Immersion at the Montreal Book Fair!

WELCOME TO MONTREAL! From November 27 to December 1, 2024, the Montreal Book Fair was held at the city's Palais des Congrès. In total, 92,000 visitors came to speak with the 2,000 authors present and almost 700 publishing houses! It is the most important literary event in the country. We met and interviewed some of its actors.

The authors

Among the authors present, we can cite Patrick Blanchette). Creator of the series Dawn, from the world of dreamshe came from the world of animation to tell his stories in comic book format. In the short interview below, he talks about his work. The rest of the series will appear in February 2025 in Quebec, and a little later in France. Knowing that twelve volumes are expected in total. A hell of a challenge!

Ninja and Yoga are usually dissociated from each other, but that's without counting on the duo ofOlive trees (Hamel to the script and Carpentier in the drawing) who started the series Vinyasa Ninja in 2021 and which now has 3 volumes. In these pages, young ninjas Vinya, Ashta and Kunda train to surpass themselves through the ancestral practice of yoga. Illustrator Olivier Carpentier explained his creative process to us in an interview (article here).

Among the Montreal initiatives, let us also mention Isekai Toucha collection of different mangas by Quebec authors. Among them, Blue Suzaku et Raton Voyer are two rising figures in Quebec manga. Their series Dreamcatcher et The Chronicles of Karnoie will be published in the manner of Shonen Jump in episodes, which will subsequently be compiled into collections. Raton Voyer and Blue Suzaku tell us everything in this exclusive interview, to watch on Tik Tok.

The editors

The Pow Pow house, founded in 2010, is almost a UFO in the Quebec comics landscape. A central player in the industry, she has published a very wide variety of works, ranging from horror comics to experimental graphic novels, including essays on art and creation. Luc Bosséfounder and president of the house, graciously agreed to answer our questions. An interview to discover here.

Another central player, the publishing house Front Froid and its subsidiary Nouvelle Address offer comic books and graphic novels to the Quebec public. Focusing more on genre and fantasy literature, mainly fantasy and science fiction, she has published several bestsellers, including Far Out, Nothingness will followor even Nuclear Winter. The chief editors Gautier Langevin et Renaud Plante explain everything to us in this interview.

However, independent publishing houses are not the only ones to publish in Quebec! Indeed, our national Glénat has created its own Quebec branch, which shares its name but retains editorial independence. Jacques Glénat's fascination with Quebec thus gave rise to Glénat Québec, which offers Quebec titles and strives to make them known. The president Christian Chevrier explains the details of this collaboration and the editorial process here.

However, we regret the absence of the publishing house La Pastèque, which although present at the show, did not grant us an interview. The co-founder believes “not needing the French market to live”. The latter also stated that “the French are so focused on their navel that they don’t take the trouble to know the publishers here”. La Pastèque is in fact an established institution, approaching 30 years old, and which has distinguished itself by its breakthrough in the Quebec comics industry. However, even this trend seems to be evolving and the publishing house is changing its publication focus, because “Today, comics no longer sell. We barely publish 4 or 5 new comic books per year. Today, it’s children’s literature that we sell, without that I would have gone out of business”. Hopefully Michel Rabagliati or Philippe Girard are not upset that their main publisher believes that their industry “goes straight into the wall”. We apologize for not being able to give you an overview of La Pastèque, but once again, the co-founder himself did not “no time or energy to waste in the middle of the living room explaining the history of La Pastèque when you can find everything with a Google search”.