A new year begins and I would like to share with you a recent acquisition that I  received these holidays. I had always wanted to have a book drawn by Emmanuel Prost, but in this case it is drawn by him and the texts are written by Maximilien Le Roy.

I love this book for the text that goes with the drawings of Emmanuel Prost. The issue is controversial, it is not necessary to say so, and especially after the move made by Donald Trump, of transferring the US embassy to Jerusalem. I do not want to discuss this topic, besides, I am still reading the book; I will focus more on visual narration.

For me there are two voices that are sometimes synchronised, but sometimes they diverge in the speech. Draftsman and writer are two people who have made a trip  together, as they say very well in the preface, but sometimes each one discovers an aspect that caught their attention.

The visual part is extraordinary, but the text is no less interesting, sometimes, however, I have the feeling that it goes on a bit too much, giving historical and journalistic data, lengthening explanations in an unnecessary way.

Emmanuel’s drawings are, for the most part, made  with either pencil, ink brush, or pen and coloured either with watercolour or digitally.

The layout is interesting but one can notice that they have had to adjust drawings in the book and it seems that the format that the book would have had initially in mind was not taken into account. From my point of view, it would have helped to see these drawings, very interesting drawings indeed, in a larger size. The book would have gained for it.

The digitally coloured drawings work very well, and give rhythm and help make the whole set richer. The variety of treatment of each drawing makes it visually possible to make a trip through the notebooks, on the journey of Emmanuel.

The details, such as the one we can find under these lines, add truthfulness and life to the story, to the experience of the work done by the two authors. His reaction of rage, plastered over the drawing, gets the opposite, from what he wanted to achieve and gives more emphasis to his attitude of hatred.

Emmanuel’s portraits are sometimes simple, very simplified, with a couple of strokes and little else suits them. He does not need more.

Other portraits, he have to draw them from photographs and maybe they are the least interesting, but they maintain their ability to convey the spirit of the person portrayed.