Lewis Trondheim (born Laurent Chabosy, , on 11 December 1964), is a French
cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...
and one of the founders (in 1990) of the independent publisher
L'Association
L'Association is a French publishing house located in Paris which publishes comic books. It was founded in May 1990 by Jean-Christophe Menu, Lewis Trondheim, David B., Mattt Konture, Patrice Killoffer, Stanislas, and Mokeït.
L'Association i ...
. Both his silent comic ''La Mouche'' and
Kaput and Zösky
''Kaput and Zösky: The Ultimate Obliterators'' is a 2002-2003 animated cartoon series based on the comic book series from the cartoonist Lewis Trondheim called ''Kaput et Zösky''. 26 episodes were produced.
Some of the stories featured in the c ...
have been made into animated cartoons. He explained his choice of
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
after the Norwegian city of
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...
as follows: "As a last name I wanted to use a city's name, but Lewis
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...
or Lewis
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
didn't sound so good. Then I thought about this city, Trondheim… Maybe someday I will publish a book under my real name, in order to remain anonymous."
Biography
Lewis Trondheim was first known as the author of ''Les formidables aventures de Lapinot'' (later to be translated to English as ''
The Spiffy Adventures of McConey''). He invented the character in the late 1980s as a way to learn cartooning. The result was an initial 500 page graphic novel, ''Lapinot et les carottes de Patagonie''. All the while, he was publishing short stories for the satirical French magazine ''Psikopat''.
After his book ''Slaloms'' was awarded what was then called the
Alph'Art Coup de coeur (First comic book prize) in 1993, Trondheim was offered to bring his burgeoning series to a major publisher,
Dargaud
Société Dargaud, doing business as Les Éditions Dargaud, is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics series, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. It was founded in 1936 by Georges Dargaud (), publishing its first comics in 1943.
...
, while he continued churning out more personal books for
L'Association
L'Association is a French publishing house located in Paris which publishes comic books. It was founded in May 1990 by Jean-Christophe Menu, Lewis Trondheim, David B., Mattt Konture, Patrice Killoffer, Stanislas, and Mokeït.
L'Association i ...
and other independent French publishers such as Cornélius. From there onwards, Trondheim began to enjoy a steady rise in popularity.
The following years represented a period of increasing activity, as Trondheim began to work on many different projects. He first created ''La Mouche'' ("The Fly") for the Japanese market, and then redrew a French version from scratch, after which the character was adapted as an
animated cartoon
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...
.
Trondheim's greatest breakthrough after ''Lapinot'' is arguably ''Dungeon'' (in French, ''Donjon''), an ambitious series which he created with
Joann Sfar
Joann Sfar (; born 28 August 1971) is a French comics artist, comic book creator, novelist, and film director.
Life and career
Sfar was born in Nice, the son of Lilou, a pop singer, who died when he was three, and André Sfar, a lawyer well know ...
, and which has enjoyed a fair amount of popular success.
In 1993, he married Brigitte Findakly, a comic colorist and screenwriter.
Trondheim's "retirement"
In 2004, after a long and intensive period during which he steadily released new books at a frantic pace, Lewis Trondheim announced he was more or less retiring from the world of comic strips, stating he did not want his passion to become a "job". He did draw and write a few stories within the following year, including a book reflecting on his decision to slow down, though the releases occurred at a much slower pace.
It has long been speculated he used this time partly to create another ambitious work, ''Le blog de Frantico'', which was a comic strip
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
published daily on the web for a whole year under the
Frantico pseudonym. In interviews and on his web sites, Trondheim alternately admits and denies having written ''Le blog de Frantico'', though another author,
Sébastien Lesage
Sébastien is a common French given name. It is a French form of pasté Latin language, Latin name ''Sebastianus'' meaning "from Sebaste". Sebaste (disambiguation), Sebaste was a common placename in classical Antiquity, derived from the Greek lan ...
eventually stepped up and claimed to be the real author, saying he had asked Trondheim to help him maintain the mystery. To this day however, the true identity of Frantico remains unconfirmed.
Another recent Trondheim occupation is that of editorial director at
Delcourt, where he manages Shampooing, a collection of comic books for young readers.
In 2006, Trondheim was awarded the
Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême
The Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême is a lifetime achievement award given annually during the Angoulême International Comics Festival to a comics author. Although not a monetary award, it is considered the most prestigious award in Franco-Be ...
at the
Angoulême International Comics Festival
The Angoulême International Comics Festival (french: Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after Lu ...
, arguably the most prestigious award in the field.
Awards
* 1994:
Award for First Comic Book at the
Angoulême International Comics Festival
The Angoulême International Comics Festival (french: Festival international de la bande dessinée d'Angoulême) is the second largest comics festival in Europe after the Lucca Comics & Games in Italy, and the third biggest in the world after Lu ...
, France
* 1999: 2 nominations for the
Harvey Award
The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that were ...
for Best American Edition of Foreign Material
* 2000: Best German-language Comic—Import at the
Max & Moritz Prizes
The Max & Moritz Prize is a prize for comic books, comic strips, and other similar materials which has been awarded at each of the biennial International Comics Shows of Erlangen since 1984. It is open to all material published in Germany.
1984 ...
, Germany
:: -
Inkpot Award
The Inkpot Award is an honor bestowed annually since 1974 by Comic-Con International. It is given to professionals in the fields of comic books, comic strips, animation, science fiction, and related areas of popular culture, at CCI's annual c ...
, United States
:: - nomination for the Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material
:: - nominated for Best Long Comic Strip at the
Haxtur Award
The Haxtur Award (''Premios Haxtur'') is a Spanish award for comics published in Spain. It is awarded annually at the Salón Internacional del Cómic del Principado de Asturias (International Comics Convention of the Principality of Asturias). It ...
s, Spain
* 2001: nomination for the Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material
:: - nomination for the
Humour Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
:: - nomination for Outstanding Story at the
Ignatz Awards
The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a ...
, USA
* 2002: nomination for the Harvey Award for Best Presentation of Foreign Material
:: - nomination for the
Dialogue Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
* 2004: Best International Series at the
Prix Saint-Michel
The Prix Saint-Michel is a series of comic awards presented by the city of Brussels, with a focus on Franco-Belgian comics. They were first awarded in 1971, and although often said to be the oldest European comics awards, they are actually the sec ...
, Belgium
:: - nomination for the
Series Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
* 2005: Series Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
:: - nomination for the
Prize for Artwork at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
* 2006:
Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême
The Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême is a lifetime achievement award given annually during the Angoulême International Comics Festival to a comics author. Although not a monetary award, it is considered the most prestigious award in Franco-Be ...
, France
* 2007: nominated for the
Ignatz Awards
The Ignatz Awards recognize outstanding achievements in comics and cartooning by small press creators or creator-owned projects published by larger publishers. They have been awarded each year at the Small Press Expo since 1997, only skipping a ...
for Outstanding Series
* 2008: nominated for the
Eisner Award
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books, sometimes referred to as the comics industry's equivalent of the Academy Awards. They are named in ...
s for Best Short Story and Best Lettering
* 2010: nominated for the Eisner Awards for Best Publication for Kids and
Best U.S. Edition of International Material
:: - nominated for the Award for Best Youth Comic at the Prix Saint-Michel
*2016: Rudolph-Dirks-Award for Best Scenario for ''Ralph Azham'' and ''Herr Hase''
["Die Gewinner des Rudolph-Dirks-Award 2016"]
December 3, 2016.
Bibliography
Trondheim has written or drawn more than a hundred titles, spanning a large spectrum of genres; some of the most notable are:
* ''
The Spiffy Adventures of McConey'' (''Les formidables aventures de Lapinot''; 10 official volumes), which mix satire and fantasy. The main characters are all animals: for instance McConey is a shy and easygoing rabbit, while Richard is an engaging cat with a loud mouth and a knack for getting into trouble. The stories alternate between modern France and stock historical settings. The recurring characters in the series can be thought of as actors who don't always play the same people, but always play the same type of roles.
* ''
Dungeon
A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from ...
'' (''Donjon''; more than 30 volumes), co-written with
Joann Sfar
Joann Sfar (; born 28 August 1971) is a French comics artist, comic book creator, novelist, and film director.
Life and career
Sfar was born in Nice, the son of Lilou, a pop singer, who died when he was three, and André Sfar, a lawyer well know ...
, an extremely ambitious series which attempts to chronicle a
Dungeons & Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...
-like dungeon through three separate epochs. The tone varies from heroic to comic to rather dark.
* Several children comics, among them: ''Le roi catastrophe'' (8 volumes), drawn by Fabrice Parme, a series about a boy king; ''Monstrueux'' (3 volumes), featuring a young French family resembling Trondheim's, and their pet monster Jean-Christophe; ''
Kaput and Zösky
''Kaput and Zösky: The Ultimate Obliterators'' is a 2002-2003 animated cartoon series based on the comic book series from the cartoonist Lewis Trondheim called ''Kaput et Zösky''. 26 episodes were produced.
Some of the stories featured in the c ...
'' (2 volumes), featuring space aliens, which in recent years, has been converted into a
television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...
; and more recently ''A.L.I.E.E.E.N.'', an "alien children book" Trondheim jokingly claims to have found in a country field while on vacation.
* Collections of short, modern comic strip fables, sometimes starring simplified, potato-shaped characters, the bulk of which has been published by L'Association (''Genèses apocalyptiques'', ''Non, non, non'', ''Le pays des trois sourires'', etc.)
* Autobiographical comics, such as those collected in ''Approximate Continuum Comics'', which later formed his book ''Approximativement''; as well as his more recent ''Carnet de bord'' series (3 volumes). Newer autobiographical comics are regularly published on his blog under the title ''Les petits riens'' (serialized in English paperback volumes as ''Little Nothings'').
* Various conceptual comics, such as ''Le dormeur'' and ''Psychanalyse'', both of which were created entirely with a single photocopied panel, while ''Bleu'' and ''La nouvelle pornographie'' are both billed as "abstract comic books". After ''Psychanalyse'', Trondheim was challenged by J.C. Menu to write a story with only 4 different panels, drawn by Menu. After some strips, Trondheim asked for four more panels, and wrote the highly dense comic book, ''Moins d'un quart de seconde pour vivre''. Such
constrained writing
Constrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern.
Constraints are very common in poetry, which often requires the writer to use a particular verse form.
D ...
achievements, reminiscent of
OuLiPo
Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works ...
writers, were a huge incentive for
OuBaPo Oubapo (, short for french: Ouvroir de bande dessinée potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential comic book art"'') is a comics movement which believes in the use of formal constraints to push the boundaries of the medium. OuBaPo i ...
's creation.
English translations
Two volumes of ''McConey'' have been published in English by
Fantagraphics
Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint.
History
Founding
Fantagraphics was found ...
in editions close to the original. In 2018,
Dargaud
Société Dargaud, doing business as Les Éditions Dargaud, is a publisher of Franco-Belgian comics series, headquartered in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. It was founded in 1936 by Georges Dargaud (), publishing its first comics in 1943.
...
also began releasing English translations with the title ''The Marvelous Adventures of McConey'' under the
Europe Comics
Europe Comics is a pan-European comics and graphic novel digital venture run by 13 European comics publishers from eight European countries. The project received funding in 2015 from the European Commission's Creative Europe Programme, and launche ...
label. As of April 2018, three volumes have been published.
Fantagraphics has additionally published a range of shorter pieces by Trondheim in the comic ''The Nimrod''.
NBM has published ''Dungeon'', both in comic book and graphic novel formats, as well as ''Little Nothings'', a collection of autobiographical one-page vignettes. English versions of ''A.L.I.E.E.N.'' (retitled ''A.L.I.E.E.E.N.'') and ''Le Roi Catastrophe'' (retitled ''Tiny Tyrant'') have been published by
First Second
First Second Books is an American publisher of graphic novels. An imprint of Roaring Brook Press, part of Holtzbrinck Publishers, First Second publishes fiction, biographies, personal memoirs, history, visual essays, and comics journalism. It als ...
.
References
External links
Lewis Trondheim official siteon Lambiek Comiclopedia
at Fantagraphics.com
NBM Publishing
*
The Comics Journal
''The Comics Journal'', often abbreviated ''TCJ'', is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials and scathing re ...
Interview with Lewis Trondheim(Long excerpt from TCJ #283)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trondheim, Lewis
1964 births
Living people
People from Fontainebleau
French comics artists
French comics writers
Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême winners
French male writers