GoSt 111

"GoSt 111 is one of my sweetheart books. It’s also a Glénat title. It’s a fun, silly, ridiculous crime novel that takes place in the suburbs of Paris. The main character is kind of a loser, and the only way he knows to try to get out of the situation is to play the cops against the interior ministry. It’s really fun because it shows you a piece of Paris, and life in general, that you don’t know. It’s about underground life and how it’s a struggle. This guy is a Serb and no matter what he does, he seems to get involved in thuggery instead of getting on the straight and narrow. He’s got a little girl, and his mother, her grandmother, is helping out. He gets out of jail and tries to avoid it, but once again, he gets drawn in. He always seems to get drawn down the wrong path. It’s fiction, but it could be true, just not being able to get out. It’s a kind of poverty loop. No. There is a crime, but you know what’s going on. He discovers the police are corrupt, so he ends up informing on the police to get himself free. He comes across as an adult, but in the long run, because he’s kind of slow, his demeanor and his manner are what eventually get him out of it. Everyone else is in the fast lane. The cops want the fast cars and the procureur fiscal wants this and that. He just kind of galumphs his way through it. That’s what’s so nice about it being a graphic novel, you visually see all these different characters and all the voices that the authors have given them. It’s very well done. It’s really, really, really well-written as a graphic novel. I lived in Switzerland as a child, and we just always read them. We had the access to all the French comics and it was part of our life. We were all raised on Asterix and Tintin and Gaston Lagaffe, who was my favorite. Then, when I moved to America, I still kept reading them, though the US ones were different. When I moved back to France I went back to French graphic novels and now read them from all over the world. But translating them happened as a quirk. I worked in film animation for a long time, and then in digital content. I came to a point where I needed a change. And I met the head of the media division of Le Monde newspaper, who was also a critic of graphic novels and comics. He said, ‘Ivanka, you need to get involved in graphic novels and comics.’ And I saw an article in the New York Times , a tiny article where Courtney Love said that the only biography she would allow of Kurt Cobain would be in graphic novel format. I thought, ‘Now, it’s going to explode. Now it’s coming to America.’ This was in 2000. So, I decided to jump on board. I was right. At the time, there was a smaller US offering and now it’s huge. Yes, for graphic medicine or graphic social sciences, it can be a great format. Graphic Mundi is a really important publishing company to keep your eye on, it’s Penn State’s graphic novel imprint. There’s also Street Noise Books. They’re really doing interesting stuff. In the UK, you need to keep an eye on Self Made Hero. They’re great and run by the amazing Emma Hayley."