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Philémon #4
The Suspended Castle
Le jeune Philémon vit à la campagne et passe son temps à rêver en compagnie de son âne Anatole. Au cours d'une promenade, il rencontre Barthélémy le puisatier qui est à la recherche de son paradis perdu : la lettre A du mot Atlantique. Grâce au vieux Félicien qui sait comment se rendre là-bas, ils partent régulièrement pour ce monde parallèle. Malheureusement les manoeuvres sont parfois approximatives et ils se retrouvent dans d'autres lettres peuplées de curieux personnages. Cet univers farfelu et merveilleux est imaginé par Fred pour PILOTE en 1965. Son trait imaginatif et nouveau, ses mises en page particulières, ses planches grouillantes de détails insolites, de clins d'oeil, de malices et de trouvailles graphiques ne laissent pas indifférent.
56 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
1 person is currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Fred
128 books19 followersPseudonym for Fred Othon Aristidès.Fred fait partie des géants de la bande dessinée et a influencé toute une génération d’auteurs. Dans chacune de ses œuvres – de Philémon au Petit cirque – l’auteur a accompli un numéro de funambule dans lequel le génie de Fred éblouit. Son langage résolument novateur, son invention permanente, son imagination foisonnante ont ouvert une nouvelle voie à la bande dessinée.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 28, 2020
In het vorige album, De wilde piano' wist Philemon mijnheer Bartholomee terug te halen naar de gewone wereld, maar aan het begin van 'Het luchtkasteel' heeft de puttengraver alweer heimwee naar de A, dus brengen ze een bezoekje aan Oom Filistijn...
Dit verhaal is het eerste van diverse en vergeefse pogingen van mijnheer Bartholomee om terug te keren naar zijn thuis-eiland. Ook legt Oom Filistijn hier een belangrijk principe uit: 'Je kunt nooit via dezelfde route terug naar de A van de Atlantische Oceaan.' - een principe waar Fred erg trots op was, omdat dit garant stond voor een enorme variatie aan fantastische reismogelijkheden. Het titelverhaal wordt overigens aangevuld door een fijn kort verhaal waarin een spiegel achterloopt.
Dit verhaal is het eerste van diverse en vergeefse pogingen van mijnheer Bartholomee om terug te keren naar zijn thuis-eiland. Ook legt Oom Filistijn hier een belangrijk principe uit: 'Je kunt nooit via dezelfde route terug naar de A van de Atlantische Oceaan.' - een principe waar Fred erg trots op was, omdat dit garant stond voor een enorme variatie aan fantastische reismogelijkheden. Het titelverhaal wordt overigens aangevuld door een fijn kort verhaal waarin een spiegel achterloopt.
March 29, 2015
Kts. Filemon ja villin pianon arvostelu.
April 3, 2018
I thought this was a very interesting graphic novel. It was very science fictiony. For example on page 19 there is an owl light house that flew in. They then walk inside the owl to a spiral staircase. They have to take a luminous pathway, so they walk out on the ray of light hoping to make it where they are heading before daylight comes. They don't quite make it and are in the middle of the ocean. A "whale" swims and catches them. Well it goes on from there-- with a funny relationship between Philemon and Mr. Bartholomew. I liked the end of the book because it connects where the writer got his ideas to things in the real world. ( whaling, Galleys, Paris metro, castles in the air, lighthouses)
April 7, 2021
Given the shrunken treatment by American publisher.
->Art Mouly doesn't keep an album album-sized
A straight-out-of-the-bag read! I love Fred.
Philemon hunts shrooms and off he goes into another quest which has all the earmarks of heady psychadelia and the inspirations of common lore.
It's only problem is that the art seems rushed- either that or he just wasn't great with drawing people. Everything else is gorgeous.
->Art Mouly doesn't keep an album album-sized
A straight-out-of-the-bag read! I love Fred.
Philemon hunts shrooms and off he goes into another quest which has all the earmarks of heady psychadelia and the inspirations of common lore.
It's only problem is that the art seems rushed- either that or he just wasn't great with drawing people. Everything else is gorgeous.
October 29, 2017
Interesting as an historical artifact, I guess. Not particularly good in any respect.
July 24, 2022
This has such a "classic" feeling to it. Also loved the end section of the book that discussed some of the elements of the story such as whale hunting and galley ships. I wish I had started with the book that came first in what is apparently a series, but this was still a fun read even without having read the other book(s).
October 18, 2016
3 1/2 stars Goofy fun for those who love Tin Tin & Asterix
January 29, 2016
Frédéric Othon Théodore Aristidès, but more commonly known as Fred, was a French cartoonist best known for his series called Philemon. Shortly before his death in 2013, Fred finished volume 16 of this popular series and effectively brought the series to a close. One year after his death, TOON Books started translating these titles to English. To date, there are three published - 1. Cast Away on the Letter A, The Wild Piano, and The Suspended Castle. Allow me to tell you a little bit about the series and each of the books individually.
Philemon is a French teenager whose best friend is a donkey named Anatole. He is also a bit lazy, a bit of a dreamer, and has a dad who gets easily aggravated at the "tall stories" that Philemon tells him. The first story Cast Away on the Letter A begins with Philemon falling down a well and landing on a beach. It is here where he met a well-digger named Bartholomew and finds out that he is on the island. The island is the letter A and part of the words on the map "ATLANTIC OCEAN." Who knew that those words on the map were actual places. :) He also encounters a centaur while on this particular adventure. Later in the adventure, Bartholomew and Philemon enter a ship in a bottle and sail to the other A in Atlantic where they enter into a labyrinth. Philemon loses Bartholomew and his wandering around, he escapes back to his home.
In The Wild Piano, Philemon's dad thinks he's crazy, but his Uncle Felix remembers Bartholomew and is stunned to learn that Philemon found him. However, Uncle Felix seems scared to talk about the letter A island. He also fancies himself a bit of a magician, and he decides to help Philemon return and try and save Bartholomew. While there, Philemon breaks a law and must perform a concert on a wild piano. This ends up looking like a mix of concert and bull fight. Because he was able to defeat the piano, he is rewarded with an elevator ride. On this ride, he finds Bartholomew and they try to escape. While trying to escape, they encounter a giant man (perhaps Gulliver of Gulliver's Travels). Eventually, they do escape through a wardrobe (C.S. Lewis anyone?), which leads them back to Uncle Felix's room.
In The Suspended Castle Bartholomew is sad to be back in his village. Having been gone 40 years, he feels completely out of place. He doesn't like the clothes he wears. He misses his castle and his centaur butler. Uncle Felix decides to help him return, but Bartholomew forgets his hat when leaving. This causes Philemon to chase after him. This time they end up on the letter I. They try to make it back to the letter A and Bartholomew's castle, but our captured by a captain with a boat shaped like a whale (thoughts of Melville come to mind). While Bartholomew and Philemon were rowing on the whale boat, pelican-shaped boats flying in the sky tried to capture the whale. They were only able to capture Bartholomew and Philemon though, which they took to a castle suspended by a rope. They were then mistaken as "cutters of the rope," whom the people had been awaiting for 2,000 years. Philemon and Bartholomew cut the rope (improperly) and the castle sank with everyone escaping except the captain who went down with his castle. Philemon and Bartholomew also make it back home.
The first three books in the Philemon series are absurdly delightful. The illustrations are crude, but the number of literary references are astounding. If you are looking for a trip through strange lands, then you'll enjoy this series. I think it's more geared toward teenagers, but adults might find some pleasure in it as well.
Philemon is a French teenager whose best friend is a donkey named Anatole. He is also a bit lazy, a bit of a dreamer, and has a dad who gets easily aggravated at the "tall stories" that Philemon tells him. The first story Cast Away on the Letter A begins with Philemon falling down a well and landing on a beach. It is here where he met a well-digger named Bartholomew and finds out that he is on the island. The island is the letter A and part of the words on the map "ATLANTIC OCEAN." Who knew that those words on the map were actual places. :) He also encounters a centaur while on this particular adventure. Later in the adventure, Bartholomew and Philemon enter a ship in a bottle and sail to the other A in Atlantic where they enter into a labyrinth. Philemon loses Bartholomew and his wandering around, he escapes back to his home.
In The Wild Piano, Philemon's dad thinks he's crazy, but his Uncle Felix remembers Bartholomew and is stunned to learn that Philemon found him. However, Uncle Felix seems scared to talk about the letter A island. He also fancies himself a bit of a magician, and he decides to help Philemon return and try and save Bartholomew. While there, Philemon breaks a law and must perform a concert on a wild piano. This ends up looking like a mix of concert and bull fight. Because he was able to defeat the piano, he is rewarded with an elevator ride. On this ride, he finds Bartholomew and they try to escape. While trying to escape, they encounter a giant man (perhaps Gulliver of Gulliver's Travels). Eventually, they do escape through a wardrobe (C.S. Lewis anyone?), which leads them back to Uncle Felix's room.
In The Suspended Castle Bartholomew is sad to be back in his village. Having been gone 40 years, he feels completely out of place. He doesn't like the clothes he wears. He misses his castle and his centaur butler. Uncle Felix decides to help him return, but Bartholomew forgets his hat when leaving. This causes Philemon to chase after him. This time they end up on the letter I. They try to make it back to the letter A and Bartholomew's castle, but our captured by a captain with a boat shaped like a whale (thoughts of Melville come to mind). While Bartholomew and Philemon were rowing on the whale boat, pelican-shaped boats flying in the sky tried to capture the whale. They were only able to capture Bartholomew and Philemon though, which they took to a castle suspended by a rope. They were then mistaken as "cutters of the rope," whom the people had been awaiting for 2,000 years. Philemon and Bartholomew cut the rope (improperly) and the castle sank with everyone escaping except the captain who went down with his castle. Philemon and Bartholomew also make it back home.
The first three books in the Philemon series are absurdly delightful. The illustrations are crude, but the number of literary references are astounding. If you are looking for a trip through strange lands, then you'll enjoy this series. I think it's more geared toward teenagers, but adults might find some pleasure in it as well.
November 17, 2014
Philémon is one of my favorite comic. I read it and own it in French, in its original.
It is a distopian world where Alice meets Spirited Away... or something like that :)
Philémon is a country boy who has a donkey for his sole companion. That venerable animal is christened Atol, such that when you say l'Âne Atol (the donkey Atol), you get a play on word with Anatole, presumably a reference to the French author Anatole France.
Philémon's dad is an irascible realist--perhaps even a materialistic positivist--someone who believes only what he can see and touch (I'm simplifying a bit). His uncle is a wiser man who has come to terms with a complex reality he does not control, a reality where the letters of the words "Océan Atlantique" which are written on every respectable French map, are, in fact, islands on the Atlantic ocean.
Their world, the world of the letters, is governed by a different set of physical and social laws. Homes grow unaided, one could camp on water, aquacritics are a composite of men in tux and a floating chair. Once a boat is surrounded by such a herd, the mariners are forced to perform a play and if the aquacritics are not pleased, they sink the boat.
It is in that world that Philémon falls and we fall with him in a landscape that defies the imagination and a story that proceeds like a French political drama.
But then again, Philémon might be just that: a French political drama in disguise.
It is a distopian world where Alice meets Spirited Away... or something like that :)
Philémon is a country boy who has a donkey for his sole companion. That venerable animal is christened Atol, such that when you say l'Âne Atol (the donkey Atol), you get a play on word with Anatole, presumably a reference to the French author Anatole France.
Philémon's dad is an irascible realist--perhaps even a materialistic positivist--someone who believes only what he can see and touch (I'm simplifying a bit). His uncle is a wiser man who has come to terms with a complex reality he does not control, a reality where the letters of the words "Océan Atlantique" which are written on every respectable French map, are, in fact, islands on the Atlantic ocean.
Their world, the world of the letters, is governed by a different set of physical and social laws. Homes grow unaided, one could camp on water, aquacritics are a composite of men in tux and a floating chair. Once a boat is surrounded by such a herd, the mariners are forced to perform a play and if the aquacritics are not pleased, they sink the boat.
It is in that world that Philémon falls and we fall with him in a landscape that defies the imagination and a story that proceeds like a French political drama.
But then again, Philémon might be just that: a French political drama in disguise.
October 20, 2015
In this graphic novel following an adventure begun in Cast Away on the Letter A, Philemon and Bartholomew have quite an adventure as they look for a way back to the letter A in the ATLANTIC OCEAN. When Philemon's uncle inflates a shell, he ends up following Bartholomew in order to give him hat. The two are forced to row a ship across the seas, and end up being touted as the saviors of a group of men living in a castle suspended in midair. When they cut the rope, of course, the castle falls into the ocean and begins to sink, and Philemon and Bartholomew are blamed. It's all absurd fun with back matter explaining some of the inspiration for elements in the story and providing details about art and music that fit the book's themes and images. Of course, the comparison to the works of Lewis Carroll will be obvious, and this series and comic won't be to everyone's taste, but it is interesting to stretch one's brain and imagine the possibilities.
November 25, 2023
Un superbe voyage de plus avec Philémon. Dans cette aventure on découvre le pont lumière du Phare-Hiboux, on tombe dans la Baleine-Galère pour être harponné par un Pélican-Baleinier d'où on sera emmener à ses bords jusqu'au Château suspendu...et le tout, juste parceque Monsieur Barthélémy avait oublié son chapeau!
Philémon incarne l'esprit libre de Fred, une imagination débordante au style unique qui s'emballe des modes et des tendances politiques et ideologiques des années 70. Philémon vit les histoires que les esprits contraints ont du mal a concevoir. Philémon est à leurs yeux un rêveur, un éberlué, un môme, un petit éfabulateur du 'n'importe quoi'. Et plus je découvre avec Philémon plus je suis admirative devant l'oeuvre de Fred.
Philémon incarne l'esprit libre de Fred, une imagination débordante au style unique qui s'emballe des modes et des tendances politiques et ideologiques des années 70. Philémon vit les histoires que les esprits contraints ont du mal a concevoir. Philémon est à leurs yeux un rêveur, un éberlué, un môme, un petit éfabulateur du 'n'importe quoi'. Et plus je découvre avec Philémon plus je suis admirative devant l'oeuvre de Fred.
February 6, 2016
Pros: The Whale ships and the Pelican Whalers are amazing! The details inside the Whales are so cool and Nemo-esc. The part where the rowers revolted because they wanted to row more was unexpected and kind of funny.
Cons: Again, why the Suspended Castle? That was barely part of the story and ended very strangely.
3 1/2 stars
Cons: Again, why the Suspended Castle? That was barely part of the story and ended very strangely.
3 1/2 stars
May 17, 2016
Philemon is back for another adventure traveling on the letters that make up ATLANTIC on maps. This time they wind up on the dot of the "i", stow away on a "whaling" ship and take down some harpooners.
This is a rather silly but energetic book that reluctant readers might enjoy. Recommended for ages 7-10.
This is a rather silly but energetic book that reluctant readers might enjoy. Recommended for ages 7-10.
February 1, 2017
Graphic novels are not my favorite, but I know my students love them. This is a surreal action adventure for grades 2 and up. I think the weirdness will appeal to some kids. It remind me of a strange graphic Dr. Seuss Terry Gilliam mash up. I think kids will relate to the silliness, respond to the fantasy and let it take them away. Includes a lot of geography and literary references.
Read
October 30, 2015Has all the elements that make the first two so good, but with all new scenarios. Does Fred's imagination have any limits?
December 28, 2015
Super weird (in the best way possible) and imaginative.
January 18, 2016
Written in the 60s and recently brought to the US. Fantasy.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews