A maze of cabins scattered around the Quai Saint-Antoine, in Lyon, where voices, sound effects and music are born: the
studio Anatole mixes sounds in a hushed discretion. Tim Borne, its director, leads us briskly from one room to another, showing the extent of his activity: built by his father in 1984 to record music, Anatole has evolved by providing voices for video games, advertisements, dubbing of series …
An immersive experience
In May 2020, Tim Borne and his associates, Fred Roux and Maryne Chouzenoux, took a new step by creating their own production company within the studios: Blynd. “The idea was to adapt comics in audio, but by being more creative than providers”, explains this trained sound technician, who wanted to bring together all his passions: “I am a big fan of comics, I I love French dubbing voices, and I wanted to combine that with sound post-production, to make comics accessible to blind or visually impaired audiences, as well as to others. “
With his growing demand for audio content, the onset of the health crisis was therefore more of a springboard than a brake for Blynd, who began by adapting recent hits like Lanfeust de Troy, Blacksad Where Long John Silver. But adapting a comic into sound, is it really reasonable? How to render a comic book by depriving it of its main medium, the image? This is where Anatole’s sound know-how comes into its own: “What we offer is not a simple reading, but a comic strip played, interpreted, with a whole sound staging, sound effects, tailor-made music, ”explains Tim Borne.
Great voices and original music
If the audio comic already existed, in a version which is more of read theater, Blynd invented “a new way of making it, at the crossroads of an animated soundtrack, dubbing and acting. video. It gives a particular result, which is specific to us ”. Thanks to the original music, already: “For Blacksad, set in New York City in the 1950s, we recorded a jazz quartet and a female singer to play covers from the era. “And especially thanks to his voices, dubbing specialists oblige: Gérard Darmon is the narrator of the series Lanfeust ; John Blacksad speaks through Eric Herson-Macarel, voice of Daniel Craig… “And one of my heroes, Jean-Philippe Puymartin, the French voice of Tom Hanks, has just visited us”, rejoices Tim Borne.
To facilitate the distribution of his audio comics, Blynd has just created his own platform: an app with their subscription catalog (6.99 euros / month), and free samples to get an idea. “We create a complete offer: production, distribution, distribution, we have the licenses, the recipe, and that’s it”, summarizes the director, who intends to develop: “We release three new volumes per month. The goal is 10 per month in a year. We will also attack heritage: Asterix, Blueberry, Corto Maltese… The important thing is to provide consistent, quality content. “