Yragaël - Tome 01

Yragaël #1

by Michel Demuth, Philippe Druillet (Illustrator)

graphic novel type in French very nice

Genres: Bande Dessinée, Comics, Fantasy

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Ανδρέας Μιχαηλίδης · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Read" might be a bit of a stretch, since "reading" this album (as well as Urm Le Fou, its sequel) is more of an exercise in decoding a storyboard. There are not many words and those are hand drawn in Druillet's unique style, so it takes real effort to read and then, they do not say much that is cohesive. The whole endeavor lies somewhere in the hypothetical of Moorcock and Lovecraft having a narrative baby, drawn by pens and brushes drowned in LSD.

There is a reason for that: a great many of the depictions and material come from the once unlicensed Elric le Necromancien, a 1970s adaptation of Moorcock's Elric by Druillet, which led to a badly documented legal struggle. So basically, the "story" seems to have been hastily remade by Michel Demuth, cutting out all the clearly Elric-related material.

The result is sort of a story before the beginning of human-time, lost in Antediluvian eons, when unnameable and inexplicable gods held court with whatever mortal race preceded us.

More than anything, it is a Lovecraft / Moorcock completionist's fulfilled wish, as well as a great visual depiction / inspiration of the "undescribable," terrible and majestic locales imagined by H.P. Lovecraft.

[Luke Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like that on the cover his mouth is all like 😦

[gormapong]

Cool to look at but hard to understand (partly bc it's in French and partly bc the lettering is kind of designy and small) somewhat unsure of actual story, I think he had relations w a woman who was also a city. hmm. if I find the 2nd volume will read further probably idk

[Artur Coelho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Estaria a mentir se escrevesse que compreendi este livro. A narrativa é psicadélica e parece andar às voltas com um catastrófico fim do mundo num reino ante-diluviano pré-proto-histórico. Mas este não é um livro que se leia pela história, mas sim pelo seu carácter marcante na história da banda desenhada francófona. Yragaël é uma da obras primas de Philippe Druillet, mestre do traço surrealista psicadélico que esteve em voga nos anos 70. Vive de um traço intricado e filigranado, desenhos hieráticos com conjugações gritantes de cores, numa opressão visual que sobre-estimula os centros visuais cerebrais. Este álbum é uma viagem psicadélica visual, e que se dane a sua incompreensibilidade. O olho fica perdido e encantado nas linhas barrocas da ilustração, despertando fantasias visuais que a mente consciente não consegue agarrar.