''Ma vie est tout à fait fascinante'' (''My Quite Fascinating Life'') is a blog BD (French

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be co ...

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 ...

format) created by Pénélope Bagieu. ''Ma vie est tout à fait fascinante'' started in 2007 and launched Bagieu's career as a cartoonist. In the webcomic, Bagieu presents her own life experiences through the lens of the character Zoe. In 2012, Bagieu's blog was accessed 60,000 times per day, and a print edition was published by Delcourt.

Development

Cartoonist Pénélope Bagieu created ''Ma vie est tout à fait fascinante'' shortly after graduating from the

Central Saint Martins Central Saint Martins is a public tertiary art school in London, England. It is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of shor ...

school in London. The blog started in 2007, primarily because Bagieu was looking for something to do between two illustration jobs for publisher. Bagieu had been keeping an intimate drawn diary for a long time when she decided to start her blog. Bagieu became one of the pioneers of the "for girls" comics boom, though she has since tried to get rid of her image as a blogger, subverting her established style with '. A print version of ''Ma vie est tout à fait fascinante'' was published by Delcourt in 2012.

Content

''Ma vie est tout à fait fascinante'' is a general diary webcomic in which Bagieu presents snippets of her daily life. The blog follows the self-insert character Zoe, who works as a hostess. Bagieu explores experiences of her own life, such as unpleasant boyfriends and dark and tiny apartments. In an interview with ''

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'', Bagieu stated that "most of all, I also felt like I was entering a nice, warm and soft sweater the first time I found out books and good stories were such a comfy cocoon, like Zoe does at some point." The blog has a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

slant, making it particularly accessible for a female audience, though the webcomic was not originally created to draw a large readership. In November 2013, Bagieu posted a short comic on her blog titled "Prends cinq minutes et signe copain" ("Take five minutes and sign, buddy") about the ecological consequences of

deep-sea fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

. In this comic, Bagieu criticized the economic "heresy" represented in deep-sea fishing and the few businessmen that benefit of the industry. The publication went viral on

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, and a petition against deep-sea fishing by organization Bloom gained over 345,000 signature within two days.

Reception

In 2012, ''

France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned international news television network based in Paris. Its channels broadcast in French, English, Arabic, and Spanish and are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-M ...

'' stated that Bagieu's webcomic "revolutionized the world of comics by addressing adolescents." Later that year, ''

RTBF The ''Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française'' (RTBF, ''Belgian Radio-television of the French Community'', branded as rtbf.be) is a public service broadcaster delivering radio and television services to the French-speaking Commu ...

'' described ''Ma vie est tout à fait fascinante'' as "the biggest success and the star of the BD

blogosphere The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can pu ...

." Bagieu's blog had 60,000 visitors per day and its print version was sold 130,000 times by November 2012.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.penelope-jolicoeur.com/ 2007 webcomic debuts French webcomics Feminist webcomics 2000s webcomics 2010s webcomics Autobiographical webcomics