Grandville Force Majeure annotations

The annotations for Grandville Force Majeure by Bryan Talbot

Go to any of the Grandville Force Majeure annotations pages:

- Batch 1 for pages 1 to 20

- Batch 2 for pages 21 to 30

- Batch 3 for pages 31 to 40

- Batch 4 for pages 41 to 60

- Batch 5 for pages 61 to 80

- Batch 6 for pages 81 to 100

- Batch 7 for pages 101 to 120

- Batch 8 for pages 120 to 145

- Batch 9 for pages 145 to the end

 

We are still in the process of posting the Force Majeure annotations - new updates are published here every Sunday.

 

All of the previous Grandville graphic novels annotations are now complete:

- Grandville

- Grandville Mon Amour

- Grandville Bête Noire

- Grandville Noël


Grandville Force Majeure original art and other Bryan Talbot artwork now on sale

Page 54 of Grandville Force Majeure by Bryan Talbot

Grandville Force Majeure original artwork is now available to buy.


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New Grandville miniatures are now available

Grandville miniature figures on sale at Crooked Staff

The Crooked Dice site now has not only LeBrock and Ratzi and Billie miniatures - but also Chance Lucas, Hawksmoor, Koenig and more!



Buy the Heart of Empire Directors Cut

This labour of love from Bryan and myself contains every single page of Heart of Empire in pencil, ink and final full colour format - as well as over 60,000 words of annotation, commentary and explanation from Bryan... - as well as the whole of the Adventures of Luther Arkwright!

Or see the Heart of Empire Directors Cut page for more details.



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This is the new version of the Bryan Talbot fanpage
But the whole of the original Bryan Talbot fanpage is still online


Grandville Forve Majeure annotations - batch 4

Grandville Force Majeure logo
Grandville Force Majeure
annotations - batch 4

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.

We are publishing updates to this page every Sunday and we will cover the entire Grandville series: we have already completed the annotations for Grandville, Grandville Mon Amour, Grandville Bête Noire and Grandville Noël - and in case you missed them, check out the first batch of Grandville Force Majeure annotations.


Start reading the Grandville Force Majeure annotations below, or jump straight to page 42, page 43, page 44, page 47, page 49, page 50, page 51, page 52, page 53, page 54, page 55, page 56, page 58, page 59 and page 60.

Page 42

L'Enfer means the Hell Club

Panel 1
“L’Enfer”: The Hell Club (Enfer: Hell): see page 82 annotations

The Battle of Austerlitz (1805) or The Battle of the Three Emperors was Napoleon’s greatest military victory (in our world).

Panel 2
The Battle of Waterloo (1815): I’m no military historian, but, based on historical accounts of the battle, Koenig’s explanation of how he won, as far as I can tell, is very plausible.

“It could have been a close-run thing”: The victor of the real battle, The Duke of Wellington, said this about the result:
“It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.”

To quote Wikipedia:

“…using the word nice in an older sense of "uncertain, delicately balanced", about the Battle of Waterloo. The phrase "a damned nice thing" has sometimes been paraphrased as "a damn close-run thing."

“The Russian Campaign” (1812): In our reality, Napoleon suffered a terrible defeat when he tried to invade Russia.

The table-top war game is based on real Waterloo scenario set ups.

The sabres on the wall are of the Napoleonic era. The paintings are adaptations of paintings of Napoleon by Jaques-Louis David, already seen in the first Grandville volume.

Emperor Napoleon

Tiberius Koenig: Tiberius: From the Roman emperor, a tyrant, Koenig: German for King: Tyrannosaurus Rex: Latin: Tyrant King.

I made him a T. Rex as the animal perfectly fitted the vicious, amoral, merciless and terrifying aspects of his character. His skin is red in a tribute to Jack Kirby’s Devil Dinosaur.

I made him a T. Rex as the animal perfectly fitted the vicious, amoral, merciless and terrifying aspects of his character. His skin is red in a tribute to Jack Kirby’s Devil Dinosaur.

After publication of the book, a couple of readers mentioned his similarity to Teknophage, a character I drew 20 years earleir for Tekno Comics. In the story, Henry Phage was a millennia-old lizard who had become the ultimate capitalist, and who was the origin of human notions of the Devil. He lived on the barren planet Kalighoul in a gigantic moving city, not unlike Michael Moorcock’s The Land Leviathan.

After publication of the book, a couple of readers mentioned his similarity to Teknophage, a character I drew 20 years earleir for Tekno Comics. In the story, Henry Phage was a millennia-old lizard who had become the ultimate capitalist, and who was the origin of human notions of the Devil. He lived on the barren planet Kalighoul in a gigantic moving city, not unlike Michael Moorcock’s The Land Leviathan.

It had never occurred to me that Phage was like Koenig. Written by Rick Veitch, from a concept by Neil Gaiman, he was never described as a tyrannosaurus rex. Rick did the initial concept sketches of him, which I followed as closely as I could, including the frilly brows and the pronounced zygomatic arches. I think he looks quite different!

For a model for Koenig, I bought this splendid Papo model, which had a moveable jaw. A T Rex’s eyes are so small, and the mouthline so fixed, that it’s really hard to vary the expression when drawing one. I basically cheated, adding human “agents of expression”, as is usual with anthropomorphic drawings of animals.

For a model for Koenig, I bought this splendid Papo model, which had a moveable jaw. A T Rex’s eyes are so small, and the mouthline so fixed, that it’s really hard to vary the expression when drawing one. I basically cheated, adding human “agents of expression”, as is usual with anthropomorphic drawings of animals.

Those nice people at Crooked Dice have also made a Koenig figurine.

Those nice people at Crooked Dice have also made a Koenig figurine.

Louis, the henchman seated far left, is a fire skink.

Louis, the henchman seated far left, is a fire skink.

I don’t know whether anyone noticed but, in the Art Nouveau world of Grandville, Koenig’s stuff is all Art Deco. Deco replaced the organic, sinewy lines of nouveau with hard lines and sharp angles. I love both.

Panel 4
Mister Crock returns: see Grandville Noël annotations, page 91.

Page 43

Panel 4
The painting in the background is a reworking of Napoleon on his Imperial Throne, 1806, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,

The painting in the background is a reworking of Napoleon on his Imperial Throne, 1806, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres,

Panel 5
Koenig is holding the piece representing Napoleon.

Page 44

Panel 3
“The city of light”; Paris became known as The City of Light because of its role in the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th Century, an image reinforced when it became one of the first cities to have street lighting in the 19th.

Page 47

Panel 3

Here we can see where Billie picked up some of the “disreputable skills” she mentions in Grandville Bête Noire, including the spectacular motorbike stunt on page 77.

Here we can see where Billie picked up some of the “disreputable skills” she mentions in Grandville Bête Noire, including the spectacular motorbike stunt on page 77.

Panel 2
“Ratiocination”: a 19th century term for inference arrived at by rational reasoning.

Panel 4
Pure Holmesian philosophy.

Identifying different types of tobacco, newspaper typefaces and paper stock is another ability of Sherlock Homes.

Page 49

“Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and and an elephant may bathe”: an ancient Indian proverb.

Panel 4
“The Aged William”: The Old Bill: the police. See page 22, panel 4 annotations.

I lifted it from a poem by John Cooper Clarke, The Ghost of Al Capone:

“Back in the depression – he made a profit 
A one-man crime wave – who can stop it? 
The aged william in his pocket”

‘If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas”: old proverb:

“If you associate with bad people, you will acquire their faults.”

Walter: After Walter Pigeon, famous Hollywood actor.

Panel 6
“Hello me dearios”: a catchphrase of Kenneth William’s comedy character, Rambling Sid Rumpo, from The BBC light programme’s Round the Horne (1965 – 1968).

Snout: London police slang for an informant. Incidentally, also prison slang for rolling cigarette tobacco or a cigarette.

I’m sure that the idea of an eavesdropper who could pass through the criminal underworld unnoticed is from an old detective story, but I can’t put my finger on it. Perhaps a reader can enlighten me.

Page 50

Panel 6
“The use of picklocks”: Holmes was an expert in the use of these.

Page 51

Panel 6

Hardly likely to be in a magazine such as “Bonjour”, but the folded page seen here shows the famous open letter “J’Accuse!”, written by Emile Zola in defence of Alfred Dreyfus.

Hardly likely to be in a magazine such as “Bonjour”, but the folded page seen here shows the famous open letter “J’Accuse!”, written by Emile Zola in defence of Alfred Dreyfus. You can read all about the Drefus affair at Wikipedia.

The picture is based on a portrait of Zola.

The picture is based on a portrait of Zola.

Page 52

Panels 5 & 6
The use of built-up shoes and padding foreshadows devices later used by LeBrock when posing as Tasso.

Page 53

I’m sure that this is the first time that the use of perfume to cover the smell of a bleached cat occurs in the entire history of detective fiction!

Page 54

Panel 5
“It was her who brained the bastard with a candlestick”: a reference to one of the possible murder weapons in the board game Cluedo.

Page 55

Panel 5
“It’s said that the sign of a good detective mystery is that the readers can imagine they could solve it, given time”: This is indeed a much-repeated aphorism.

“Aristotle said that the ending of a good story should be unexpected…yet inevitable”: LeBrock really is paraphrasing Aristole:

“The ending must be both inevitable and unexpected.” Aristotle

Panel 7
You can see Gromit from The Nick Park Wallace and Gromit films on a wanted poster to the left.

Page 56

I came up with this whole scene in order to invent a whole series of Holmesian deductions.  A couple of them are actually lifted from Holmes stories, but I came up with the vast majority. I’ll point out the Conan Doyle ones.

I came up with this whole scene in order to invent a whole series of Holmesian deductions.  A couple of them are actually lifted from Holmes stories, but I came up with the vast majority. I’ll point out the Conan Doyle ones.

Panel 3
“The apprentice baker”: obvious from his apron, hat, baguette and flour-speckled coat.

“…or the Welsh calligrapher near the window? Pity about his mother.”

The character is wearing a leek (a Welsh symbol) in his cap and a black armband of mourning. He’s holding his mother’s locket and portrait (which, presumably, LeBrock saw clearer than us!), his fingers are ink-stained and he has calligraphy pens sticking out of his top pocket.

The “unmistakable military bearing” and medal watch fob are both clues used by Holmes in his deductions in 2 different short stories. The first is from The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter and I can’t remember where the other was used.

Panel 3
The “unmistakable military bearing” and medal watch fob are both clues used by Holmes in his deductions in 2 different short stories. The first is from The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter and I can’t remember where the other was used.

Panel 4
“The Third Boar War”: In our world, the first and second Boer Wars were fought 1880 – 1881 and 1899 – 1902 in South Africa.

Panel 5
The Seige of Mafeking took place in our world during the second and the symbol of Mafeking is a lion. In the world of Grandville, lions are associated with Napoleon, so I made it a leopard. I made up the story about the tattoo.

The symbol on the watch is that of the Rollex brand.

I’ve no idea whether there was ever such a thing as ‘Kensington homosexual code” in itself, but, before the abolition of anti-same sex legislation in civilised countries, gay codes (such as the placing of handkerchiefs in certain pockets) and the use of slang as a secret language were used to avoid detection and the possibility of imprisonment. (This is for the benefit of readers who were born after this state of affairs and who might not be aware of it).

Page 58

Panel 2
“A ten-pint problem”: A reference to the three pipe problem in The Red-Headed League, Holmes means that he’ll need the time to smoke 3 pipes to solve the mystery.

“Single malt whiskies”: the origin of LeBrock’s fondness for them.

Panel 6
Bartitsu: a 19th century martial art using, among other things, walking canes, ubiquitous fashion accessories at the time. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle refers to it in the Holmes story The Adventure of the Empty House as “Baritsu”.

Panel 7

A.J. and Bunny: Arthur J Raffles, a cunning (hence fox) gentleman thief, was the hero of a series of stories, plays and a novel written by E. W. Hornung from 1898 to 1909. Raffles films, TV and radio adaptations have been produced over the years

A.J. and Bunny: Arthur J Raffles, a cunning (hence fox) gentleman thief, was the hero of a series of stories, plays and a novel written by E. W. Hornung from 1898 to 1909. Raffles films, TV and radio adaptations have been produced over the years.

“A.J.’s” friend and chronicler was Harry “Bunny” Manders.

Page 59

Panel 1
"I'm off to breed ferrets in Suffolk": Holmes reference. See page 96 Panel 1 annotations.

Page 60

Panel 3
The lizard bottom left is a Leopard Gecko.

The lizard bottom left is a Leopard Gecko.

Panel 6
To the left is a Horned Lizard.

To the left is a Horned Lizard.

Panel 7
Gordon: Gordon Gekko!

Now see the Grandville Force Majeure annotations for pages 61 to 80.