probably more like the Crecy thing where they're trying to achieve a look or.... it's not my style. I like to know what I'm looking at I have yet to see the hand which can impresse me with that scratch

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of one-offs largely to do with artists and their models. Usually told without words, the stories often left me feeling a range of 'huh' to 'well, alright', but Blutch's gorgeous artwork and brush technique more than make up for his narrative shortcomings.

[Kaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark and surreal look at the objectification of women that veers into noir and the absurd. Because I was reading this slowly and piecemeal it took a minute to figure out what was happening, but it begs a second (or third) read.

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read one previous book by French comics artist Blutch - Peplum, a graphic riff on sword-and-sandal stories - and I spent the whole time disoriented, not really understanding what was going on from one minute to the next. The experience slowly transitioned from frustrating to enjoyable as I learned to just go with it, to stop trying to mine rational progressions from panel to panel and let the constantly shifting imagery and narrative threads dictate their own progression. Just like life?

This collection by Blutch - which he created earlier in his career but which is newer to English-speaking audiences - requires the same sense of surrender, but with even more unsettling results. The subject of the short stories in Mitchum - many compiled from a brief run of a publication of the same title - is America, but that didn't feel quite right while reading it. It seemed to me to be a meditation on the male gaze and the power that comes with it - as well as the power of its own subjects to press back against its expectations. Nearly every story involves some sort of relationship between a male artist and a female model, which seem to stand for similar relationships in culture. It's sometimes hard to know when Blutch is offering a critique or wallowing in his own obsessions, but either way the result it something messy and uncomfortable, rendered in varying styles reflecting that ambivalence.

So yeah - it's hard to say I liked this book, or even fully understood it. But its lush, inky portrayals of sticky situations are hard to shake, and use the comics medium in unexpected and forceful ways.

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blutch's strengths as a disorienting artist who can capture the surreal with vivid formal experimentation is on full display with Mitchum, a collection of short pieces that vary in degrees of completeness. Surrealism often doesn't require concerte endings, so the fact that many of the shorts in Mitchum feel incomplete doesn't really bother me, but it does make for some difficulty in assessing how much effort Blutch put into executing each idea. The stories follow a loose dream-logic that do capture the imagination to an extent, but fall short of actually conveying much substance. Instead, I chose to let myself just absorb Blutch's intensely sketchy art style which continues to impress. If all else, Mitchum is at least interesting enough to try delving in a few more times.

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Endlessly creative. Great renderings. Inspiring, weird and unclassifiable. What are you doing wasting you time reading this? Get Blutch!

[Jake Nap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of surrealist stories by the French cartoonist Blutch. His art style is so unique, I love how he draws.

[Matt]

Challenging.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

The linework is some of the most gorgeous I've ever seen, but the storytelling is often confusing and incoherent.

[Halina Hetman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Експресивний стиль малюнку, що передає... щось. Щось тут замість сюжету, замість теми збірки і замість персонажів. Щось є, а що саме - і не розгледиш. Більшість замальовок без слів і то на краще, бо як тільки вони з'являються стає ще заплутаніше. В цілому, залишив по собі відчуття сирості роботи та здивування що її видали в такому вигляді.

[Jamil · Rating 3 out of 5]

brush stroke genius, in french, but mostly wordless.

"il se méfie du langage, et il a raison : si on explique trop les choses, on les tue en quelque sorte."

"he distrusts language, and he is right: if we explain things too much, you kill them somehow."

[Florin Spătaru · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blutch improvise et va droit au but avec ce roman fascinant.

Son travail en noir et blanc souligne les pièges de la réalité face à la fiction BD ou cinéma.