Comics / European Comics

Rendez-vous à Paris

By Hervé St-Louis
December 31, 2007 - 10:17

The third act in the Monster series about the 33 year-old Yugoslav orphans trying to reunite with one another in the year 2026, where Optus Warhole, a demonic and artistic depiction of evil is trying to change the world through art and destruction, while fundamentalist organized religion has taken everything else. Nick is hunting for Leyla through his super nose, while Leyla prepares to leave for Mars and Amir plays a football game in Belgrade. This book is published in French.

The conspiracy with Warhole continues in this episode, and it seems that he is involved in everything at once. It’s difficult to understand who might be a real character and might not. At this point Nick, Leyla and Amir are nothing but puppets following Warhole’s orders. Now, add the multiple clones of characters running about and the game just gets more confusing. As this is the last episode before the last one, Bilal lets readers know that the main characters have no chance of winning their fight against Warhole. For the most part, they are not even aware that they should be fighting him.

There continues to be a lot allegorical references to past events in Yugoslavia’s history and references to animals from another era and of course the trinity. At this point the story is bleak and it’s not sure where Bilal wants to go with it. He is starting to become more like Warhole, which he denounced earlier in this series. The real Andy Warhole, of course.

There are more varied shots in this episode than the last one making the page more dynamic and showing Bilal’s strength with dynamic character designs. Achieving dynamism with a painterly style is often difficult as storytelling works better with clear lines. However, Bilal is able to capture just the right moment and the right expression from his characters to let the reader know what they are feeling.

7/10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12