Marc-Antoine Mathieu: “Deep Me slalom between Kafka, Borges, Soulages and Camus!”

At first glance, Marc-Antoine Mathieu's new album,

, looks like an abstract work of art, Anish Kapoor or Pierre Soulages style.

However, make no mistake about it, behind the austere aspect of this comic strip which resembles the black monolith of

, hides an absolutely jubilant album, full of surprises and twists as graphic as scriptwriting.

In this, the universe of designer Marc-Antoine Mathieu has always been bathed in dreams, the absurd and sparks of genius.

With this new album in the form of a journey to the depths of a consciousness awakening to the world, the creator of the singular singular series

, signs a nugget in the form of a psychological thriller.

LE FIGARO - What was the trigger that led to this strange album

Marc-Antoine MATHIEU

- The idea came a bit like the desire to carry out a laboratory experiment.

I imagined an isolated consciousness, Adam, stimulated only by the anguish of his ignorance.

A character without memory who tries to find out what he is doing there, lost in the dark, no longer having the slightest radius of action, a prisoner and incapable of the slightest movement like in the film

by Dalton Trumbo.

No doubt there was a certain resonance with the first confinement, a period during which I started to work on the project.

The starting point amused me.

It was a reading experience for me.

In

, Marc-Antoine Mathieu imagines a character with no memory trying to find out what he is doing there, lost in the dark, like in the film

by Dalton Trumbo.

@Delcourt 2022

Who is Adam, the main character of the album?

The reader will learn more about him as he reads, by successive revelations.

We can believe at the beginning that he is suffering from the famous “locked-in syndrome”, an illness from which Jean-Dominique Bauby, the author of the bestseller

, suffered .

In fact, as I let myself be drawn into this story, I ended up understanding that I was on my way to a diptych, the second volume of which will be called

, and whose cover will be entirely white. .

For me,

is a life and reading experience... With this album, I play a lot with the codes of comics, its grammar, its language, its temporality, its bubbles, its onomatopoeia... Comics have a creative toolbox fascinating.

For me, Adam is a bit like the big brother of Julius Corentin Acquefacques.

Julius always walks around with a big question mark over his head.

He doubts all the time.

But he wants to go beyond the horizon... Like Adam.

Marc-Antoine Mathieu: "With this album, I play a lot with the codes of comics, its grammar, bubbles, onomatopoeia..." @Delcourt 2022

And for Adam, your character, what is his adventure all about?

For Adam, the album is like an investigation into himself.

The image of a plane crash comes to mind.

Over the pages, the fragments of his existence are recomposed.

Afterwards, the album is also a comic strip which questions what intelligence is.

The progress made around artificial intelligence in recent years fascinates me.

What are the differences between a human intelligence and an AI?

It's like in the movie

.

This theme has been largely brewed by science fiction.

But these days, it's hardly science fiction anymore.

For example, some cancer diagnoses are made by artificial intelligence thanks to modeling obtained by algorithms.

The doctor is only there to validate the diagnosis at the end of the race.

Marc-Antoine Mathieu: “For Adam, the album is like an investigation into himself.

The image of a plane crash comes to mind.

@Delcourt 2022

What attracts you so much to black and white comics?

I've always loved black and white in comics.

I learned over time that the human brain ends up seeing color when reading a black and white comic.

From the moment we are born, we are formatted to see color.

So, when you read an album like

, after ten pages, without even being aware of it, the brain switches over to the imagery it is building and generates colors without even realizing it.

In any case, that's the bet I make while having fun with the codes of the comic book medium.

Marc-Antoine Mathieu: "The black cover of the album is a bet, a provocation..." @Delcourt 2022

The almost all-black cover of

Yes, it's a bet, a provocation.

is a book object that works like a black box.

Inevitably, we want to open it.

It's like a painting by Soulages, or like the black cube by Anish Kapoor that I was able to admire this summer at the Venice Biennale.

It's a total trap.

Afterwards, it's up to the hero Adam to find a flaw, a crack that will allow him to find the light.

It is this dynamic that the album explores.

What was your main objective on this very singular album?

My album starts out as a psychological thriller, like a genre comic.

But behind this thriller plot, there is an opportunity for me to tickle the truth of reality.

One thing leading to another, the character of Adam becomes aware of what is happening to him.

He crosses levels of consciousness like in a video game device, level after level.

Each new revelation entails a new mystery.

I use the narrative and graphic ingredients of comics as a stepping stone to elsewhere.

Marc-Antoine Mathieu: “The poetry of the labyrinth has always attracted me.

It comes from my readings of Jose-Luis Borges.

@Delcourt 2022

What does this very beautiful board where you represent the brain of a human in the shape of a labyrinth mean to you?

The poetry of the labyrinth has always attracted me.

It comes from my readings of Jose-Luis Borges.

The image of a labyrinth-shaped brain evokes both the Kafkaesque side of adventure and wandering in a Borgesian universe.

In fact,

slaloms between Kafka, Borges, Soulages and Camus!

Kafka is present in the album by the feeling of helplessness which is distilled there.

But there is also a mad energy that goes through the desire to overcome this helplessness.

And there we find Albert Camus who wrote:

".

In my opinion, the universal image of the labyrinth is related to that of the rock of Sisyphus.

Human beings seem to be constantly condemned to start their quest for meaning all over again.

But when Camus writes that you have to imagine Sisyphus happy, he suggests that once the rock has fallen back down the mountain, Sisyphus has time to dream and escape from his mission, time to go back down.

It's the same in labyrinths.

The many cul-de-sacs can sometimes look like avenues or open doors to escape.

A cul-de-sac is never useless.

We always learn from our mistakes... And we can thus achieve an act of free will!

Marc-Antoine Mathieu: “Despite its austere tone, I didn't want to write a disturbing book.

I wanted to write a jubilant book.”

@Delcourt 2022

How did you come out of this album?

We come out changed.

Initially, during confinement, I thought that this album project would take me three or four months.

It took me a year and a half to polish my album.

The more we do in the blueprint, in the chiselling, the more time it takes.

I have the feeling that this album looks like a very tight weave, like a tapestry that plays on the intimate.

Sometimes certain creation objects end up shaping you in turn.

That's what happened to me with

But beware, despite its austere tone, I didn't want to write a disturbing book.

I wanted to write a jubilant book.

A scientist or an artist inevitably rejoices when he works... I let myself embark on something jubilant with Deep Me. But I logically remain a sounding board inscribed in my time.

This is perhaps why the album may seem worrying at first glance.

But it is nothing.

This book wants to go beyond the horizon... even if our horizons have become awfully close lately!

(Laughs)

Deep Me

, screenplay and drawings by Marc-Antoine Mathieu, Delcourt editions, 120 pages – €19.99.