Oubapo (, short for french: Ouvroir de bande dessinée potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential

comic book art A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

"'') is a

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

movement which believes in the use of formal constraints to push the boundaries of the medium. OuBaPo is styled after the French literary movement

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 ...

(''Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle''), founded by

Raymond Queneau Raymond Queneau (; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo ('' Ouvroir de littérature potentielle''), notable for his wit and cynical humour. Biography Queneau w ...

and

Georges Perec Georges Perec (; 7 March 1936 – 3 March 1982) was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group. His father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was killed in the Holoc ...

. Oubapo was founded in November 1992 in the Ou-X-Po and announced in

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 ...

's French comics edition.

Meaning of the name

The term "ouvroir," originally used in conjunction with works of charity, was reused by Queneau for a blend of "ouvroir" and "œuvre" ("work") and roughly corresponds to the English "workshop." The term "potential" is used in the sense of that which is possible, or realisable if one follows certain rules. Thus, "OuBaPo" can be roughly translated as "Potential Comics Workshop."

Constraints

Some OuBapoian constraints: ; Reduction: A book or comic summarized in very few panels ; Reversibility: A comic that can be read back to front ; Iconic Alliteration: The same drawing reproduced throughout the whole comic with only the words changing

History

By the late 1980s, cartoonist

Lewis Trondheim Lewis Trondheim (born Laurent Chabosy, , on 11 December 1964), is a French cartoonist and one of the founders (in 1990) of the independent publisher L'Association. Both his silent comic ''La Mouche'' and Kaput and Zösky have been made into animat ...

had established a reputation for his various conceptual comics, such as ''Le dormeur'' and ''Psychanalyse'', both of which were created entirely with a single photocopied panel. Similarly, ''Bleu'' and ''La nouvelle pornographie'' were both billed as "abstract comic books." After completing ''Psychanalyse'', Trondheim was challenged by fellow cartoonist Jean-Christophe Menu to write a story with only four 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''. The

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 ...

results, 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, became the basis for OuBaPo."TCJ 300 Conversations: Jean-Christophe Menu & Sammy Harkham,"
''The Comics Journal'' #300 (Dec. 14, 2009). (During this period, Trondheim, Menu, and a few other cartoonists had also co-founded the publisher

, which later published many of the group's books.) Menu, Trondheim, six other cartoonists, and comic-book historian Gilles Ciment often frequented the Parisian artists' studio Nawak (French slang for "nonsense"), where they discussed comic book constraints over snacks and beer. The group founded OuBaPo under the mantra that "constraints free the artistic mind."Colchester, Max
"Jerry Lewis Is Funny to the French, but Comic Books Are Serious Business: Ruling Clique Squabbles Over 'Ninth Art'; 'We Laughed About It, Later We Wept'."
''Wall Street Journal'' (Jan. 21, 2011). Over the course of the next decade, the nine founding members met three times a year and worked on various constraints. OuBaPo created a board game called Scroubabble — based on

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...

but with comic-book panels instead of letters. They also created a comic-book tale that repeated itself endlessly. Their first collection of works, ''OuPus 1'', was published in 1997; three more ''OuPus'' books were published between 2003–2005. In addition, the group held several exhibitions in Paris. In 2005, Trondheim and Menu had a falling out over the direction of the group, with Trondheim leaving the group in the fall of 2006. In 2007, another one of the founders quit after a disagreement with Menu. In 2008, founder Ciment (director of a French cultural center dedicated to comics) left after also arguing with Menu. In November 2010, an OuBaPo delegation went to

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

to celebrate Oulipo's 50th anniversary. There, the OuBaPo members played Scroubabble before a live audience.

Membership

A very select group, there is no membership application to OuBaPo. Candidates are singled out and elected by unanimous acclimation of the existing members. The group's nine current members live in France, the United States, Spain, and Switzerland. American cartoonist

Matt Madden Matt Madden (born 1968 in New York City) is a U.S. comic book writer and artist. He is best known for original alternative comics, for his coloring work in traditional comics, and for the experimental work '' 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in ...

is OuBaPo's "U.S. correspondent."

Founding members

François Ayroles François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, Kin ...

Anne Baraou Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

* Gilles Ciment — no longer a member *

Jochen Gerner Jochen is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Jochen Asche, East German luger, competed during the 1960s * Jochen Böhler (born 1969), German historian, specializing in the history of World War II *Jochen Babock (born 1953), East ...

Thierry Groensteen Thierry Groensteen (; born 18 April 1957, Uccle, Brussels) is one of the leading French-speaking comics researchers and theorists, whose work has found influence beyond that field. Career In 1984, Groensteen became the editor-in-chief of the ...

Patrice Killoffer Patrice Killoffer, better known simply as Killoffer (born 16 June 1966), is a writer and artist of comics. He was co-founder of the independent comics publisher L'Association in 1990, and has been a part of Oubapo since its creation in 1992. Car ...

Étienne Lécroart Étienne Lécroart (born 1960) is a French cartoonist. He is a founder and key member of Oubapo association, Ouvroir de BAnde dessinée POtentielle. He has composed cartoons that could be read either horizontally, vertically, or in diagonal, and ...

* Jean-Christophe Menu *

— no longer a member

Books published

* ''OuPus 1'' (L'Association, 1997) * ''OuPus 2'' (L'Association, 2003) * ''OuPus 3'' (L'Association, 2004) * ''OuPus 4'' (L'Association, 2005) * ''OuPus 5'' (L'Association, 2014) * ''OuPus 6'' (L'Association, 2015)

References

{{reflist Comics-related organizations 'Pataphysics