Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
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2013 September 11 • Wednesday

That's a panel from a wonderful graphic novel, The Initiates: A Comic Artist and a Wine Artisan Exchange Jobs. The English translation came out this year. I think the original French version was published in 2011.

This is a non-fiction work whose English subtitle is misleading. If a comic artist and a wine artisan actually exchanged jobs, they'd most likely both be ruined. The original title, Les Ignorants: Récit d'une initiation croisée, means something more like Ignorant: Story of a cross initiation, which is a better fit.

Étienne Davodeau asks his winemaker friend Richard Leroy to initiate him into the world of wine-making and in exchange Davodeau will introduce Leroy to the world of comics creating and publishing. It's a charming story and very inspiring. It made me want to drop everything and go into making wine.

The thing that they have most in common is dedication to and faith in their craft. Often they speak different languages about the same subject. And of course Leroy's work involved a lot of moving around outside while Davodeau's is an indoor, sedentary activity.

Davodeau must drink many wines as well as assisting Leroy in the vineyard, pruning vines, plowing, picking grapes, everything. Leroy has to read dozens of graphic novels and go to conventions, printers, publishers and so on.

Lewis Trondheim contributes a page to the book, to answer Leroy's bafflement over why he draws himself as a bird, and several other comics creators make guest appearances. Highly recommended!