07/23/08
Text: Nik Mercer
When discussing Michel Gondry, most mention his alien (or at least un-American) sensibilities and quirky, handmade, crafty, and somewhat childish creativity.
In the bigger picture, though, Gondry simply represents everything adults can't achieve on a day-to-day basis and according to their professional lives. His unabashedly youthful, occasionally goofy works portray a simplicity that we all wish we could go back to. Somehow, Gondry has managed to finagle his way into a business-focused world of entertainment that doesn't force him to deny his nostalgia of childhood, day-dreaming, and make-believe reality. In the end, most of us wish we were Gondry.
It's fitting, then, that his latest production is a... comic book entitled We Lost the War But Not the Battle: A Revengeful Story (PictureBox Inc.) The 32-page narrative follows an "action-packed" tale of "four friends, the French army, and a beautifully horrifying conspiracy to take over the world." Or so says the press release. Unfortunately, as with most of Gondry's stuff, one-pagers do him little justice; like trying to sum up your five-year-old brother's illustrated Death Ray plans and ideas of world domination, it ain't going to work.
That being said, the large-format comic is a whimsical delight that you'll find all at once completely bizarre, whimsically fluid, and jam-packed with weirdness (i.e. the French army general who loves his minibar and cigars). The plot is off-kilter (to say the least), but there's a cogency to it that only a wise and weathered writer could pull off. Don't think of Gondry as a child in a man's body; think of him as the realization of what we all want: complete autonomy and endless understanding, governed by an innocent quest for adventure. Gondry's We Lost the War... may be slightly political in nature and satirical in content, but it's first and foremost an odyssey through the unhindered and pure mind of a genius. And hey, he dates the wonderful Gabrielle Bell (another comic author), so who can blame him for wanting to try his hand at the medium?
Buy We Lost the War But Not the Battle at PictureBox Inc.
