Montreal Avant-Garde Cartoonist’s First “Graphic Novel”

by BK Munn
Publisher Andy Brown announced today that his Conundrum Books would publish Henriette Valium’s own translation of The Palace of Champions for Fall 2016. The book is being billed by Conundrum as the cartoonist’s first “original graphic novel published in English.” Under the pen-name Valium, the cartoonist has been widely-published since the 1980s in the francophone world, but only occasionally anthologized in English. No plot details, but Brown’s description offers some hints of the content: “In his peculiar way, Valium explores decay, as in the rotting urban environments he obsessively renders, and his fascination with the various corruptions of the human body and mind, our illness and madness. His comics rant on subjects like “Science” or “Crisis,” horrifically, sometimes nonsensically, often hilariously exposing our culture’s fears and hypocrisies.” The book will be 64 pages of full-colour and includes an interview and introduction by multimedia artist Mathieu Beauséjour.

Henriette Valium 2015- le Palais dé Champions ! from blackhouse sessions on Vimeo.