Interview with Artist William Augel

Recently we reached out to French draftsman and illustrator, William Augel. He has written several books aimed towards youth, and works regularly for magazines such as Revue Salamandre. In 2019, the publishing company BiG released an English-language version of his Le Petit Mozart (orYoung Mozart), which is available in our collection.

What’s your background?

I published various comic books in different publishing houses. They do not necessarily address a young public, but they all have in common to be humorous. I also work with different magazines for whom I create comic strips, as for instance science magazines, nature journals and art magazines. 

Why do you do what you do? 

Since I was a child I've always been drawing. I never really questioned myself why, it always seemed natural to me.

What work do you most enjoying doing?

First, I work with ink on paper. Then I do a scan of the pages and I add the colors on computer. As time passes by, I enjoy more and more the coloring process. I find this part of my work more relaxing, it's very meditative, like filling a mandala with color.  

What themes do you pursue? 

The topics I'm interested in cover a huge range, starting from relationship stories and objects that can talk, stories with animals up to the youth of geniuses, a fairy tale for kids, the story of a monstrous girl... and many more.

What does your work aim to say? 

Creating comics about the youth of 'geniuses" is, first of all, a big challenge. But I also choose this approach in order to give them a more human face. Before they have been erected into well-known idols, they were children with prodigious capacities of course, but just kids as well with their share of daily sorrows and acting accordingly: capricious, annoying, but also tender and making mistakes. I think that my intention, above all, is to make them more accessible.        

How does your work comment on current social or political issues?

I think that I aim to talk about society in an indirect way. I wrote a lot of comics with animals, like for instance 'Zooart'. My idea was to start by asking what would happen if the animals were conscious of doing art. In this way, the comics tickle the realm of contemporary art and at the same time, involuntarily, my 'gentle animals' get corrupted.

Another comic book called 'Trucs' presents daily objects' conversations: a pencil that talks to a rubber and so on. Making them come to life gave me the opportunity of proposing another perspective on the world.

I think that we can talk about social issues without showing them directly or, at least, without talking about them in a too frontal manner. It may seem slightly paradoxical, but it seems to me that in order to address something in an appealing, surprising way, it's better not to talk about it directly.

Who are your biggest influences? 

I'm convinced that we are all partly determined by the books we previously read, but it is difficult for me to truly evaluate the part of influence of every author whose work I appreciate and who influenced my work. Notwithstanding I can give you some names of authors I particularly cherish. So, for the French-speaking comics world I would name Franquin and Gotlib and, for the US-based authors, Charles Schulz and Bill Watterson.

How have you developed your career and how do you seek out opportunities?

I started my career with illustrations, and more specifically with illustrated science books. After that, I started working with small and independent publishing houses, at a period of my life when I took a greater interest in developing stories. It is quite natural, I guess, to do comics if you like drawing and telling stories. I gained a lot of experience in the area of alternative comics, and then started to send my projects to bigger publishers (still independent ones). There's a lot of gambling in the process... sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.

How do you navigate the art/publishing world?

I work with different publishers and usually we work quite closely together on the different book projects.

What was your "preparation" (inspiration) behind this work?

I've read several biographies of Leonardo da Vinci in order to prepare my comic book "Young Leonardo," amongst them— of course—the classical one by Varasi. My parents live near Amboise, so it was easy for me to visit the place (le clos Lucé) where Da Vinci lived during his last years. I also travelled, as I did for my 'Young Mozart,' where Da Vinci spent his childhood, in the village Vinci near Florence (Tuscany). It is quite lucky that his childhood house still exists, since it dates from the Middle Ages. For a drawer, the setting of the story is very important. Therefore, it is very helpful to dive into the atmosphere of the place you want to represent, if this is possible, even if the past centuries have transformed the spot.

Where can readers find your books?

Since I'm French, I write my comic books in French. I'm probably not the right person to answer this question, since I'm not aware of the distribution networks in the USA. But I would recommend readers to buy it in a local bookstore (or hop into a public library of course!).

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

 Aside from the story, it is essential to stick to the characters you invented. I don't remember where I read this recommendation (I think it was Bill Watterson, without being sure about that), but it was really a good piece of advice for me. Several times, even though I was satisfied about a humorous gag, I had to transform it or even abandon the whole idea because the given character of my comic could not possibly act like that. There are things that a character can do or say and others he or she can't. Sometimes it's really a drag, but 'sticking' to your character is more important than anything else. 

Has literature impacted your art making?  

It's funny that you ask me this question right now. At the moment, I'm working on a comic book about the youth of Agatha Christie, a writer whose works I devoured during my own childhood. I read her autobiography and different biographies in order to collect some anecdotes about her life.

Are libraries a part of your world?

Yes of course, libraries are essential actors in the whole field of book publishing.

As a professional, I needed to gather a lot of documentation and constitute my personal archive to work on the sceneries and the costumes for instance. You simply cannot find everything you need on the internet. Working with the specialized documentation from public libraries has permitted me to establish an exhaustive and trustworthy base.

What have you been working on recently? 

At the moment, I work restlessly on "Young Agatha Christie" which will be published—if everything turns out well—next autumn and will continue the collection "Young Geniuses," following "Young Mozart" and "Young Leonardo."

Have the recent events had an impact on your art practice? 

The quarantine in France has had rather a soft impact on my own work since I'm used to working at home. But a lot of comic festivals I was supposed to attend have been cancelled this year and so I couldn't do a proper promotion for my new comic books. It is a little bit frustrating when you don't get to meet your public. But I'm certainly not an artist to pity. I was rather lucky, compared to others. Hopefully, things will get better —we all cross fingers for better times to come next year.

Thank you to YA Librarian Joe Pascullo for help putting this blog post together.