Josephine Baker
Words by José-Louis Bocquet
Art by Catel Muller
Translated by Mercedes Claire Gilliom
Paperback with flaps, 568 pp, $22.95
Paris, 1925. Over the course of a single evening, the Mississippi-born dancer Josephine Baker becomes the darling of the Roaring Twenties. Some audience members in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées are scandalised by the African-American's performance in La Revue Nègre, but the city's discerning cultural figures – among them Picasso and Cocteau – are enchanted by her bold and uninhibited style.
In Josephine Baker, José-Luis Bocquet and Catel Muller capture the remarkable life and glorious times of a spirited, principled and thoroughly modern woman – a star who dazzled audiences in the twenties, who aided the French Resistance during World War II and who in later years adopted 12 children from different ethnic backgrounds to prove that racial harmony was possible.
In Josephine Baker, José-Luis Bocquet and Catel Muller capture the remarkable life and glorious times of a spirited, principled and thoroughly modern woman – a star who dazzled audiences in the twenties, who aided the French Resistance during World War II and who in later years adopted 12 children from different ethnic backgrounds to prove that racial harmony was possible.
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Catel Muller
Catel Muller is an award-winning comics artist and illustrator. With Christian De Metter, she co-authored Le Sang des Valentines, which won the People's Choice First Prize at Angoulême in 2005. She is also the creator of Lucie (with Véronique Grisseaux) and the illustrator of Marion, a children's comic written by Fanny Joly. Heroines, both great and small, are a constant feature of her books, whose subjects have included the singer Édith Piaf, actors Mireille Balin and Mylène Demongeot and the writer Benoîte Groult. With José-Louis Bocquet, she created the acclaimed graphic biographies Kiki de Montparnasse, Olympe de Gouges and Josephine Baker.
José-Louis Bocquet
José-Louis Bocquet is a novelist and comic book writer. His comics career, which began in the pages of Métal Hurlant, has seen him collaborate with artists Serge Clerc, Arno, Max, Philippe Berthet, Francis Vallès, Andréas Geffe, Stanislas and Steve Cuzor. He is also the author of monographs devoted to Henri-Georges Clouzot, Georges Lautner, André Franquin and René Goscinny. Since 2008, José-Louis Bocquet has been running the Aire Libre imprint for French publishing house Dupuis.
Reviews
"An impressively comprehensive book… a portrait of the century and a story that's important for today."
— Comics Beat
"You can't fault the wealth of biographical detail. The whole thing rushes along at speed and Catel's art is all bounce and sinew."
— The Herald