All lovers of the 9th art are familiar with the heroic fantasy saga that revealed Serge Le Tendre and Régis Loisel. The enthusiasm for this classic of Franco-Belgian comics has not weakened for forty years, the director Mathieu Hussenot offers a documentary series to get into the minds of the creators of the adventures of Bragon and Pelisse.
Sometimes chance takes on the appearance of destiny. Nothing seemed to predestine Mathieu Hussenot to make a documentary series on cult comics The Quest for the Time Bird. Yes, he likes the series, but he is not so close to the world of comics. However, the year of the forty anniversary of the series, he offers a crowdfunding to penetrate the psyche of Régis Loisel and Serge Le Tendre, as they prepare to put an end to the saga that rocked readers around the world. An ideal way to say goodbye to Bragon, Pelisse, Fourreux and the rest of the characters imagined by the talented duo. How and why this project was born? Discover the answers of the videographer.
Linternaute.com: How was this project born?
Mathieu Hussenot: It’s really a complete coincidence. It so happens that when I moved to Touraine, to Amboise, my neighbors turned out to be the Loisels. We crossed paths, met and very quickly became friends. You have to know that I am a complete neophyte when it comes to the behind the scenes of the comic book world. In Régis’ studio, everything amazes me, challenges me. I asked him lots of questions to which he answered with kindness and kindness. It almost felt unfair to keep those precious moments just to myself. So I asked Régis if he accepted that I make video recordings of our exchanges and he accepted. This was the first step of this project.
After that ?
I stored a lot of sequences, but without necessarily a plan or a project. At the moment, Régis is working on the last albums of the second cycle “Avant la Quête”, but if we want the project to extend until the release of the final album, that of the 3rd cycle “Après la Quête “, so I absolutely have to structure the whole thing. We are on a project that will extend over at least three years.
Who says such an investment in time implies a budget…
Absolutely. I went to see the editorial teams of Dargaud. The concept thrilled them but their last co-productions of comic book documentaries were semi-failures, so they are no longer keen to invest as co-producers. On the other hand, they accompany with a marketing budget, including endowments in albums.
Why the Proarti platform and not Ulule or Kiss Kiss Bank Bank?
Because I am a director. I have already carried out several projects on Proarti as a production structure and it seemed to me more efficient to start from this base. Although, indeed, other platforms are more familiar to comic book fans. To be totally transparent, I’m going to make these documentaries at a loss, I’m not going to make any money. I enrich myself culturally. For the success of the project, we aim to raise €7,500.
What are you going to put in these documentaries?
I want to answer “everything”. We want to be as comprehensive as possible. We expect two documentaries per year. In the first episode, the focus will be on Serge, Régis and Vincent Mallié. Talk about them, how to finish a pre-cycle in a coherent way. They have been working on this album since mid-2021, and today Vincent Mallié has drawn a little more than half of the boards. We approach the notion of artistic heritage, how a designer appropriates, lives with a saga entrusted to him.
We also approach the genesis of this saga, from the first appearance in a fanzine, then a second fanzine with a corrected black & white version. How do we deal with a magazine story versus an album story. How Régis and Serge built themselves at the time, their adventures in a workshop shared with many artists, how each enriched the other. This human adventure will resonate with everyone. We will also return a little to their inspirations, their influences. The first episode, lasting 20 minutes, is finished and edited. And in the next episodes, involving editors, fans, other contemporary cartoonists or generations who grew up reading the Quest. And of course their respective families.
Is a TV broadcast project possible?
For now, the destination of these documentaries is only on the internet. If, from these episodes, it piques the curiosity of TV producers, we are open to an adapted format. A 52 minutes or whatever.
How did you choose the rewards?
The idea was to attract Loisel fans above all, without going too high in prices. We didn’t want to allow people commissions, large autographed drawings by Régis, it wouldn’t have been affordable and, above all, we wanted to avoid resellers. You should know that these people, the people who go looking for dedications to resell them, are the main cause of the refusal of dedications by many authors. We agreed on a small drawing, not a stamp, of Régis within the albums. We have also set up signed serigraphs. We couldn’t offer a unique counterpart like a board, Régis only has about fifty boards left from the first cycle, out of more than two hundred. The majority he exchanged with other authors. His collection is impressive, there are drawings everywhere in his studio.
What was your biggest surprise on this project?
The human encounter, even before this project was born. Today, I am happy to count Régis among my friends.
Find it crowdfunding by clicking here.