Floc’h illustrateur (de livres)

Jean-Claude Floch, known simply as Floc’h, is perhaps my favourite illustrator working today. Although he is probably best known to anglophone audiences for the six covers (and other illustrations) he has done for The New Yorker, his output extends to book covers, movie posters, advertising, and especially bande dessinée (the European art form situated somewhere between the comic and the graphic novel). With François Rivière he co-authored the groundbreaking Une triologie anglaise (An English Trilogy), the first volume of which came out in 1977. This series completely revolutionized the art, taking up the classic ligne claire style pioneered by Hergé and Jacobs while pushing the bounds of traditional narrative, notably through the use of mises en abyme.

Between 1992 and 1994, Floc’h illustrated a series of covers for Eric Ambler and Dan Kavanagh (a.k.a. Julian Barnes) novels published by Éditions du Seuil’s Points imprint.

Among his other covers are illustrations for Jean-Luc Coatalem’s collection of travelogues entitled Les beaux horizons (1997).

Front cover

Back cover

Over a decade later, these same illustrations appeared in the 21 April 2008 issue of The New Yorker.

If you like the sort of thing you’ve seen here, you’ll want to immediately pick up the complete Une trilogie anglaise ($49.95 in Canada) — and related titles — as well as the two volumes of Floc’h illustrateur (the boxed set sells for $99.95 in Canada), featuring all of his non-comics illustration work.

You’ll also want to visit L’homme dans la foule, a growing online collection of all things Floc’h.

~ by Thomas on 2008-Dec-22.