To The Last Page

I guess the English language title of Cyril Pedrosa’s Les Coeurs Solitaires (literally ‘lonely hearts’) should have given me a clue, but Pedrosa creates a little world so suggestive of home comforts and routine that it doesn’t seem like his main character Jean-Paul is going anywhere, so it’s a surprise when you turn a page of Hearts at Sea and find him on-board a ship ready to set sail off into the Mediterranean. But such an effect is undoubtedly intentional and the results are also a little jarring but necessary for Jean-Paul. Up to that point, Jean-Paul’s life seems to be going nowhere. Living in a place where not much happens, somewhere between Paris and Basel, Jean-Paul works in the family business, which is designing traditional quality hardwood toys. He’s very much under the influence and watchful eye of his mother, a bond that seems impossible to break now that his father is dead. As the anniversary of his death approaches, it’s clear that Jean-Paul is dissatisfied with the wa...

Threatened by the three ominous figures that appear at their idyllic forest home, a father takes his son on a long journey to escape the dark fate that seems to be in store for the young child. Pedrosa’s drawing ability, as seen previously in his Ring Circus books with David Chauvel, is impressive. Less refined here, the black-and-white pencil, ink and charcoal work here lends a fluid, sketchy and expressive quality to the storytelling, each frame beautifully composed and drawn. The cartoony Disney Lilo and Stitch/Hunchback of Notre Dame style (Pedrosa previously worked as an artist for Disney) of the opening sections gives way to a darker and more surreal Mattotti style as the tone of the story darkens. Pedrosa also finds some imaginative ways of his own to express the fear and the flight of his characters, but the design appears a little over-worked, not always chiming with the emotional content.