Comic Art Museum - Brussels

When the manager of a punk rock group – a scenario writer – teams up with the lyric writer for a rock band – an artist – it may result in a comic strip album that creates quite a stir! A man in a dazed, confused state wanders through a foggy landscape surrounded by mountains on the Polish-Czech border, in the area formerly known as Sudetenland. He carries a secret in silence. This is the opening scene of Alois Nebel, an impressive Czech graphic novel inspired by the life of the scenario writer’s grandfather and sublimated by the art of Jaromír 99. Through this tale the pair also recount the history of their country, the Czech Republic. In 2010, the Belgian Comic Strip Center was delighted to be able to exhibit an original first plate from this album in its exhibition "European Comic Strip Treasures". So the publication of this masterpiece in French presents us with the perfect opportunity to display a wider selection from this work! 

Willem De Graeve, Belgian Comic Strip Center

This "railroad" trilogy was born of the desire of Czech novelist Jaroslav Rudiš to tell the story of his grandfather, who worked as a train dispatcher. Presented in angular, strongly contrasting black-and-white drawings by Jaromír 99, it is the life story of an old traffic controller from the mountains of Silesia.

1989. The Czech-Polish border. The platforms of Bílý Potok have long since ceased to be rattled by passing steam locomotives. Traumatised by the last war, Alois Nebel has fallen prey to recurring symptomatic hallucinations that come at him out of this thick fog: Nazis, the Red Army, the trains heading to Auschwitz...

Jaroslav Rudiš

Born in 1972, Jaroslav Rudiš was in turn a DJ, the manager of a punk rock group, an advertising executive and a journalist before becoming one of the most prominent Czech writers of the 2000s.

A novelist, Rudiš was awarded the Jiří Orten prize for young writers and the Magnesia Litera readers’ choice prize.

He has co-written several theatre plays and dramas for Czech and German radio as well as film scenarios, most notably for the animated film "Alois Nebel" which won first prize in the European animated film category of the 2012 European Film Awards.

Jaromír 99

Born in 1963, the artist Jaromír was also a singer and lyric writer for Priessnitz, an alternative rock band from Jeseník. He has also collaborated on a number of music projects.

He has also worked as set designer and storyboard artist for films such as "Samotáři", "Jedna ruka netleská" and "Grandhotel". He was awarded the Muriel Prize for his first solo comic strip "Bomber".

Ivan Apostolo, Presque Lune publishing house