Jul, author of BD: « Comedians are scary prophets, they see what will happen in the worst way »
The comic book author Jul continues to make us think, through the lens of other eras, about our current events. His famous comic « Silex and the City », set in prehistory and already adapted into an animated series on Arte, will soon be hitting the big screen!
Jul, a press cartoonist and comic book author, first studied sinology before dedicating himself to press drawing. He specializes in works of current events fueled by historical research. His two-volume comic « Cinquante nuances de Grecs: Encyclopédie des mythes et des mythologies » (Dargaud, 2017, 2019) delved into Ancient Greece to depict a Daedalus forced to make his labyrinth handicapped-accessible or a Zeus paying child support for his numerous offspring. It was adapted into an animated series and aired on Arte in 2018. But his most well-known series is perhaps Silex and the City, published in nine volumes by Dargaud, which had already been adapted into an animated series on Arte between 2012 and 2017.
Taking a further step, Jul now presents a feature film alongside Jean-Paul Guigue: « Silex and the City, the film », which was part of the official selection at the Cannes Film Festival 2024 and can also be discovered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in Haute-Savoie, running until June 15.
Jul highlights the « prophetic dimension » of his albums that describe what is currently threatening or unfolding. « Silex and the City, the film » provides « a mirror to our time », embodying all classes and ideological dimensions of society through its choral dimension. He expresses a desire for continued dialogue and the avoidance of isolation between people that leads to tragedy and violence.
Jul emphasizes the universality of the prehistoric lens in Silex and the City: « we all have it in common, we all come from this humanity, from this Stone Age. » In this valley that continues to resist evolution, a bent key from the future leads to the invention of monotheism, contemporary art, Nazism… « it’s a fable about our over-consumptive madness, our headlong rush towards the destruction of the planet. »
Jul recalls that from his studies to his foray into press drawing and entry into comics, he has always been « a bit of an outsider ». For him, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival is a global sounding board where outliers like Silex and The City have their place.
Audio excerpts:
– Trailer of the film Silex and the City by Jul and Guigue, 2024
– Archive on the Decroly School from « Répétez dit le Maitre » dated 02/10/1986
– Archive of René Goscinny from « Cinéma en herbe » dated 12/04/1974
– Excerpt from the song « Cow boy » by Tairo