Social Fiction: Wonder City / Shelter / 1996

by Chantal Montellier

Appearing together in English for the first time, three politically charged sci-fi graphic novellas by a pioneering French comics artist.

An anonymous official chides a man under surveillance for stepping out of view of a security camera; visitors to an underground mall are forced to form a new society when a nuclear strike may (or may not) have left them as the sole survivors on Earth; newlyweds living in an authoritarian New York City attempt to navigate the insidious hurdles of being permitted to have a child; and a Puerto Rican boxer discovers that segregation continues in America long after death.
 
These are the visions of Chantal Montellier, a contributor to the legendary Métal Hurlant , and the creator of some of the most striking and stirring science fiction comics of the 1970s and 1980s.
 
In this collection of three novellas, Wonder City , Shelter , and 1996 , published together in English for the first time, Montellier’s blend of dark humor, gripping storytelling, and consistent focus on the perils of totalitarianism, shows her to be a master of both comics and science fiction.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, France, Graphic Novels Comics, Comix, Fiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2003

About the author

see http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantal_...

Reviews

[Bill Hsu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure "Wonder City" was pretty amazing when it came out in the 70s (?), but some of it doesn't date well. The art is elegant and lovingly detailed, if a bit busy for my taste. Some of the messaging is a bit heavy-handed. And in a highly surveilled society, the protagonists go to a video payphone (!) on a busy street to discuss illegal actions, with no consequences? Umm.

"Shelter" continues Montellier's treatment of dystopian themes. I thought the ambiguous ending rather compromised the earlier narrative though.

The art changed a bit in "1996": more texturing and shading, for a softer look at times. I didn't get much from the many shorter pieces, but really liked the longest piece, "So Fast in their Shiny Metal Cars" (apparently a reference to a Rolling Stones lyric). The setup is long and adds little to the subsequent events, but once we get to the wrecked car sales warehouse, the horrific racist reality is quickly and brilliantly established.

[Méli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid dystopian stories

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

“No road blocks and no speed limit!”

In the opening story we find ourselves entangled somewhere deep in a troubled world somewhere between a Guy Debord threat and a Cinema du look nightmare. Professor Nimbus would certainly be recognised in many of our brands, politicians and other businessmen today

“Shelter” throws up a darkly deliciously scenario falling somewhere between Plato’s cave and the end of the world?...with a really clever ending. Elsewhere we get a real flavour of violence, control, paranoia and all round creepiness as we see themes of misogyny, totalitarianism and racism – a bit like modern day America but without the internet and celebrities.

I enjoyed the way she cleverly merged elements of horror, Sci-Fi and politics to create quite a powerful punch in her stories and perhaps the scariest thing about these tales of future dystopias is their proximity to the truth of so much of society today. The mass surveillance, bureaucracy, propaganda, lies and abuses of power structures and oppressive systems read like the headlines I come across in the various media outlets most mornings. Here’s hoping that more of Montellier’s previous work gets translated into English sooner rather than later.

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t remember these stories or the artist from Heavy Metal magazine, which I read as a kid. I was probably too goggly-eyed by Corben’s airbrushed nudies. I should have paid more attention. Montellier’s prophetic stories and beautiful drawings have stood the test of time better than others.

[Bob Fish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dystopian futures still relevant, beautiful piece of work by the legendary Chantal Montellier, finally decently published in English by New York Review Comics & Geoffrey Brock.

I show some of it here :
https://youtu.be/qHYXjMQy_6Q

[Igor Guimarães · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absoluta. Dona de uma clarividência muito particular , tão pesado e refinado como seu traço .
3 contos primorosos de como seremos

[Joey Hines · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are translated French comics from the 70s & 80s that tell dystopian sci fi stories. I really enjoyed the mostly black & white artwork & feminist themes. Highlights were the story "Shelter", about a group of people who turn a shopping mall into a fallout shelter and try to keep civilization going within its bounds, & a vignette about a car dealership that doubles as an embalming service.

[Lisa]

I wish I could have appreciated/enjoyed this, but it was not for me.

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.
1970s Dystopias that remain alarmingly relevant. Somewhat didactic storytelling, but remarkable artwork and world-building.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Montellier has an amazing Gen-X punk illustration style. But the dialogue in these stories is kind of stilted. The comics are too short to do justice to her terrific plots. More flushed out, the stories would pack a bigger punch. The politics are obvious enough in the comics, but I enjoyed Montellier’s in-your-face political declarations in her post-text interview just as much.

[Jenna M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Social Fiction isn't one story but a collection of 3 graphic novellas. It includes an intro essay and an interview in the back matter that add a LOT to it and give you much more context.

Wonder City

The main story in this one this one is a little played out - women not being allowed to have children of their own accord, every baby coming through artificial insemination and being externally gestated in a lab, big eugenics plot. But I think it was probably novel back when the story was originally published.

Still, there's a lot in this that's remarkably prescient, or at least timeless. The AI doctor everyone implicitly trusts, the secret forced sterilization of women of color, the police state. And though the story is heavy-handed, it avoids coming off as too obvious by giving an alluring dreamlike quality to it all - talking cats, walking nude through a crowded laboratory/lecture hall without being noticed, fetuses that complain and jump out of their gestation tanks because they're fed up.

Montellier's artwork it isn't hyper-stylized - it's clean and grounded with thick lines and a lot of attention to detail - but it's bold from the first page. The story opens with a man and a woman on a poster that's reminiscent of a romance novel while a police officer beats an unseen dissenter in the foreground. The characters are expressive and kinetic. The pages set in the gestation lab are particularly striking. One page that really stood out to me has Angie walking through a cave to get to the laboratory (already part of that dreamlike quality) that's meticulously textured and very obviously yonic, quite literally journeying to a mass womb.

The use of color is also striking, with splashes of pink that stand at odds with the dark story and focus on sterility. Geoffrey Brock and Montellier note in the ending interview that the original story didn't have it, but I thought it was an inspired choice.

Shelter

Very much like an incredibly dark, unrestrained episode of The Twilight Zone. It isn't subtle, but that's not always a bad thing - sometimes it's better to focus on the emotion rather than trying to be clever about the message.

One thing I found interesting was how the government's subtle, insidious version of "book burning" - checking any books that could inspire resistance out of the library and never returning them - harkens to Heavy Metal's treatment of Montellier's work, which subtly silenced her by translating her work into bizarre, unreadable phonetics that had nothing to do with how it was written in the original French. It wasn't an intentional parallel, as Montellier didn't actually know her work was being translated that way until around the time of this book's publication, but it adds an entire additional layer to the social commentary.

The art doesn't experiment quite as much as it does in Wonder City and it's all black and white without the splashes of color, but it's just as effective. In particular, there's a disturbing dream sequence with artwork makes the hairs on your neck stand up.

1996

I think this was my favorite of the three. It's not one linear narrative like the other two, but a series of vignettes. For the most part, it isn't quite as obvious as the other two and it's much less shy about leaning into absurdism. All of the stories have some element of dark humor, but this one in particular is less straight-ahead sci-fi and more of a black comedy with horror elements. The humor only adds to its bite rather than obscuring it.

The vignette that solidified this one as the highlight was the one about the car dealership. It started darkly funny - the introduction of the premise actually made me laugh out loud - but the silliness of the premise twists into horror and biting social commentary. The contrast between the embalmed corpses on the "top" levels with the stuffed corpses below is done extraordinarily well. Montellier's grounded realism contrasts incredibly effectively with the grotesque horror elements.

Overall Impressions

All in all, this is an excellent collection. Highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in socially conscious sci-fi that doesn't pull any punches. It's held up so well that you'd never guess it was from the late '70s/early '80s.

I desperately hope this leads to more Chantal Montellier works getting translated. Fantastic work, and her comment during the interview at the end about how her work had transformed over time has me especially curious.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

My exposure to Chantal Montellier comes from the serialization of "1996" in the first couple years of Heavy Metal. Wedged amidst the loud and psychedelic comics of Corben, Moebius and Druillet, were these cold, almost sterile, short comics about dystopian societies and totalitarianism. The stories often didn't make too much sense (usually a translation issue), but Montellier's distinctly subdued style was always an interesting contrast to behold. The magazine only began to serialize another of Montellier's graphic novellas, "Shelter", but was never fully completed. Now thanks to New York Review Comics, Montellier's dystopian novellas "Shelter", "Wonder City" and "1996" are presented in an all-in-one volume for English readers.

"Wonder City" is about a government that tightly enacts birth control upon the population, requiring individuals to apply for the right to pregnancies. But secretly, the government enacts sterilization on the "undesirable" segments of the population, i.e. non-white people. The visual storytelling in "Wonder City" is remarkable. While the main narrative is usually in the foreground, the fringes of the panels include immense details depicting the autocratic regime's grip on the people. Minorities are shown suffering at the hands of law enforcement while propaganda signs praise the sanctity of the nuclear family. The story is harrowing at times, but there is a sense of optimism to be found in the punk attitudes of the protagonists and the small spark of rebellious interjection in the face of total fascism.

"Shelter" threads a line between rampant consumerism with fascism by setting the story in a cold, lifeless mall. The story is rampant with sexual violence towards women, but Montellier adeptly uses this as a way to further depict how patriarchal societies control a segmenet of the population using rape. It's uncomfortable to read at times, but it is still very much the reality in current society.

"1996" collects various episodes about societies living under authoritarian regimes. The various stories usually have an ironic element to them, either poking at the inconsistent rhetoric found in fascist dogma or at the complacency of the individuals who abide by the rigid rules. Not all of these are all that great, but these are still worth parsing through to get insight into Montellier's thought process.

Overall, I was very impressed with this collection and surprised by the level of prescience throughout. Of course there are dated elements and a degree of naivety to the various stories here, but Montellier is more often hitting the nail on the head than not. Montellier's approach is also not prescriptive - she is pretty uninterested in detailing a strategy to resist fascism, but rather presents a somewhat cynical understanding of where society is inevitably headed. Perhaps this jaded approach will wear thin on a lot of readers, but sometimes a degree of bluntness can be more useful.

[The_Mad_Swede · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is yet another book I have picked up in the library at the spur of the moment, as I was not at all familiar with French cartoonist Chantal Montellier before this. Reading translator Geoffrey Brock's very informative introduction, of course, provides a good reason for this, as not particularly much of her ouevre appears to have been translated into English, and that which had prior to this volume had obviously been very weirdly treated (e.g. regular French translated in some sort of English phonetic, dialect writing). And even in France, it appears that the (male) comics establishment has often downplayed her role and her work, as a female creator in a male dominated field.

At any rate, as far as I understand it, Montellier was the first female comics creator to be published in the famous French anthology magazine, Métal Hurlant (later published in English as Heavy Metal), back in the 1970s, and the three albums collected in this volume – Wonder City (1982), Shelter (1980) and 1996 (1978) – are all fascinating dystopian narratives (even if in particular Wonder City appears a bit dated in places; albeit not in a disturbing way). I am unsure as to why the albums have been placed in reversed chronological order here, but assume it might have been to avoid opening with the more fragmented 1996, which consists mostly of short single page or three page stories, with the exception of one longer piece (about 40 pages).

My favourite of the three albums is Shelter, in which the premise is that 823 people get locked into a huge underground shelter in a shopping mall when an ongoing war presumably leads to a nuclear strike. With her deft hand, Montellier showcases the rise of new social structures within the confined space, meant to be utopian, but also how easily these can be transformed into something much more sinister (which seems very topical in this day and age).

All in all, I am very glad that I stumbled upon this volume and would not mind finding more translations of Montellier's works in the future.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

These graphic stories were written starting in the late 1970s. It was interesting to read, at the beginning and end of the book, about the history around the comics and the author. Comics were very much a man's world at that time, in France, where Chantal Montellier is from, and in the US (I've read about Trina Robbins recently, and her experiences were similar). It was hard for women to get anything published, and Montellier was largely overlooked despite her obvious talent. So this translation was long overdue.

The stories are dark, mainly about a repressive dystopia where dissent and individuality are severely punished. They seemed hopeless, and very European in some manner. Maybe it could be called existential angst? In any case, they did not appeal to me. Reading this book is not meant to be fun, and it wasn't. Maybe it could be valuable in alerting people to dangers of government (or, if the stories were updated, surveillance capitalism). This is an excellent book, just not to my taste.

[Printable Tire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading just for the pop-art style, which is so clean yet detailed, so European/Judge Dredd future while also reminiscent of Chester Gould, maybe even Nancy or Bazooka Joe with all the sparse symbolism and bald heads. Many many panels deserve to get the Roy Lichtenstein treatment and be framed by themselves. I would have loved to see a cozy 80's romance done in this style, but for better or worse that is not Montellier's forte.

The stories are all comic-book readable, with depressingly perennial concerns (surveillance police state, institutionalized racism, distraction/suppression, control over women's bodies). They were all just long and wordy enough. I especially liked "Shelter" and "So Fast In Their Shiny Metal Cars" (which is like a good b-side to Ballard's Crash and includes the illusive lyrics to a song, "Screaming people fly so fast in their shiny metal cars / Through the woods of steel and glass..."). Both would make terrific, be it depressing, low-budget science fiction movie spectacles...

[Steve Curran]

A selection of dystopian comics first published in the French magazine Heavy Metal in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In the first, Wonder City, a geneticist and a musician meet, fall in love, and uncover a secret governmental program which uses public birth control booths to effect eugenics by stealth.

In Shelter, a couple are automatically sealed inside a shopping mall with 821 others after reports of a nuclear detonation nearby. As the days and months of their enforced confinement go by, their small, new society becomes a dictatorship.

The last section contains a variety of shorter tales, under the heading 1996. The longest of these is the strangest of the collection, featuring a society so enamoured by cars that the victims of accidents are embalmed and put on display inside the wreck. Ultimately, it's a allegory about racism: non-white corpses are considered less valuable and are stuffed rather than embalmed.

[Adriano Tiegs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Social Fiction é uma obra marcante, e que permanece relevante e atual, mesmo após décadas de sua publicação original. O volume compila três histórias, publicadas originalmente na revista Métal Hurlant: Wonder City (publicada entre 1982 e 1983), Shelter (publicada entre 1978 e 1979) e 1996 (publicada entre 1976 e 1978). Em comum nessas diferentes tramas, encontramos elementos de ficção científica, distopia, e crítica social.

A leitura dessa obra é essencial para qualquer um que aprecie quadrinhos que transcendem o entretenimento, gerando reflexões acerca da nossa realidade.

Chantal Montellier é uma autora com forte engajamento político, e que enxerga em sua arte um modo de expressar seus ideais. Com uma carreira consolidada na França há mais de meio século, infelizmente a autora ainda é pouco conhecida no Brasil. Felizmente temos editoras como a Comix Zone!, e que estão trazendo ao país grandes obras de autores até então pouco publicados por aqui.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Celui-ci c'était un livre que j'avais découvert dans une boutique à Paris et malheureusement pas acheté. Les temps sont passés et récemment je l'ai vu à la médiathèque et je l'ai pris direct ! C'était comme une deuxième chance.
J'ai vraiment adoré Shelter et Wonder city et sa couleur, et une des histoires de 1996 c'était carrément rageant et flippant. Le choix de l'ordre de la présentation des histoires, j'aurai pas fait mieux !
C'était ma première découverte de l'autrice, et j'espère lire d'autres de ces bd bientôt ! Je sais aussi qu'elle a co-fondé le prix Artémisia et cela m'intéresse d'avantage les choix qui sont ou ont été faits, c'est quelque chose dont je compte rechercher davantage pour mes lectures à venir.

[Tom Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Futuristic comics written in the 70s, portraying a circa 1990s dystopia, French style. The illustrations are stiff, creating an eerie style that feels deliberate rather than unskilled, which serves the stories well. Something's off, giving a low-level, anxious, oppressed feeling. Mid-70s pinball machines with their angular art style appear more than a few times in scenes (Williams' Star Pool from 1974, for instance). I wouldn't be surprised if Montellier was influenced by pinball backglass artist Christian Marche and his distinctive, off-putting-to-some, angular style.
 
Her visions for a 1990s dystopia didn't come true. But change things to 2025 and she's not far off. I can't say it's a fun read. But it's impactful.

[Emanuela Siqueira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Virei uma grande fã da Chantal Montellier não só porque pude mediar uma conversa com ela mas porque ela insiste em desenhar e escrever de dentro do seu tempo (nada disso de estar 'a frente', isso nem existe) re-visando suas influências e, também, na luta desenhando histórias que envolvem classe, raça e gênero em situações distópicas que não deixam à desejar para nenhum "clássico" da década de 1970. Edição bonita da Comix Zone, com tradução de Fernando Paz e uma introdução excelente da pesquisadora Natania Nogueira.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although originally written in the 1970s, these dystopian comics still alarmingly ring true today. They remind me of Orwell's 1984 as well as portraying the consequences of not taking care of our environment and, more importantly, our humanity -- which I believe to be inherently good at the core. The pieces are both disturbing and powerful and deserve to be read widely. I highly recommend this collection.

[Allison Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremamente inventivo e macabro, todas as três historias contidas aqui apresentam sombrios futuros da humanidade, usando de situações que beiram o absurdo, mas, que ao mesmo tempo são muito criveis, principalmente para os dias atuais, é assustador o fato dessas historias terem sido escritas nos anos 70 e 80, com problemáticas daquela época e que nós, enquanto sociedade, ainda não resolvemos, chegando ao ponto de potencializar alguns deles.

[Susannah Breslin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Chantal Montellier’s Social Fiction. It’s a feminist 1984, a dark vision of the search for love in the midst of a dystopia, a collection of comics in which being human is a crime and death lurks around every corner. Despite the bleak subject matter, Montellier’s dynamic art rockets through time and captures the beauty of what perseverance looks like when independent thought and freedom have been criminalized.

[Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Montellier attacks from a leftist position within a sci-fi genre space— and yet most of her critical concerns are morally sound (which separates her from the usual partisan leftist you’re likely to engage with today). She only really loses some bite when she does an imaginary stretch in an imagined New York City (to attack systematic racism)—she seems absurdly clueless about real American life.

[Chr*s Browning]

Text feels rather stilted - hard to tell if that’s an intentional feature of the original work or a byproduct of the translation. As for content, fairly standard dystopian stuff with clear 70s French feminism impulses. Interesting in some of its set-ups, but not really essential.

[Vanessa Leite · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5/5

distopia política do jeitinho que eu gosto: com muita crítica e parecendo um episódio de black mirror
só não foi perfeito porque não amei a 3a história, mas, ainda assim, ela me trouxe reflexões interessantes.
espero poder ler mais da chantal ainda!

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chantal Montellier’s work is a gut punch of prescience. Totalitarianism, sexism, racism…. She was ahead of her time with the works in this book.

TW: Sexual assault. (It’s worth noting French comics of the era often handle such material, but few handle it as well as Montellier does.)

[Danilo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[joaovilnei · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shelter ê incrível!!!! 1996 deixou-me animado para ler mais coisas dela. Wonder city... É besta demais. 😊✌️

[Terry Mulcahy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth reading.