Florence Cestac is a big name in comics, the second woman (after Claire Bretécher in 1982) to receive the Angoulême Grand Prix in 2000. Three other women have been added to the list since then and soon a new one since the three 2025 finalists are female.
She was particularly known to the general public thanks to her comic strip “The Demon of Noon”, published in 1996. In it, she recounted how, at the age of 40, her husband had dumped her for a 25-year-old. The success of the album was further amplified by the theatrical and then cinematic adaptation with Michèle Bernier.
Two other demons followed, the one in the afternoon, which took place 10 years later, then the one in the evening, on menopause. This year, Florence Cestac returns with “Grandma’s Demon or Enchanted Senescence”. At 75 years old, the French author speaks to us about old age, with as much brilliance as in previous eras.
Those who are already grandparents will recognize themselves in these scenes in which their children seem to know everything and much better than their parents about how to take care of a baby. With all the modern and technological tools that accompany every night, burp and teeth of the infant. Except the youpala, “it twists their legs”.
-Cestac also talks about the change in couples once retirement comes, fitness subscriptions for a year when we only go three times, tourist trips by bus. And sexuality for which, among women of a certain age, it is necessary to “grease the lock”.
As a keen observer of the world around her, Florence Cestac once again hits the nail on the head with her jubilant humor, even if this comic has a more bittersweet taste. She ends by saying that this album will perhaps be the last, but that she would like to die on her drawing board. We hope this happens to him as late as possible.
