Baloney

by Pascal Blanchet

Following White Rapids—named Best Comic of 2007 by The Onion—Pascal Blanchet brings us Baloney.
Winds swirl and darkness reigns over a hamlet perched atop a craggy peak. Russian fatalism sets the tone as Blanchet orchestrates the tale of a village butcher, his disabled daughter, and her tutor in their doomed uprising against the swaggering Duke Shostakov, local governor and owner of the only heating company in town.

Curvy, retro lines and atmospheric, full-page panels evoke plaintive melodies, staccato passages, and soaring solos. In a graphic novel about love and despair that is also a homage to the music of the 1930s and ’40s, double bassists and trombonists lean into the frame, striking up a score that blends vaudeville with Kurt Weill and Russia’s great modern composers. Rendered in two-color, red-and-black chiaroscuro, light struggles to emerge from darkness and endurance makes way for heroism, all to no avail. Read Baloney as a reverie composed to the melodies of Prokofiev and Shostakovich: a beautiful conjuring of moods, or a call to arms against the exorbitant rates charged by utilities.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Comix, Bande Dessinée, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Pascal Blanchet est né à Trois-Rivières en 1980. Il possède un intérêt marqué pour le design du 20e siècle, l’architecture et le jazz. Illustrateur autodidacte, il réalise des illustrations pour des journaux et magazines américains et canadiens. Il a notamment travaillé pour Penguin Book, The San Francisco Magazine, The New-Yorker et le National Post.

Reviews

[karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow. truly, wow. this book is so beautiful. and so devastating. it is unsettling and abrupt and gracefully tragic. plus there is some meat.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated story that is presented as the story to an opera.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

If by some horrific event I managed to reproduce this would be something I believe I'd read to my doomed offspring before it lay its ghastly head down for the night. Depressing in the ways that children need to learn that the world really is, and it has nice pictures and art so that the curse from my loins can see something nice and pretty while a soul crushing story lulls the little monster to sleep.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

The art and story almost evoke a play or opera. I love the retro artwork and wish more artists drew in this fashion. A wonderful tale of the connection between power and resources; a warning that reminds us that those who control resources often have very different agendas than the average citizen. Powerful and thought provoking.

[Chris - Quarter Press Editor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous artwork. Really, that's what drew me into this. I don't honestly think the story worked on a basic level, but the art more than made up for the prose's lacking. More for the art buff than the word buff.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 4 out of 5]

A robust and elegant presentation seasoned with extravagant magic and flourished with beautifully pure happiness within tragic bleak Russian isolation and dire suppression that's staged and orchestrated with panache by a Canadian.

The story is too brief in and out of character scenes making the sudden jumps jarring without the weight of the between.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pascal Blanchet's art is unfailingly phenomenal. It's quite a bit darker than his previous book.

[Progya · Rating 5 out of 5]

The art is so stunning I need to read this about 20 more times.

[P Roberge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mais c'est donc bin déprimant

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

An absolute virtuoso performance. The story is a tragic fairy tale about a butcher, his daughter, and a mean landlord, but it's the telling that makes this book a must-read. It's described as an operatic piece in three acts, and Blanchet's art and pacing - the pages are very design-heavy, with lots of basic shapes composing all the images - really creating the mood, the crescendo and hush, of a full orchestral performance. You can practically hear music as you read the book. Wonderful.
+++++++++++++++
It's interesting how revisiting a book ten years later changes your perspective of it. I still think this is a well drawn and well designed book, but now the telling of the story no longer masks the thinness of it. It's pretty but vacant.

[Scott Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't get how visually liberating comics/graphic novels could be until I read Blanchet's White Rapids. Baloney's a more whimsical and tragic story, which helps to crank up the drama in Blanchet's style.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute little story - has a guide of symphonic arrangements meant to be played with the story. I didn't put the music to the story (there's no CD attached or anything), but the description gives a nice dimension to the story.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cool. And with a soundtrack!

[Nicole Williams]

That was sad. Nice music score.

[Barbara McVeigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moody and atmospheric, a dark fairy-tale for grown-ups. With a playlist.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely art.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. I love that it comes with a playlist.

[Tania · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bologne est une bande-dessinée originale, jolie, mais qui ne m'a pas particulièrement accrochée.

[Sonaksha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Breathtakingly beautiful illustrations pull you into each page, forcing you to flip to find out more. Pascal Blanchet’s ability to weave a haunting narrative with typography and illustrations is unreal. Each spread felt like it deserved hours of observation because of the colours, lines and textures. While I could almost hear the orchestration that greeted me at the beginning of each part, the story gave me chills while flipping through, keenly taking in everything that unfolds quickly.

Can’t wait to learn more about Blanchet’s work.

[g026r · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blanchet's art is as stylish as always, and there are hints of a good story in here. On the other hand, the plot feels underdeveloped and rushes from event to event, accompanied by sub-par prose, and without giving time for anything to properly take form, before finally crashing to a halt with an ending that seems needlessly downbeat for no discernable reason other than to be downbeat.

Out of Blanchet's two works currently available in English, I'd say that casual or new readers should definitely stick with the much better White Rapids.

[Writerlibrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

All in blood red and black. The illustrations are still magnificient and are the best part of the novel. The story is average for Blanchet who tried to achieve a balance between tragedy and fantasy and not really hitting it. The stage is set, it's baroque, the villain is bad to the bone, the innocents are vulnerable but the link between the plot point is to thin for the magic to work, for me anyway. I didn't care for Bologne, his daughter or the dreamy professor but I wanted too. Still gorgeous illustrations.

[Michael]

After loving White Rapids so much, I was really looking forward to Blanchet's new book, but it's just not as good. The art is still amazing and I'll probably look the book over several more times before I get all of his details. The story isn't as compelling as White Rapids.

If fantastic art is enough for you, than it doesn't get much better than Pascal Blanchet!

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought I'd try a graphic novel and this one was well-reviewed. Actually, except for its morbidity, it would entertain a 4 year old. The pictures are cute. The language juvenile. The story banal

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, stark and visually stunning.

[S · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art was wonderful, the story horridly depressing.