The workshop is nestled on the fifth and top floor, at the top of a narrow wooden staircase that leads under the roofs of a building full of history, a stone’s throw from the Place de la Bastille. The interior is not very big but bathed in light, thanks to a large glass roof that goes down almost to the ground. Here is the little nest in which the designer and writer Dorothée de Monfreid spends her working days. On the walls, a multitude of comic book covers, especially youth, his specialty. But also a Europe Ecologie les Verts mask and various goodies from Yannick Jadot’s campaign. Not out of a spirit of proselytism, just small memories of an unprecedented experience about to end.
Dorothée de Monfreid is one of the six designers who followed in the footsteps of seven candidates (Mélenchon, Jadot, Hidalgo, Macron, Pécresse, Le Pen and Zemmour) as part of the project Campaign notebooks, a 240-page comic book, co-published by Dargaud and le Seuil, which will be released on May 10. It’s Mathieu Sapin, used to the political class for having already sketched François Hollande (Le Château: a year behind the scenes at the Élysée2015) and Emmanuel Macron (French comedy: journeys in the antechamber of power, 2020), who piloted this crazy enterprise, whose goal is to tell the presidential race in another way. The cartoonists thus stage themselves following the candidates.
It is for this reason, in particular, that he thought of Dorothée de Monfreid. “He was interested in having people unfamiliar with politics,” she says. The less we know, the more we will discover, and the more we will take the reader to discover with us. It gives a certain freshness. Excited by this “unexpected adventure”, but which corresponded perfectly to her desire at the time to explore new forms of storytelling, more for an adult audience and glued to reality, she did not hesitate for long. Especially to follow the Greens. “As a bobo city dweller, this is a problem that affects me and which has resonance in my family”, explains the Parisian quadra.
She therefore immersed herself thoroughly in Yannick Jadot’s campaign, following him in Rouen, in Bordeaux, during a rally for Ukraine, in the program Elysee 2022 on France 2 and in the morning of Inter. The notebook always in hand. She blackened three of them, between quotes to keep, personal reflections and sketches of significant scenes. With 40 pages allocated per author and deliberately very short deadlines (the first 35 pages had to be returned by March 29), the choice of what to keep and what to throw away must be made “almost directly” , she describes. “There are billions of things! Just one trip would be enough to make 40 pages, if you wanted to dig. »
This density, both in terms of content and rhythm, is what most marked the neophyte. “The seriousness of this work, its difficulty and the investment it requires, for the candidates and their teams, impressed me, says the author ofAda & Rosie and the series of books Doggies. It’s amazing to see, real Olympics. Me, I do a day with a candidate, in the evening, I can’t take it anymore. They do this every day for months. Wow. »
Morgan Navarro was also amazed by the infernal machine that constitutes a presidential campaign. Especially since he had two candidates to cover, and not just any: Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour. A complex, sensitive mission, for which he was not chosen by chance. Noted for his series of drawings titled My reaction life on the Le Monde site, he also published at the end of 2020 President, a political fable in which he imagines, with the communication consultant Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, the accession of Cyril Hanouna to the Elysée. « Matthew [Sapin] surely perceived the crazy, hot-headed side. He must have told himself that I would dare. He was right, by the way,” says the cartoonist with a smile.
“The Anomaly of the Campaign”
Beyond ” [son] on the maso side”, Morgan Navarro accepted this task because he saw in it the opportunity to apprehend an environment that he knows little about, “where one does not necessarily want to put his nose”. “There are things like that, we look at them from afar, like somewhat diabolical objects. One wonders how it is inside, he explains. I’m interested in understanding the people behind it. »
This “big curious”, who would not be against going for a walk one day with his pencil in animist, survivalist or conspiratorial circles, has been served. Especially on the Zemmour side. The ex-journalist has not stopped since his Villepinte meeting in early December. “I wanted to follow one more than the other, and I chose Zemmour because it was clearly the anomaly of the campaign, the character who came out of nowhere”, explains the author. Many things to tell, of course, between the absolute fanaticism of the supporters, the virulent logorrhea and the insults collected in return. Or even random-but-a-little-arranged-meetings with citizens while traveling. “It was the permanent circus”, summarizes Morgan Navarro.
Totally different atmosphere at Marine Le Pen, who led a “surprisingly serene” campaign, he describes. As if the agitation of the last few years around the RN had been vampirized by the camp opposite. “We clearly felt that, she let things happen, he observes. And then there were fewer people around her, or more discreet characters. In any case, Morgan Navarro was a privileged witness to the battle for pole position on the far right.
From now on, the six designers have five pages left to render in the wake of the second round. In theory. Because some will have more to say than others, and the members of this small troop arrange themselves between them as they go along. For the past few months, they have kept in touch constantly, through meetings or their group chat on Signal. “We shared our moments of doubt, of stress. But above all, we had a good laugh, says Dorothée de Monfreid. There was a very good energy. And we built the story together”, because we had to be careful not to collide on the same events.
The contestants – or at least their teams – will surely take a close look at the finished product. Those of our two witnesses were made aware of this project. Dorothée de Monfreid was even able to spend a little time alone with hers. “Marine Le Pen’s press officer told me that she hoped it wouldn’t be too bad,” reports Morgan Navarro. They are still used to being teased by cartoonists, led by Charlie Hebdo…” In Eric Zemmour’s entourage, some were amused by the fact of being drawn. “Afterwards, I don’t know if they will like it. They will have to have a lot of humour”, breathes the artist… who does not rule out offering a copy to his subjects of study. “I like to provoke,” he had warned us a little before.