Born in Paris and spending part of his youth in West Africa, Alagbé went on to become a significant contributor to the French comics scene, but has remained largely unknown in the USA – until now!  In addition to producing his graphically bold and narratively original comics, Alagbé co-founded  – with Olivier Marboeuf – the influential graphics/comics magazine Le Cheval sans Tête ("The Headless Horse"), the publishing house Amok and the publishing group Fréon.  In addition to its titular centerpiece, this collection presents five other original tales, each with its own unique approach. Nice!

This 232 page softcover from the creator of The Yellow Negro and Other Imaginary Creatures is hot off the press and now in stock at Copacetic.

It is entirely composed in a series of two landscape-formatted panels per page – so, four per spread – rendered in lush ink washes in a vast multiplicity of tones from off white to black, showing just how much variety – and complexity – it is possible to produce using the opposition between black and white.  Themes include trauma, change, intergenerational trauma, racism/colonialism, and, centrally, patriarchal attitudes and the sexism so engendered – and then how these all intersect and manifest in sexual relations.  The work is largely visual, with limited dialogue and minimal textual interventions. 

The back cover blurb makes reference to Richard McGuire's Here, due to the narrative being constructed employing temporal shifts and spatial juxtapositions that largely (but not solely) transpire within a single structure.  We would add that some of the aspects/elements of the visual presentation – the landscape panels, the uniform spread, the lush, painterly rendering – also bring to mind the work of Frank Santoro, particularly PIttsburgh and Pompeii.

Also, it could be argued that the work is better served by it's original French title École de la misère (School of Misery), given both its thematic concerns and the strong focus on physical place and space, but it's probably a safe bet to say that books with "love" in the title sell better than those with "school" (at least here in the USA), so...

Regardless, this is a rich, beautifully rendered work that will reward repeated readings