French illustrator Pauline Guitton. Photo en.unifrance.org

Kim Đồng Publishing House has launched a new comic book entitled Sống (Live) recently. The book is compiled by Vietnamese author Trần Hải Anh and French illustrator Pauline Guitton.

The book was first released in France in early 2023 with some 8,000 copies. Early this year, it won the Prix du Jury oecuménique de la BD 2024 (The Prize of the Ecumenical Jury) in France.

This tale of a Vietnamese woman in an untold part of history turns into a portrait of the complex relationship between Hải Anh and her mother and her roots.

Việt Nam News reporter Nguyễn Bình chats with Guitton about her illustrations in the book.

What is the biggest difficulty for you in illustrating the book about Việt Nam? And how did you overcome this difficulty?

I guess I was scared of being unable to faithfully represent the more historical parts of the story.

But I had access to Hải Anh’s grandfather’s documentary, which helped me a lot to visualise the maquis. Hải Anh and her mother Việt Linh helped me also with some documentation, and I did my own research sometimes.

But mainly, I guess what helped me the most was the fact that I had the chance to live nine months in HCM City before, with Hải Anh. I tried to put my feelings and my impression of Việt Nam into my drawings.

What do you think about the story and about the main character in the story?

It was really moving for me to illustrate this story because I’ve known Hải Anh since we were ten years old.

When Hải Anh told me about her idea to make her mom’s stories into a comic, I thought it was a really good idea because in France these kind of stories usually interest a lot of people, and also it was a point of view that was quite new, at least in Europe.

We were really surprised that Hải Anh's mother Việt Linh told us about cooking, having her periods, falling in love… so much more than the war itself. But I guess that is why this story is also original and kind of universal because it can speak to a lot of people all around the world.

How was the book received by French readers when it was released? Could you tell us about the comic book industry in French?

In France, there’s about 8000 comics published each year, so it makes it really difficult to stand out, especially as a new author.

But I guess that for a first book, we were quite lucky, and had some visibility. People we met at comic festivals or signing events were really enthusiastic and gave us nice feedback.

Of course now one year after its release, it has already become harder to find it in bookshops, because there were a lot of new comics that were published, so we are counting on Việt Nam’s readers now.

Sống won the Prix du Jury oecuménique de la BD 2024 (The Prize of the Ecumenical Jury). Could you tell us more about this prize?

We were really happy that Sống won this prize. The prix du jury oecuménique de la BD is granted each year at the Angoulême’s Festival (an international comic festival).

The jury oecuménique de la BD is an association that was created in 1989, and rewards a work published during the year for all of its human and aesthetic values.

In Việt Nam, not many parents want their kids to read comics because they see comics as a low form of entertainment instead of a valuable literacy tool. What do you think?

I know that in France the “relationship” with comics is different, since even our parents were reading comics like Black & Mortimer, Les aventures de Tintin and lot of other comics for adults.

Since a few years, there are also new formats appearing, and new kinds of stories, more cinematic or more historic, known as graphic novels. Sống is classified as a graphic novel by the way, but for us it’s nice to still call it a comic, cause comic is the medium.

We also have a lot of manga readers in France, not only kids, but also people in their 40s, that grew up with Dragon Ball Z, Albator and Saint Seiya.

You spent time living in Việt Nam to make Sống book. What impressed you most during your time in Việt Nam?

I lived in Việt Nam before we had the idea of making Sống. It was in 2015-16. For me everything was new, different and I really liked it.

It really nourished my inspiration as an artist I guess, and I took a lot of pictures which I also used a lot later when I was working on the comic, mostly for the colours and atmosphere.

You earned a Master in Character Animation and Animated Filmmaking. Will you continue to work on comic projects?

Working in the animation film industry is my main activity, but yes I hope I will be able to do more comics in the future.

Speaking of which, we worked on a really short story with Hải Anh that will be released soon in a comic magazine, Metal Hurlant, at the end of this month. — VNS