“In the five years that I have been in Nantes, I have heard about it. This incredible story fascinates everyone. And everyone in Nantes seems to know someone affected by this tragedy. As a publisher of docu-comics, I absolutely had to do something,” explains Olivier Petit, manager of the publishing house Petit à petit. Twelve and a half years after the assassination of Agnès Dupont de Ligonnès and her four children, followed by the unsolved disappearance of the father of this family, Xavier, a comic strip returns for the first time to this most famous criminal case of France.
12,000 copies on sale starting this Wednesday, The persuit recounts the investigation and its multiple twists and turns through the prism of different points of view: the police of course, but also journalists, those close to Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, cyber investigators or even conspiracy theorists. No scoop in the 192 pages but a lot of work of synthesis and documentation allowing us to understand all of the issues, while keeping readers in suspense, even those familiar with the matter.
“We worked for a year and a half on the project. A lot of things, sometimes contradictory, had already been said and written. We therefore had to sort, check certain details, certain dates, in order to select the elements which would serve the story,” explains Valérie Morice, librarian.
“We didn’t want to fall into sensationalism”
Unlike other past literary or audiovisual productions, fiction has been discarded in favor of realism. “We had to find the right distance,” explains Olivier Petit, screenwriter and editorial manager of The persuit. Works on “cold cases”, forgotten investigations, can quickly descend into sensationalism. We definitely didn’t want that. For us, it was very important to reconstruct the story in a factual way, without expressing an opinion or position for anyone. We also wanted to eliminate fanciful theories. »
The authors, who worked with the designer Valette for the graphic part, know they are expected. “With the Dupont de Ligonnès affair, the bar is high,” recognizes Olivier Petit. We know that we will have readers who have a perfect understanding of the subject. I know that the family, the cops, will read the comic. That madmen will react to this story. So we worked a lot not to disappoint them, so that the narrative angle held up. »
As for the question that everyone is asking (is Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès still alive?), the comic strip has chosen to let the main protagonists of the case express themselves, through a compilation of past statements. “If we discover him one day, dead or alive, we could write a sequel,” warns Olivier Petit. We have preserved a lot of elements which will be lit differently at that time. »
After Dupont de Ligonnès, Petit à petit editions are planning the release in 2025 of another docu-BD devoted, this time, to the Godart affair. “We also plan to deal with the Troadec, Romand and Villemin cases, which are also extremely fascinating,” announces Olivier Petit.