Riad Sattouf in Toulouse: “People know my family better than me”
The cartoonist Riad Sattouf was invited by the county council on Tuesday evening to present the latest volume of his autobiographical story, “The Arab of the future”. Interview with a hyperactive author.
The cartoonist Riad Sattouf was invited by the county council on Tuesday evening to present the latest volume of his autobiographical story, “The Arab of the future”. Maintenance.
You have just put an end to the autobiographical series “The Arab of the future”, which began eight years ago. How will your life change now?
The chance I have is to always have projects in advance. So when one ends, I move on to another. I never have the feeling of finishing something. My obsession has always been to make books and as soon as I publish one, I am happy to share it. The last volume of “The Arab of the Future” was well received by readers and I get a form of relief from it.
How do you work? What new projects will you dedicate to?
My work is very messy. The books arrive by themselves. And I’m working on a lot of projects that are still secret. For me, this is only the beginning (he smiles).
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Do you have a working method?
I do not belong to the category of authors who draw in cafes or on public transport. I work all day and even at night. You could say that I work from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. After a certain level of fatigue, you manage to open doors. That is what is interesting. The first five volumes, I wrote them quite precisely. The last one I inked directly and sent to my editor almost done.
In what state did this particularly intimate work leave you?
I have sought for years to tell this story and share it with readers. I found that the people in my family were quite singular characters. Besides, I’m always amazed during signing sessions that people know my own family better than I do. I also wanted to say that adults are the product of their upbringing. We are all products of how we were raised and I wanted to tell that in the long term.
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What happened to the protagonists of the book, the story ends in 2011?
I prefer to keep it a secret. Often readers criticize me for giving away part of the story in interviews, so I’m careful. We must keep a part of mystery!
As in Woody Allen’s films, have people in your family been able to reproach you for having told their life story in an intrusive way?
Nice try but I won’t answer the question! In fact this aspect of the autobiography reminds me of an interview with David Lynch, which I love. A journalist asks him: “What did you want to say in Lost Highway? “. He replied: “The answer to your question is currently the film”. I like to leave people in the dark. When we elucidate certain stories, they lose their fascination.
In the same way you never reveal anything about your current projects…
I prefer to talk about finished projects. It’s like those companies that want to colonize Mars and tell everything they want to do there. But we want to see real stuff on Mars! All I can say is that I work on films and comics.
And the music ? You signed the soundtrack for your first film, “Les Beaux gosses”…
Yes I wrote it with Lionel Flairs and I also composed that of “Jacky in the kingdom of girls”. Maybe I’ll edit it again…
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How did you restore your memories? How can they stay so accurate years later?
In fact, I have good quality memories. My memory works by association: a person, their hairstyle, the wall, the painting, the smell, etc. What is interesting is not the precise memory but the distortion of memory. I read that memory regenerates in the brain at regular intervals. So much so that my own memories, especially of the Middle East, have been replaced by images from my comics.
Do you like autobiographical comics?
No, I don’t really like it. Usually because the authors are too biased towards themselves. I like stories that feel real, the dark side.
A gift to recommend for Christmas?
The colorized reissue of “Cigars of the Pharaoh”. It’s extremely well done!