julian peters comics

Jean Berger Project Q & A

Posted on February 17, 2012 by julian peters comics

As if adapting classic poems were too commercial, I am now working on a comic based on the lyrics of a a song written by an obscure turn-of-the-eighteenth-century Montreal painter, Jean Berger. The comic will appear in a show of art inspired by this rather scoundrelous character that will be held at Concordia University’s FOFA Gallery between April 30 and May 25. Here is a link to the exhibition website, with a little interview with yours truly: http://jeanbergerproject.tumblr.com/

Posted in bande dessinée, Jean Berger, montreal, new france, nouvelle france, Poetry Comics | Tagged bande dessinée, Jean Berger | Leave a comment

Le bateau ivre par Arthur Rimbaud

Posted on September 4, 2011 by julian peters comics

Mon adaptation du poème “Le bateau ivre” par Arthur Rimbaud (1871) en bandes-dessinées. Une traduction anglaise de cette BD apparaîtra prochainement dans l’anthologie “The Graphic Canon” éditée par Russ Kick et publiée par Seven Stories Press: http://www.sevenstories.com/book/?GCOI=58322100888750

(Note that in the English version, the haulers swinging from painted stakes on the first page are fully clothed, while in the French version they have now been completely undressed. Although I tried to keep both the original French text and the translated English version I was using in mind at all times while creating the accompanying drawings, I overlooked the fact that, unlike in the English translation, the haulers are specified by Rimbaud to be “cloués nus”, thus adding an element of sexual humiliation to the deaths of these metaphors for societal restraints at the hands of irrational freedom, represented by the “peaux-rouges”.)

Posted in Arthur Rimbaud, bande dessinée, illustration, Poetry Comics | Tagged Arthur Rimbaud, bande dessinée, comic, Le bateau ivre, le canon graphique | 3 Comments

The Drunken Boat by Arthur Rimbaud

Posted on August 3, 2011 by julian peters comics

This gallery contains 8 photos.

Here is my adaptation of an English translation of Rimbaud’s “Le bateau ivre” (1871). This work was commissioned for the “The Graphic Canon”, the upcoming anthology of visual adaptations of classic works of literature edited by Russ Kick and published by Seven Stories Press: http://www.sevenstories.com/book/?GCOI=58322100888750

More Galleries | Tagged Arthur Rimbaud, bande-dessinée, comic, The Drunken Boat, The Graphic Canon | 4 Comments

Les aventures de Rimbaud

Posted on June 20, 2011 by julian peters comics

My first serious project in comics was a comic book biography of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, of which I completed 8 pages in late 2003/early 2004. I was attracted to Rimbaud as a subject in part out of a great passion for his work, which first sparked my love of poetry, and in part because I found it easy to imagine the teenage genius as a kind of perverse Tintin, with Verlaine in the role of his pederastic, absinthe-addled Captain Haddock. In the end, the ambitiousness of the project far outweighed my abilities at the time, a problem compounded by my disastrous decision to attempt to tell the story in French (I did eventually get some help on the script from various native French speakers, but the dialogue remains clunky). I think looking back at the comic now, what I appreciate most about it is a quality of youthful sweetness, which suggests a parallel between its protagonist’s naive idealism and that of its 24-year-old author.

(See “Les aventures de Rimbaud” page above to read the comic, as well as “Rimbaud character sketches”.)