Bonne Année 2008!
Hyvää Uutta Vuotta 2008!
Happy New Year 2008!
Titeuf 29, December 2007
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Titeuf est un héros de bande dessinée créé par le dessinateur genevois Philippe Chappuis, alias Zep. C’est un jeune garçon par lequel, dans la série éponyme, Zep nous montre la vision qu’ont les enfants des attitudes et des institutions des adultes.
Titeuf est né en mars 1992 sur un carnet à dessin où Zep dessine quelques souvenirs d’enfance. Un de ses personnages est un blondinet avec une tête d’œuf et une houppette car il a la flemme de dessiner des cheveux. Trouvant que la tête de son personnage ressemble à un œuf, il décide de l’appeler Titeuf (petit œuf > tit’euf > Titeuf) .
Au départ, il garde sa création pour lui avant de s’apercevoir du potentiel du personnage, bien meilleur que ses autres productions de l’époque. Après de nombreux refus, Zep avait en effet décidé d’abandonner la bande dessinée et de se contenter de coucher ses souvenirs sur papier. Sur les conseils de son entourage, les premières planches de Titeuf sont publiés dans un fanzine (Sauve qui peut) à petits exemplaires lorsqu’un producteur, Jean-Claude Camano, aujourd’hui l’agent de Zep, jette un œil par hasard et repère la mèche blonde. Quelques mois plus tard, le premier album nait et est tiré à 8000 exemplaires. Mais le succès de Titeuf explose très vite.
En octobre 2006, le 11e tome a été tiré à 1,8 million d’exemplaires, ce qui en fait la plus grosse sortie en librairie de l’année, tous genres confondus. Fin 2006, y compris le le 11ème album, les aventures de Titeuf ont fait vendre 16 millions d’albums.
La série raconte la vie quotidienne de Titeuf, un enfant à la mèche blonde caractéristique, de ses amis, et de leur vision du monde des adultes. L’âge de Titeuf est inconnu mais il semble situé au début de la pré-adolescence, une grande partie des discussions abordées concernent les mystères des filles, du sexe, de la séduction, et de Nadia, la fille dont Titeuf est plus ou moins secrètement amoureux. Une autre caractéristique de Titeuf sont ces nombreuses expressions ( « Tchô », « C’est pô juste », « Lâche-moi le slip », « Pauvre zizi sexuel » … )
(Source: Wikipedia)
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Titeuf is a Franco-Belgian comics series created by the Swiss comics creator Zep which was adapted into an animated TV series, and appears in the dedicated comics magazine Tchô!.
Titeuf was initially published in the fanzine Sauve qui peut (“Escape those who can”) and noticed by Glénat executive Jean-Claude Camano. Zep joined Glénat in 1992 and Titeuf eventually became one of France’s most popular comics. The first Titeuf book Dieu, le sexe et les bretelles (God, Sex And Suspenders) appeared in 1993 and sold only a few thousand copies, but the subsequent books gradually won over a colossal readership, and the series is now considered the greatest moneymaker in the French comics market. The series was adapted into an animated TV series in 2001, initially broadcast on Canal J.
(Source: Wikipedia)
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Sites Officiels/Offcials Websites (only in french)
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Titeuf et ses potes de Kruger Park secouent la BD sud-africaine/ French cartoon hero Titeuf makes English debut… in South Africa 29, December 2007
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Avec son langage de môme d’aujourd’hui, Titeuf, enfin traduit en anglais, tente une percée en Afrique du Sud, où le marché confidentiel de la BD prend aussi un coup de jeune avec Sol et Saul, héros de “Kruger Park”, oeuvre d’un artiste local.
“Titeuf n’aurait pu être publié avant. L’Afrique du Sud était très conservatrice. Lorsque je suis arrivé il y a quinze ans, rien n’était ouvert le dimanche, pas même les cinémas”, raconte Miodrag Pepic, 44 ans.
Cet imprimeur d’origine serbe, passionné de BD, s’est lancé dans l’édition, déterminé à faire connaître aux Sud-Africains ses héros préférés, comme Titeuf, et à promouvoir des auteurs du cru.
“J’en ai rencontré d’excellents, qui ont un vrai potentiel, mais ne peuvent le développer parce qu’ils doivent assurer le quotidien.”
Et il a rencontré Mdu Ntuli, 25 ans, créateur de Sol et Saul. Fils de rangers de la célèbre réserve animalière du Kruger, ce sont de jeunes Sud-Africains comme tant d’autres, l’un fasciné par le “business”, l’autre par la protection de l’environnement.
L’imprimeur est convaincu que l’Afrique du Sud a changé depuis la fin de l’apartheid en 1994 et qu’il y a un public pour la bande dessinée. “Mais les seules BD européennes que l’on trouve ici, c’est Tintin et Astérix!”
Il manquait Titeuf, créé par Philippe Chapuis, alias Zep, et sorti à plus de 20 millions d’exemplaires dans une vingtaine de pays. Ce petit garçon ancré dans son époque, vif et plein d’humour, s’interroge sur l’école, les réactions étranges des adultes, la drogue et bien sûr les filles.
“J’ai surpris mon fils de 11 ans à parler avec ses copains exactement comme Titeuf. Je ne sais comment Zep capte les dialogues des gosses, mais c’est un vrai délice!”
Aidé par l’ambassade de France, l’imprimeur sort l’album “To impress the girls” (Ca épate les filles), conçu sur son ordinateur et traduit par sa femme, comme le premier, “Love, not so decent” (L’amour c’est pô propre), édité à 1.000 exemplaires en 2006.
“Le nouveau est vendu 50 rands (environ 5 EUR). Je couvre juste les frais. Je ne peux payer un employé là-dessus”, dit-il. L’édition locale fonctionne en effet sur de faibles tirages car “les gens achètent peu de livres.”
Le premier Titeuf a reçu un accueil “enthousiaste, on me demandait quand sortait le deuxième. C’est une vraie récompense!”, ajoute Pepic, qui travaille avec deux éditeurs français, Glénat et Soleil, pour publier aussi “Lanfeust de Troy”, “Gil St André” et “Le troisième testament”.
Il rêve de sortir en Afrique du Sud l’un des albums du grand Hugo Pratt, “Cato Zoulou”, évidemment. “J’ai voulu en acquérir les droits, mais l’éditeur n’a pas daigné me répondre.”
Tant pis, Pepic a d’autres projets telle la série “Zoulouland” de René Durand et Georges Ramaoïoli, qui pourrait susciter des remous. “C’est un sujet historiquement délicat. Les Britanniques y sont très arrogants, ce qui était normal à l’époque. Mais c’est une leçon d’histoire géniale.”
Il voudrait aussi amener Rico, dessinateur des célèbres “Madam & Eve” qui commentent l’actualité locale dans les journaux, à écrire ses propres histoires et à “sortir un album commencé il y a des années.”
Comme le monde de la BD est petit, Rico n’est autre que le mentor de Ntuli: “Il m’a appris les bases. Puis j’ai travaillé pour créer mon style”.
Ntuli s’inspire de la vie des townships. “Pour les animaux, je regarde la télé. Je ne suis jamais allé au Kruger Park”, avoue-t-il dans un éclat de rire.
“Les gens pensent que +Kruger Park+ vient de l’étranger. Quand je leur dis que c’est moi qui le fais, ils sont surpris. C’est encourageant!”, ajoute Ntuli, désireux de “changer la vision des Sud-Africains sur la BD.”
(Source: Yahoo!)
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Titeuf, the comic-strip prankster who has amused both youngsters and adults in France for over a decade, is now available in English thanks to a Serbian-born cartoon enthusiast based in South Africa.
“I started the printing business four years ago and I always wanted to publish something and I found out that Titeuf has been translated in about 15 languages, even Chinese, but not in English ever,” says publisher Miodrag Pepic, who moved from his native Serbia to South Africa 15 years ago.
“The only European comics you can easily find here are Tintin and Asterix which are about 50-years-old!”
First published in France in 1993, the tales of the schoolboy Titeuf and his attempts to feel his way towards impending adolescence have chalked up worldwide sales of some 20 million in around 20 different countries.
But if Astrerix and Tintin belong to a more innocent age of straight-forward heroes and villains, Titeuf warms the hearts as readers associate with his struggle to absorb everything from girls to his first cigarette and wet shave.
Given some of the more risque themes covered in the books, the United States or Britain might appear the more obvious place to first publish in English but Pepic’s pure love of the character means South Africa has been the lauchpad.
With some financial help from the French embassy, Pepic last year knocked out 1,000 copies of “Love, not so decent” on his computer in the Johannesburg suburb of Randberg and has printed a similar-sized run of the tome “To Impress The Girls…”.
“I do it on my own, on my computer from the beginning to the end. It’s so unprofitable that I would feel bad to put somebody from the company on it,” says Pepic.
“We are selling the new lot at 50 rand (around five euros). I just cover the costs.
“I don’t do it for money. I am doing it because I can. The response I got from these 1,000 people who bought the first one was overwhelming with people coming and asking me when I am going to do the second one. It’s a true reward.”
Pepic says the real secret to Titeuf’s popularity is how creator Zep appears instinctively attuned to the language of the schoolyard.
“My son who is 11 years old and I caught him talking the same way as Titeuf talks. I don’t how this guy got all these dialogues that kids do have, but it’s a true delight. I personally love his books.”
Not all adults however appear enamoured with the Titeuf books, as Pepic’s son discovered.
“My son brought the book to his school teacher as a present and she was offended, she told him that he must not bring the book to school anymore. And it’s a highly progessive school for this country!”
Pepic’s enthusiasm for comics is also evident in his championing of local cartoonists such as Mdu Ntuli.
The 25-year-old Ntuli, who was brought up in a township in the rural northern province of Mpumalanga, is making a name for himself after Pepic published his comic book “Kruger Park”.
The book revolves around two sons — Sol and Saul — of rangers in South Africa’s world famous Kruger National Park, one of whom is obsessed with making a quick buck while the other is equally focused on protecting the environment.
Ntuli admits he has never actually ventured inside the Kruger nor attended art classes.
“I get my inspiration just looking at people, at the way they live in the townships,” explains Ntuli.
“It’s inspiring to have people from the township who react to it, don’t even think of this comic as a local thing, they think it comes from overseas. They ask me ‘Where did you buy it?’ and when I say actually I make this stuff, they don’t expect it.”
“It’s a brilliant, very creative book,” is Pepic’s verdict on “Kruger Park”.
“There are a lot of local talents. That just don’t have the time to develop something because they have to work on a daily job, try to make ends meet.
“I want to show people that something is happening in this country, that we are not at the end of the world as a lot of people thinks.”
(Source: Yahoo!)
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Smoking ban hits French cafe culture 29, December 2007
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From next week, one of France’s most iconic institutions — the smoky cafe — will be but a hazy memory.
The extension of France’s smoking ban to bars, discotheques, restaurants, hotels, casinos and cafes on Jan. 1 marks a momentous cultural shift in a country where thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir once held court while clutching cigarettes in Left Bank cafes.
For smokers, this is the most distressing part of a phased smoking ban that began last February in workplaces, schools, airports, hospitals and other “closed and covered” public places like train stations.
But many bartenders and restaurant staffers are looking forward to breathing easier and to clothes that don’t stink of seeped-in odors from the clouds of smoke where they work.
Just about anywhere indoors will be off-limits for smoking, except homes, hotel rooms, and sealed smoking chambers at establishments that decide to provide them.
“The French culture associated with smoking is a 20th-century thing, but we won’t forget the experience,” ex-smoker Lisa Zane, a Chicago-born singer who lives in Paris, said at Le Fumoir (The Smoking Den) restaurant and bar behind the Louvre.
“Smoking seems insane now — we have to adapt.”
The Health Ministry says one in two regular smokers here dies of smoking-related illness, and about 5,000 nonsmokers die each year of passive smoking. About a quarter of France’s 60 million people are smokers.
The ban will likely mean more unsightly cigarette butts on sidewalks and in gutters. British American Tobacco’s French arm on Wednesday began a pilot program in and near Paris of putting ashtrays outside bars where tobacco products are sold.
Countries like Italy, Spain, Belgium, Britain and Ireland already have smoking bans. But it’s tough to imagine the style-conscious French bundling up in blankets to smoke on chilly restaurant terraces, like some Londoners have.
Many restaurateurs, cafe owners and disco operators fear lost business: Smokers who light up with a countertop morning coffee, on the dance floor or after a meal make up a huge customer base.
“There will be a drop, certainly. The tobacco-bar is part of the French tradition,” said Christophe Mgo, owner of Le Marigny bar in northwest Paris. “They (customers who smoke) will surely stay less time and they will only drink one coffee or beer, instead of two.”
A national union of disco owners has said it expects a 5- to 8-percent decline in business initially, and has urged the government to send pamphlets to police to show “understanding” in their enforcement of the ban.
Some 10,000 protesters, mainly tobacco vendors, marched across Paris last month in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade lawmakers to add flexibility to the new prohibitions.
In a minor concession, the government says it won’t fully enforce the new ban on New Year’s Day— giving smokers the right to puff away until Jan. 2.
The government is increasingly encouraging smokers to quit. A traveling campaign went to seven cities in November and December, offering rapid-fire meetings with anti-smoking experts — a bit like speed-dating sessions.
For those who continue to smoke, the bitterness will take time to fade over what they see as an infringement of their freedoms.
“Great idea,” smoker Daniel Marierouyer, 45, said sarcastically at Le Fumoir. “I love it when things get imposed on us — Buckle your seat beat, don’t smoke, you need to be healthy, you’re too fat.”
(Source: Yahoo!)
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Les six membres de l’Arche de Zoé rapatriés et incarcérés en France/ French jailed in Chad transferred home 29, December 2007
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Ils ont été conduits dans un centre pénitentiaire. Cinq des six condamnés ont demandé un examen médical.
Leurs familles qui s’étaient rendues à l’aéroport en pensant les voir n’ont pu les approcher.
Un tribunal correctionnel sera saisi pour adapter la peine à laquelle ils ont été condamnés, les travaux forcés n’existant pas en droit français.
Paris avait demandé officiellement jeudi le transfert des travailleurs humanitaires français détenus au Tchad depuis deux mois en vertu d’un accord judiciaire signé avec N’Djamena en 1976.
Les six membres de l’ONG ont été reconnus coupables de tentative d’enlèvement vers la France de 103 enfants africains.
(Source: Yahoo!)
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Six French charity workers sentenced to eight years’ forced labor in Chad for trying to kidnap 103 children were transferred to France on Friday and jailed shortly after arriving, judicial officials said.
The six from Zoe’s Ark were sentenced in Chad on Wednesday and sent home under a 1976 judicial accord between the two countries that allows for the repatriation of convicts. The prospect of their return provoked protests in the former French colony in central Africa, with Chadians denouncing what they see as special treatment for Europeans.
Because France does not have forced labor, the French justice system is likely to commute or reduce their sentences. But under the 1976 accord, Chadian officials must agree to the terms of any sentencing changes, judicial officials have said.
Chadian authorities stopped the aid group’s convoy with the children in October. The charity had planned to fly the children to France, saying they were driven by compassion to help orphans in Darfur, the conflict-torn western Sudanese region that borders Chad. Later investigations showed most of the children had at least one parent or close adult relative.
The six arrived Friday evening at Le Bourget airport, north of Paris, and were taken to an area jail shortly afterward, said Francois Molins, the state prosecutor for the Paris suburb of Bobigny. A decision on their sentences is expected by mid-January, he said.
“Some of them realize that they are entering a period that is going to be difficult,” he told reporters at a news conference.
A spokesman for French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the transfer demonstrated his resolve to win the aid workers’ release.
Sarkozy had “pledged, before the families of the six French nationals, that he would spare no effort to win their return to France as soon as possible,” spokesman David Martinon said in a statement Friday.
In November, Sarkozy went to Chad to bring home three French journalists and four Spanish flight crew members initially charged in the case.
Security at Le Bourget airport was high, with members of the media and supporters of the aid workers kept outside. Family members and friends — some holding signs reading “big-hearted humanitarians” — also waited outside in hopes of catching a glimpse of their loved ones.
Christine Peligat said she did not see her husband, Zoe’s Ark member Alain Peligat, at the airport and would probably have to wait until Saturday to visit him in jail.
“It’s been three months since we’ve seen one another; we can wait another night,” she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
She said she was worried about her husband’s health and called on officials to order a thorough medical examination of the aid workers — who began a hunger strike earlier this month to draw attention to the case.
Molins said the six were weak and visibly demoralized by their ordeal. He said medical personnel at the jail would determine whether any of the aid workers would be hospitalized.
During the trial, relatives of the children testified that they believed the youngsters were going to be educated in Chad.
“They tricked us by telling us our children would be taught here,” Nassour Gardia told the court. “And then they herded them like cattle to sell in France.”
The case has embarrassed France. It came as the country was pushing for a European Union force to be sent to Chad to protect refugees fleeing violence in Darfur.
The deployment of the approximate 4,300-member force, drawn largely from France, already has been delayed because of lack of necessary equipment. Last month, in an apparent warning to the EU force, a Chadian rebel group declared a “state of war” against French and other foreign armies on Chadian territory.
French Defense Minister Herve Morin will travel to Chad on Sunday and then to neighboring Central African Republic to visit French troops there, the Defense Ministry announced Friday. The European Union force will also top Morin’s agenda during the three-day trip, ministry officials said.
The Zoe’s Ark scandal has had repercussions for other humanitarian workers, who say their already difficult job along Darfur’s border has been complicated by the suspicion some Chadians now have toward all foreigners offering help.
Days after the aid workers were arrested, the Republic of Congo announced it was suspending all international adoptions because of the events in Chad.
(Source: Yahoo!)
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