TE20 Migrant Mosaics

Peplum

completely foreign to our own. These are human beings, and at the same time there’s nothing human about them.

This reading reflects his desire, from Peplum onward, to do away with psychology: “I can’t stand that kind of romanticism, that idea of literature.” Events are presented, but motivations remain obscure. As he journeys from savagery at the far edges of empire to disappointment at the heart of Rome, Peplum ’s impostor protagonist somehow retains a certain innocence, at the mercy of the ferocityandvicearound him, and Blutchwithholds judgment. This potentially alienating aspect of Blutch’s storytelling is at odds with the oft-remarked immediacy of his art. Blutch conveys the hero’s experience of his ordeals more through posture than dialogue. In calmand combat, rest and movement, his characters have a gracefulness to them, as of poses in dance, organic and vulnerable—expressionist outlines lent volume by fine, dense, even furious hatching, emerging from broad swaths of darkness or, in one violent instance, spouting inkblots of blood. However detailed these figures, their faces remain simpler, cartoons with dotted pupils; often only the speaker’s features are clear, lending focus to a scene. If now and again he cribs profiles from classical repertory—as in the pirates with their round shields and plumed helmets—it is less for historical context than evocative impact. From panel to panel, the level of stylization can shift sharply, subject to the intensity of emotion. Blutch is an artist for whom drawing is not only thinking but feeling, forever in search of moments; a drawing is an attempt to capture and share the impulse of wonder that prompted it. “When you’re little and you love something, you want to draw it,” he reminds us.

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