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Blank Slate to publish Pierre Maurel’s 3 Déclinaisons

(cover to the L’employé du Moi French edition of 3 Déclinaisons by Pierre Maurel)

Ace British Indy comics publisher Blank Slate Books has just announced plans to translate and publish 3 Déclinaisons (roughly meaning ’3 declines’)by Pierre Maurel this winter, a former sélection officielle status at the Angoulême festival, which is, for anyone who knows their quality comics work, a serious stamp of approval for any work. From the site’s description: “the graphic novel is comprised of three interlocking narratives set within a modern city setting. Thoughtful and understated, it’s an incredibly engaging story drawn in Maurel’s beautiful, loose visual style.” The translation will be by Judith Taboy, co-editor of the excellent Avoid the Future comics site and translator on BSB’s Luchadoras, which has just been released (and is highly recommended)

(a page from the French edition of 3 Déclinaisons by and (c) Pierre Maurel, published L’employé du Moi)

We’ve frequently commented on here about some great comics works coming out in Europe (many of which Wim has reported on for us) only to lament that we rarely get to see most of those translated and republished for the English language market. That has been changing lately and, along with good, new works from the homegrown talent in the UK, we’re starting to see more of this sort of thing, which is very, very welcome in my opinion. Expect this to feature on our monthly FPI’s Most Wanted list of upcoming graphic novels the blog team wants to read in the near future… On a related subject I see from Pierre’s blog tht he is making an appearance in Le Porte de Tête in Montreal on June 10th.

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Dundee University has announced that its English department will offer a one-year Masters in Comic Studies, to launch at the start of the new academic year this autumn, the BBC reports and will be lead by a name well known to those in comics studies in the UK, Doctor Chris Murray, with modules set to include subjects such as autobipgraphical comics work and the relationships between different international comics, with workshops on more practical subjects such as script writing and artwork also available. Interesting to see – the course joins the academic studies in science fiction at the University of Liverpool in taking an area of literature that hasn’t always had the respect it deserves and giving it some serious attention and it seems highly appropriate it should be offered by Dundee given the university’s support of the city’s comic day, organised by Doctor Murray (part of the Dundee Literary Festival, the next one is on October 30th and should include Frank Quitely, John Wagner, Cam Kennedy and Colin MacNeil), and because, of course, it is the home to the mighty DC Thomson publishing family which has been a major force in British comics for the best part of a century.