“Eat, sleep. This is how each day of my existence could have been summed up. However, I had given myself a quest. Inter-species communication ”.
These are the words that open
Tomorrow Les Chats,
which comes out on Wednesday April 28 in bookstores
.
The comic strip, adapted from the eponymous novel by Bernard Werber released in 2016, features Bastet, a Parisian cat who has decided to enter into a relationship with the world around her and more particularly human beings. All the more so, since after a wave of terrorist attacks, the civil war has plagued the streets. From the top of her balcony, she observes with perplexity and incomprehension a society which spends its time killing each other. Until his meeting with Pythagoras, a laboratory cat that could browse the Internet thanks to a USB plug grafted to the top of his head. With his knowledge, he will teach Bastet the ancestral springs of humanity. Faced with a failing civilization, theywill combine to take over from humans and counter the threat of rats which are on the way to becoming the masters of the world.
Faced with a failing civilization, cats will unite to take over from humans.
Albin Michel
How to rebuild the world on a better basis?
The question underlies the album produced by the tandem Pog on the screenplay and Naïs Quin on the drawing.
“When there were the attacks of November 13, I said to myself that it was my duty as a writer to talk about this subject which seemed historic to me,”
explains Bernard Werber
.
And my way of being able to talk about it “differently” was to offer the subjective vision of a cat.
Like an alien among us.
It is always humans who talk about humans, it was a way for me to take a step aside. "
How to rebuild the world on a better basis?
This is the question that underlies the album
Demain les chats
Albin Michel
Between thriller, anticipation and philosophical tale, the authors take the reader on a thrilling adventure where humor meets the most extreme violence, ultra technological the most archaic behavior.
Released by the semi-realistic feature of the designer, giving the story liveliness and dynamism, the album blithely handles philosophical reflections, historical interludes and hectic action scenes.
To the delight of Bernard Werber who sees in this revisited vision of his novel, a complementary and full-fledged work.
LE FIGARO - How did this comic book adaptation come about?
Bernard WERBER
- The Albin Michel editions have recently returned to comics and the publisher Martin Zeller asked me which project would be the most adaptable and I suggested
Tomorrow the Cats to him.
Why
Tomorrow the Cats
?
It lent itself particularly well to comics because of its action scenes.
When you write, you depend on the directing ability of the reader.
With this album we offered him a visual on a race, a battle of characters or a setting.
How did the choice of authors Pog and Naïs Quin come about?
On the advice of Martin Zeller.
I read the script and immediately gave them my trust.
Their artistic choices immediately seemed judicious to me.
Naïs Quin's energetic graphics and colors seemed perfectly suited to this story.
His semi-realistic line, by forcing the features of the characters, introduces a subjectivity and a dose of humor softening this violent universe.
To what extent did you participate in its development?
I only made a few small adjustments.
For me, Pog and Naïs Quin are the co-authors of a full-fledged work, and I respect their creativity, whether in the casting of the characters or in the cuts, I forgot my novel and saw exclusively a comic strip .
What did comics add to your novel?
A head to my heroine, color, rhythm and musicality imposed by the boxes that are missing from a novel.
Emotionally, music and images act more effectively than words.
Naïs Quin has a cinematic vision that makes my story extremely lively and dynamic.
So many ingredients that make it accessible to a wider audience, especially young people.
Complementarity therefore ...
My job is a storyteller.
Regardless of the medium used, the most important idea is that people understand things while being carried away by a story.
Therein lies the principle of Greek mythology, apprehending the world through legend or heroes.
I believe that we open the minds of people and especially young people by making them live an adventure through characters.
Mythology, shamanism, humanism ... Many thoughts punctuate your work.
I was lulled by the stories of Greek mythology that my father told me.
For me, the ancient Greeks understood everything.
And Pythagoras (the protagonist's first name) is its most worthy representative.
He invented everything, between the range in music, astronomy, vegetarianism.
He distinguished himself brilliantly in many areas.
He is the most complete man there is, the one who formed Plato and Socrates.
The basis of everything we have in the West, for me, is him.
As for shamanism, it represents the link between the animal world and the human world, a kind of reconnection between species.
Shamans are those who reconcile us with nature.
So many precepts that support the purpose of my novel and the drawn story.
In a world on the verge of chaos, the music of the Callas rings out.
Albin Michel
We also lend your work a visionary dimension. When you say that humans have discovered art, a useless activity in which all their strength lies, the resonance with current events is disturbing ...
I am the first to be surprised.
Anyway, the theme of culture as an essential pillar of humanity will be developed in the second part of the comic ...
Today humanity is still battered by wars and terrorism. What message would you like to send him?
I hope the world doesn't need to be saved by cats, but by itself.
Tomorrow the Cats,
Pog and Naïs Quin, Albin Michel editions, 18.90 euros.
