After several volumes on the history of food as well as a synthesis on the history of Christianity, Les Arènes is enriching its catalog of historical documentary comics with the history of a city-world, the holy city of the three great monotheisms. , the scene of a turbulent history. In the scenario, a confirmed historian of Jerusalem in the 19th-20th centuries, Vincent Lemirewhich offers a lively and balanced synthesis giving voice to all the actors in this long story.
The reader follows the birth and the development of the city through the testimony of an old olive tree four thousand years old, witness to the human passions which were successively unleashed around this territory. Alternately built, destroyed, rebuilt, dismantled, enlarged, shared, disputed, the city of Jerusalem lives, dies and is reborn over the boards. A story that gives relatively little space – 20 pages out of 250 – to the period from 1947 to the present day, to better fit into the long term.
Far from all misery and all fatalism, even if the shadow of war often hangs over the album, Vincent Lemire wanted to highlight the moments of coexistence, accommodation and sharing that allowed the city to develop and ensure its prosperity. His talent as a storyteller and his fine erudition confidently guide the neophyte through the twists and turns of a past constantly manipulated by everyone.
The originality – and the great interest! – of the narrative is to focus on the very structure of the city, the transformations of its emblematic monuments, the evolution of its urban planning as well as the management of natural resources, to offer a lived history that is not limited to major events.
The album also attaches great importance to the myths and representations developed by the three monotheisms, to understand how Jerusalem could have become the mirror of collective concerns around the end of time and the spiritual purification of the community of “true” believers. . Conquerors, travellers, pilgrims or missionaries, everyone uses the city to their advantage.
Christopher Gaultier (Robinson Crusoe, The Swedish, The story bearer…) offers a naive style drawing, very dynamic, which allows to concentrate on the action and to preserve the sustained rhythm of the narration. This graphic bias makes it possible to schematize certain situations very effectively and to avoid the “knock” effect of a poorly documented or fantastical reconstruction.
The reader walks with pleasure in the streets of this “simplified” Jerusalem which thus becomes easier to understand. The streets and landscapes give off a very well rendered Mediterranean atmosphere, thanks in particular to the very effective coloring of Marie Galopin.
The album is completed by a chronology which helps to find one’s bearings in the thread of the story. Finally, a bibliographic orientation allows the reader who wishes to deepen his knowledge on such and such a subject.
Accessible while remaining precise and rigorous, this very first history of Jerusalem in comics is aimed as much at the simply curious as at more confirmed history lovers. It is to be hoped that other equally well-executed city stories will soon see the light of day at Les Arènes BD!
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