The Lab

by Hervé Bourhis, Lucas Varela (Artist)

1975. Le fondateur de l'entreprise Bercop, leader du marché de la photocopie, confie son fils Jean-Yves l'avenir de son empire avec la direction du pôle recherche et développement, surnommé "le Labo". Avec son équipe de geeks avant l'heure, le Labo va inventer par accident le monde hyperconnecté de 2020...

Genres: Bande Dessinée, Comics, Graphic Novels

Kindle Edition

First published January 22, 2021

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and quite strange book, that proposes that France could've been first in creating home computers - France was leading the way in a lot of technology in the 70s.

It is told as a family history, and the strong point here is the art, which harkens back to the 70s itself.

It is a book where, when you reach the end, you're kind of at a loss to say what the point of it all was.

3.5 stars

(Picked up a review copy through NetGalley)

[Maricruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 estrellas.

¿Qué habría pasado si el ordenador personal o el móvil hubieran sido inventados en Francia, gracias a la fortuita combinación de la marihuana con el queso de cabra? Este cómic ofrece una hipótesis que en principio parece muy loca, narrada de manera ágil y entretenida, y con un inesperado mensaje feminista. El remate lo ponen unas páginas finales que explican los referentes reales en los que se basa la historia, y donde descubrimos que la fantasía no era tan descabellada, después de todo (bueno, lo del queso de cabra sí). Se lee de manera muy fluida, gracias al guión de Hervé Bourhis y al estupendo trabajo de Lucas Varela con las viñetas y el color.

[Ignacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Curiosa pseudoucronía sobre cómo un flashforward después de fumarse unos porritos inicia una carrera del desarrollo de la informática en la Francia de los 70. Bourhis parte de algunas cuestiones que pudieron ayudar a producirlo para enfatizar el fracaso desde una crítica a la sociedad francesa de la época (y la actual). Esa suma de la burocracia, los cárteles en connivencia con el gobierno, la incompetencia, la esclerosis ante las novedad, el machismo... Un par de veces se puede hacer un tanto cargante cómo cae en un cierto maniqueísmo o el ludismo, pero no se abandona a ellos y termina fluctuando entre lo melancólico y lo tierno con un punto patético. Gran parte de este disfrute está en el trabajo de Lucas Varela. Tengo que leer más cosas suyas.

[Radwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This felt like an incomplete story. It's somehow a tragic family story, told by the daughter of the family after she's grown old and selling her family hime and the computer lab in the garden.

It shows how a French team could've been the first in the world of computers, but because of ridicule and misguided attempts they lost their chance. I think the one character I really liked was the daughter who was ignored, and I was actively rooting for her.

I liked the art style, especially the three spreads when our main character smokes weed and gets some vision of the future of the computers and internet. They were beautiful and creepy.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

So-so narrative of early computer pioneers, and how France came close to coming up with a lot of what we make use of every day, back when people had Zardoz film posters on their walls in unironic fashion. Visually, it's a green-less, Matt Groening kind of world; narratively – well, you have to be in the mood for something that thinks its hilarious, quirky and a telling must-read about our online existence. Yes, it has a character (courtesy the Californian imported weed subplot) have visions of Trump and the bilge of current social media, but hindsight isn't that great a thing.

[Els - Bookspaperink · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

I read this in one sitting and could not put it down. It is an interesting piece of speculative fiction about what if France had been pioneers in computer technology.

The illustrations are gorgeous, I loved the amount of detail in each panel. It was an enjoyable read.

[Petitpois · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta hipotética historia del nacimiento de la informática, y la telefonía móvil, es muy imaginativa y divertida, aunque tiene puntos de anclaje verídicos que mencionan al final. El punto feminista es acertadísimo y empoderante, y su color y dinamismo ideales, pero lo que más me ha hecho reír son esas dobles páginas!!!

[Javier Rubio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es entretenido, pero el protagonista me cae tan sumamente mal que he estado a punto de dejarlo a la mitad. Ojalá lo hubieran centrado todo más en la hermana, que es quien se supone que cuenta la historia pero no tiene prácticamente protagonismo. Mucho denunciar el machismo en el cómic pero la decisión de cómo contar la historia es bastante machista.

[Mariña Loureiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesante obra sobre un innovador laboratorio creativo en la Francia de mediados de los 70, donde se empezaron a desarrollar los primeros ordenadores personales, salpicada de espiritualidad new age y con el germen de la revolución sexual y del feminismo radical como telón de fondo.


«Nuestras vidas carecen de “absoluto“. Todos tenemos el impulso, la necesidad de superarnos.

Cada día debemos llevar el peso de nuestras propias existencias.

Lo que nos convierte en seres pesados, víctimas fatales de la gravedad terrestre.

No hacen falta drogas para tener esta experiencia.

Somos muchos quienes hemos encontrado esta solución. Correr.
No correr detrás de algo…

… Ni correr para escapar de algo…

…y tampoco correr para ganar una medalla de chocolate…

Ya sufrimos la competición en nuestra vida diaria. El deporte suele implicar eso: acabar con el otro, ganar.

Correr en soledad también es una competición.

Pero es una competición íntima, contra nosotros mismos. Y eso ya es un absoluto.

Vosotros también podéis conocer este absoluto, estas sensaciones fuertes.

Vivir esta inestimable subida de adrenalina que el mundo moderno nos prohíbe…

En cuanto a equipamiento, hay una palabra clave: ligereza.

La elección del calzado es determinante. Olvídate de la apariencia.

Una regla simple: no estás participando en un concurso de belleza.

No hay otra norma. Solo hay que correr.

Evacúa el estrés, toma aire, olvídalo todo.

Cuidado, los riesgos de adicción son reales.»

[StrictlySequential · Rating 5 out of 5]

210×283 ¦ A.I. 12/2020 ¦ D.L. 01/2021 ¦ prix DA81 = eo(noté)
→Groovy finish but HighlyStickerUnfriendly+InstantWaterDamage

Narrative: *****
I am very appreciative for all of the learning, about computers and about their sprawling and secretive history that included things that I felt like I needed to know as one who has been around since the advent of the personal computer. Especially Jobs being exposed as the scumbag who he was. I never liked the guy, he just always looked seedy to me and spoke with such annoying god-complexion, so hearing of his out-foxing Xerox was so with his M.O. that I grew to hate and relish feeling correct about it.

Visual: ****
Varela is ace with atmosphere here- able to convincingly tune his scenery for the quick switches between business serious, existential crisis and meditative therapy. It looked to me like he was having fun with the funny and serious character nuances, allowing for such flourishes as caricatured Cyranoses, that capture the wide variance of human types without favoritism between men and women.

There was rampant misogynism/chauvinism built into the script, from abuse to women constantly being shoved away to either disappear or serve, yet he worked well with Bourhis' script to show these heavily husband-sheltered married women teaching each other about the clitoris, at presentation size within the sacred Labo, attended by the nearly-elderly but absolutely sharp executive-shark matriarch!

[Artur Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

E se... a revolução da computação pessoal tivesse ocorrido em França e não nos Estados Unidos? Se um engenheiro de uma empresa de fotocopiadoras se tivesse rodeado de talentosos engenheiros eletrónicos, designers e programadores e, numa garagem nos jardins de uma mansão no interior francês, este grupo tivesse criado o primeiro computador pessoal, com rato, interface gráfico, programas e conectividade, e ainda iniciasse a invenção de dispositivos móveis para comunicações via rádio? Um belíssimo e se, que até mostra porque em França nunca seria possível nascer a cultura digital moderna - não por falta de capacidade técnica, a rede cyclades desenvolvida por investigadores franceses, está na raiz da Internet, mas pela cultura de burocracia e favorecimento do interesse das empresas. Meta-se nisso uma pitada de mulheres que começam a revoltar-se contra a sua posição social numa sociedade machista, junte-se uma ilustração excelente, e temos uma divertida leitura que glosa a históra dos primórdios da nossa era digital.

[Akriti Purbey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lab is a graphic novel that tells the story of French pioneers of the future that never really were. It is an imaginative story about how France could have been a pioneer of the technical revolution. A mix of weed gives Jean-Yves, the son of a french copy machine owner visions of future technology which gives him ideas and thus lead him in setting up a team to revolutionize the technology by creating what he saw in his 'vision'.

This book also talks about the condition of women in the 70s. Jean-Yves's sister is the narrator of the story and it would have been better if we could read more about her

The best part about the book is its illustrations. The colour palette is very pleasing and the artworks are very beautiful and intricate. And the parts where Jean-Yves gets visions were fun.
As a whole, I couldn't understand what the book was about.

[Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally written in French, this was quite a strange graphic novel without much 'world-building' for a non-tech specialist reader. The story takes us through an alternate history where major innovations in computing happened in France instead of the US. The plot wasn't super interesting and I felt that it was trying to be funny but wasn't. Perhaps jokes were lost in translation. I did enjoy the storyline of the sister and the glimpse into her life after the story in Japan as a video game designer - if only the novel had focused on her instead! The final pages give a lot of context to the story - I wish these could have been incorporated into the novel instead.

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun. A loopy, comic-adventure and speculative fiction graphic novel about a pseudo-Xerox type corporation that’s running a back room laboratory/sandbox set on inventing the first personal computer. The quirky team are counter-culture creative types who are also pioneering Silicon Valley-type campuses with a freewheeling unconventionality which ultimately becomes their downfall. Some real-life tech heroes make an appearance which is fun. Also it’s a early-feminist women- in-the-workplace fable straight out of Mad Men. Lots of fun and the art was original and a treat for the eyes. I think I said fun four times-cuz it was! Haha Recommended!

[Pitxi Gil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy entretenida esta novela gráfica.

Es una sátira de como se inicio la informática tal cual la conocemos y tiene guiños a la sociedad actual de las empresas gigantes de sillicon valley pero 20 años antes en Francia. Esta basado en una historia real ficcionada, es muy entretenido lo recomiendo.

[Juan Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pese a la sencillez de la propuesta me ha gustado esta historia alternativa en la que un laboratorio francés inventa el futuro mucho antes gracias a las visiones que le provoca en el director la combinación de queso de cabra y marihuana.

[Julls · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Daniel Mossop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting little bit of history perspective

[Andréa]

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Bill Coffin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cool premise of what might have been had France not dropped the ball on computer development in the 70s, but the execution wasn't really to my liking.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Rafaela Oliveira · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'adore les couleurs ! L'histoire est très bien trouvé aussi ! J'ai bien rigolé avec The Lab.

[Maurine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 ⭐

[patatecuite_ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Illustrations très sympa, palette chromatique incroyable, mais pas assez intéressée par le thème pour être transcendée par cette lecture

[Nick Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Juliana Costa · Rating 2 out of 5]

la dinguerie ce livre. 2.5 ⭐️

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I honestly was kind of concerned I'd hate this, when I was starting it.
I didn't, I have mixed feelings, but I definitely didn't hate it.

There are points in reading this that I did genuinely laugh.
It is also is an interesting piece of "Speculative Historical Fiction?"

But what I honestly want I enjoyed in the end is the fact that narratively. is the repeating cycle of men underestimating and pushing women out, only for them to become more successful for it.

But what I just can't forgive is the choice to call a mouse, a vole. I hate it so much.

[Saoirse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sympathique fiction qui imagine un ingénieur français inventeur de l'ordinateur personnel et du smartphone.
C'est sympa, ça se lit bien et j'ai beaucoup aimé le style 70's. J'ai beaucoup aimé le personnage de la petite soeur, trop souvent oubliée et qui finit par faire son petit bonhomme de chemin.