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Grandville: the Annotations page 4
Welcome to the Grandville Annotations!
This is similar in concept to the Directors Cut of Heart of Empire that Bryan and myself created: it is an attempt to answer the eternal "where do you get your ideas from?" question, and a way to showcase the influences and images that went into the creation of Grandville.
Below are the annotations for the first Grandville, pages 61 to the end: if you missed them the first page of annotations covers Grandville page 1 to 20 and the second Grandville pages 21 to 40 and the third Grandville pages 41 to 60. We are publishing updates to this page every Sunday and we will cover the entire Grandville series.
Start reading the annotations below, or jump to the annotations for page 61, page 63, page 65, page 67, page 68, page 78, page 79, page 92, page 94, page 96, page 97, and page 98.
Page 61
The deliberate use of scapegoats by governments and political parties has been frequently used throughout history, notably by Nazi Germany and more recently here by The National Front and UKIP.
Page 63
Panel 1.
Again, any criticism of the government being labelled “unpatriotic” is another common trait of extremist regimes, such as those of Iran and the government of Donald Trump. In 2015, 28-year-old cartoonist Atena Farghandabi was sentenced to twelve and a half years in prison for simply drawing an illustration depicting Iranian legislators as animals.
Panel 3
This scene is another example of the Quentin Tarantino influence, especially the slicing off of an ear, which is straight from Reservoir Dogs.
Page 65
Panel 1
Painting adapted from The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries, 1812 by Jacques-Louis David.
Page 67
Panel 1
Two of these assassins were made into figurines by Crooked Dice Game Design Studio, who have also been working on a Grandville role-playing game for a couple of years or so. Here they are, along with the fox seen earlier, and the figurines of LeBrock and Roderick.
Page 68
Tarantinoesque shooting!
Page 78
Panel 6
The pilot is an albatross in reference to the one in Disney’s The Rescuers (1977).
Page 79
Madame Krupp is, of course, named after the biggest European weapons manufacturer of the 20th century.
Page 92
Panel 6
Arnold Schwarzenegger does something similar to a robot taxi driver in Total Recall (1990).
Page 94
“Name of a dog” again (see page 8)
Page 96
Panel 1
“Canal des Nouvelles Nationales”: CNN: Literally “National News Channel”
Page 97
Panel 2
The dogs playing pool are a reference to the famous dog paintings of Arthur Sarnoff (1912 - 2000). This one, The Hustler, was the biggest-selling print of the 1950s.
They used to feature the same cast of dogs, some of whom can be seen in this panel. They return in Grandville Noël. Sarnoff was very influenced by CM Coolidge (1844 – 1934) who was commissioned to paint a series of 16 dog paintings, such as the one below, for a series of cigar advertisements. He was probably an influence on the dogs playing cards on page 26
Panel 3
Towser Dupont returns in Grandville Noël. For those too young to remember, “Towser” used to be a very common dog name, also the title to an ITV animated children’s TV series about a clever dog. It was the name of the dog in the long-running Beezer strip, Tom, Dick and Harry.
Page 98
Panel 1
The building is Paris’s Hôtel des Invalides and part of it does indeed house a hospital.
The Gazette de France was the first weekly magazine published in France. It lasted from 1631 until 1915.
The End. (for now...)
Next see the annotationas for Grandville Mon Amour.