Year after year, tracing their path with rigor, Glénat editions have left their mark on the landscape of historical comics. Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Louis XIV, Charles de Gaulle, Mao Zedong… now inhabit the portrait gallery of the “They made history” collection. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, drawing the portrait of Lenin, the leader of the faction that took power, was essential. Cartoonist Denis Rodier, scriptwriter Ozanam and historian Marie-Pierre Rey have combined their talents to define the character and action of the revolutionary strategist.
Who was he really? This is the question that haunts the boards of this comic strip. Inscribing the life of a great character in 46 pages of drawings and speech bubbles is a challenge. It is the whole success of this album to know how to master the ellipsis while giving sufficient reference points to the reader, even if it is preferable to have some minimal notions of what happened. The art here is to select the revealing facts and to present them in a lively and coherent way.
What stands out is the chiaroscuro portrait of a human, even ordinary Lenin, who nevertheless radiates a disturbing halo. This genius strategist, intellectual in action, who can remain locked up in his bedroom with closed curtains for two weeks, seems to live in the black box of his ideas aimed at revolutionary achievement. Without caricature or complacency, we follow him in the relentless spiral that leads him to the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Lenin
Ozanam, Denis Rodier, Marie-Pierre Rey
Glénat, Fayard, March 2017, 46 p., €14.50