There is a giant, bulging slob of a penguin in the refrigerator on the front cover of this book. A giant bulging penguin who has apparently eaten everything in the refrigerator. A bear and a bunny confront the penguin. They are deadpan, silent - are they coming face to face with the consequences of a previous bad decision? Is the penguin a nightmarish symbol of some kind, a living, breathing reminder of our greedy id?
I don't know. I haven't read the book yet. I was just so struck by the cover that I had to sit and gaze at it for a little while. These colors are wonderfully sophisticated - the walls and floor are three different shades of khaki tan, the bear and bunny are two edible browns, and the interior of the fridge is light blue with a lot of gray in it. This is a cotton pencil skirt, a man-tailored ice blue silk shirt, and a very nice leather belt, perhaps from Façonnable. Ok, on my budget, maybe J. Crew.
The shapes, too, have fashion and elegance to them. The curve of the bear's upper back and the way it dips at the small, with the arms sort of hyperextended forward - that's pure model posture. The refrigerator bows outward in every direction, inflated gently like a taffetta skirt.
I should probably open this book, huh? What if, after all this time spent falling in love with every line and shade of the cover, it's stupid?
Mmmm. A joke a page, in three to six panels. Some of the jokes are funny, some are merely droll, and some are just simple, lovely, unexpected exemplars of cooperation and friendship. There's an apple hanging from a tree, but it's just too high for bear to reach. "Sometimes you need someone bigger than you," admits the bear. "Or smaller," replies the rabbit, who, hoisted up by the bear, retrieves the apple with ease.
There is some great slightly naughty behavior (snowball fights, eating in the grocery store) interspersed between the more contemplative strips. Kids will keep turning pages to find out what bear's going to get up to next. And we never do find out what that penguin's doing in the refrigerator.
The vast majority of Phillippe Coudray's stuff - and there's a lot of it, including a book on cryptids that I'd love to see - has not been translated into English. Go play on his website and enjoy the clean lines and parfait application of colour that we have come to expect from French and Low Country graphic artists.
Comments