Riad Sattouf: “We can leave with what we think are huge flaws and finally get out of it”

With the very successful volume 6 of

, Riad Sattouf closes a cycle that has become an editorial phenomenon, with more than three million copies sold.

Revealing what happens to his brother Fadi, kidnapped by their father who has resettled in Syria, he recounts at the same time his own formative years – and his desire to capture unexplored parts of reality through comics.

On January 25, consecration: the author and director was rewarded with the Grand Prix of the Angoulême Festival, supreme reward of the world of French comics.

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Le Lycéen

by Christophe Honoré, with Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lacoste

Is talking about me on promo a chore?

Despite appearances, I rarely talk about myself.

I talk about myself through my books or my books through me, so to speak, but I don't tell so much about my life.

And it's not a chore: I've dreamed so much, for years, that people are interested in my work, that now that it's happening, I'm very happy.

Why is this book important to me?

Because this volume closes

and it corresponds to what I imagined when I started the cycle in 2014. Usually, I start from a storyboard, I have my editor read and to trusted readers like Emile Bravo an extremely precise breakdown.

There, everything was done by the pen and I stayed alone at home, proceeding as in automatic writing, before delivering everything directly to the publisher.

How does this work resonate in my life?

Let's say I was eager to share it with readers.

All day I received dozens of messages via social media from people asking me what happened to my family and when they might find out.

I'm happy to say to myself that they have the answer and I feel a little liberated – I'll be able to move on to other projects, like this film with Les Inconnus…

A news of the moment more important than my news?

I'm surprised we don't talk more about science news.

Recently I heard the president of BioNTech say that the cancer vaccine will be ready before 2030…

“Each of my books has its faults, its qualities but I love them all”

Why should you read this volume 6?

If we have read the previous ones, we have

want to read this one: everything is solved there.

Then I also unfold my trajectory there, and I remember that I liked the stories of the journey a lot when I was young.

I read that of Moebius, which influenced mine, but also the

of Kessel, or the autobiographical stories of Saint-Exupéry, and if I can pass on to younger generations that what happens to us in childhood shapes the As an adult, also conveying that everything doesn't happen all at once, that you can leave with what you think are huge flaws and finally get out of it, it will be a real satisfaction.

Is the best book always the last?

I do not believe that.

Each of my books has its faults, its qualities, some are less appreciated by people than others, but I love them all.

I don't intellectualize the writing process and maybe that's why I have the impression that books arise like children would be born.

We don't choose the color of their eyes or the shape of their nose;

we make do with them and we love them no matter what they look like.

The question I'm not answering?

That of knowing what my relatives thought of my comics.

I always say that I'm going to tell about it in the rest of my albums… And in fact I talk about it a little bit in this volume.

Paradoxically, I pretend to tell my life when in fact, I make the real romantic, I choose the structure, the cutting, I describe a period of two years on two pages and an episode of two hours out of eight, and that changes everything .

Read alsoRiad Sattouf: "In 1994, I was 16 and I was a semi-psychopath"

What am I going to do after this interview?

I'm going to go and draw my

page next week...

Any misunderstanding about me?

You might think I have a deceitful look when it's a genetic trait: I have my grandfather's half-moon eyes.

I also say in

that I often try to open my eyes to remedy this...

During the writing, I was…

In a hurry to get to the end!

I see

as a kind of hike, and with this sixth volume, I was looking forward to being at the top – or at least at the destination – to see how far we've come.

The Arab of the future

, volume 6, Riad Sattouf, Allary editions, 184 p., €24.90.

To be released November 24.

Allary editions