“Pietrolino” v1 and v2

“Pietrolino” is the story of a mime in Nazi-occupied France.

Don’t worry; this is not the sequel to that Jerry Lewis clown movie….

The Story Behind the Story

I’m beginning to think I need to brush up on my knowledge of the European theater during World War II, because I keep coming across books set in that time period. It’s understandable.

This particular story has an interesting origin. Jodorowsky wrote this story originally to be a theatrical piece for the famed French mime, Marcel Marceau. He adapted it later to be this comic. Marceau died before the comic was completed, sadly.

Here’s a clip of Marceau at work. It’s less than two minutes, and it’s pretty eerie at first. You’ll immediately see the resemblance to this book’s Pietrolino. At least, they share the same fashion sense.

With the background out of the way, let’s get to the story.

The Fall and Rise and Fall and Rise of a French Mime

Pietrolino, like many in Nazi occupied France, is struggling to stay safe and put food on the table. We catch up with him inside a restaurant where he’s putting on a show, hoping to pass around the hat at the end to make a few bucks.

Playing to the audience of French citizens, he doesn’t notice the Nazis walking in as he makes fun of them.

That doesn’t go over too well, as you might expect…

He lands in a work camp a beaten man, unable to pursue the kind of mime work he was once so good at.

Fate intervenes after the war and he becomes, of all things, a boxing clown. Trust me, it makes sense when you read the story.

The second half of the story follows his new career and its ups and downs, leading to a conclusion that is satisfactory and slightly dreamy.

Jodorowsky is known for his occasionally surreal work, and this book doesn’t lack for that, either. He saves it for the ending, though, in an emotionally satisfying way. He takes a moment that might be unbelievable and uses it to get to another destination for the story that works so much that you never question the set-up.

It’s a great sleight of hand bit, and it works for me. If you’re looking for something more literal or more grounded, then this might not be your thing. Up until that point, though, you’re good.

Not Terribly Gripping, But Enjoyable

The thing about this story is that it’s more a biography of a character than the three act story structure you might be used to. There’s not a single big bad guy that Pietrolino fights against over the course of these two books, until he faces up to the bad guy during his lowest moment and we have a third act blow out.

No, this is about meeting a character, feeling sympathetic for him during his bad times, and enjoying his ride back to “fame.” Along the way, he battles internal demons (understandably, given what he’s been through), an outside threat to his business, and his own heartaches.

It’s a character piece more than a plot-driven one.

The frustrating part is that Pietrolino is so passive throughout so much of the book. He’s a great mime and when that situation presents itself, he leaps into action and is the star of the show. But everything inbetween is a day dream. Or, perhaps more correctly, he’s sleepwalking through it. Thank goodness for the people around him who do something.

A bunch of things happen in a straight line, and he survives, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. There’s a bit of a feeling that you’re passively watching a story unfold in this book instead of watching a character making things happen. After the initial horrors of war, the rest feels fairly inconsequential. They’re not always great things that happen to him, but they’re things he can rise above.

And then he does.

Pietrolino travels with a friend throughout the book who’s the Geppeto to his Pinocchio. He’s the friend who guides him down obvious avenues that Pietrolino is blind towards. Pietrolino is all too often in a “woe is me” state of mind. He is childlike in his personal life, much like the mime he portrays professionally.

He faces enough difficulty to make his story interesting, but it does feel as though the solutions to some of those problems come a bit too easily, or a bit too much out of coincidence.

The Art of the Mime

Olivier Boiscommun’s art is stylized and almost cartoony. The linework is fully on display, but the coloring is a painterly style, adding clear light sources and textures to every surface.

The art looks big on the page. Boiscommun sticks to three or four tiers of panels per page, with usually only two or three panels per tier. This looks a lot like a North American comic, ready to print at a standard pamphlet comic’s size

The colors are mostly an earth toned kind of look, with flashes of colors in scenes with more extreme emotions or events. The inside of the circus tent brings stronger blue-greens and reds. The work camp Pietrolini is confined to is outside, with imposing blue-ish mountains.

Reds pop off the page, which is a clear choice — whether it’s the woman in the bright red dress in the opening scene of the book, or the bright red boxing gloves that Pietrolino uses to climb back into acclaim. There’s also a red cut-out heart and the red drapery of his puppet show set-up.

It’s an enjoyable look, with very expressive faces. Boiscommun has to emulate a mime’s body language and expressions to pull off this book, and he does. Pietrolini is believable in all his works, because he never looks stiff or stilted doing what he’s best at.

Recommended?

Yes, but wait for it to be on sale. It’s broken into two parts, so you’ll need to buy both to get the full story. It’s a very quick read, but I found it entertaining and easy to look at. I like the historical setting of it mixed, the expressive art, and the small portion of Jodorowsky’s notorious flights of fantasy.

Note: All of the images in this review come from the first volume. I didn’t want to spoil anything as much as possible, so I figured eliminating the second of the story all together made a safer bet.

This book is also available as a single, hardcover edition. (That’s an affiliate link. I get a tiny cut of any sale through there. Doesn’t cost you any extra.)

— 2019.014 —