An author from Rouen unveils a comic book on the secrets of Père-Lachaise, the most fascinating cemetery in France

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After White Pearla story between piracy and voodoo, Sébastien Floc’h returns to the forefront with a comic book, released November 13, 2024. As captivating as it is mysterious, it is a “unique visit” to the fabulous Père-Lachaise cemetery. The author born in Rouen (Seine-Maritime) has been working on the project for more than two years.

16 stories, 16 artists

It is a large-scale project, like the 44-hectare cemetery and its more than 75,000 graves, which Sébastien Floc’h did not carry out halfway. The 136 page book has no less than 16 stories of seven pages, about 16 characters or 16 tombs which lie in the most famous Parisian cemeteries.

From the vampiric Countess Stroganoff to the singer Jim Morrison, via Chopin, the Rouen writer dissects several secrets that make you shiver.

Père-Lachaise is an open-air museum with a lot of legends about it. Between two and three million visitors walk the paths each year. I wanted to tell these legends and show the reality behind each of them.

To illustrate his words, he called on 16 designers, one different for each story. “Each one has a different graphic style, only the black cat that we find at the end of each story provides a common thread,” explains the author. The little feline also has all its importance in the work.

Careful research

Sébastien wanted to be as precise as possible. Archives, guides, media… He has multiplied the sources to disentangle the true from the false. “I was also helped by Benoît Gallot, the curator who lives in the heart of the cemetery. »

The author tells, like a voice off in a documentary, the different legends embellished with the real words of the characters. “I used real texts to make them speak,” he confides. The book even contains an unpublished plan of the cemetery to identify the 16 tombs.

A nod to Rouen

Sébastien does not forget his hometown: Rouen, by addressing the mystery around the painter’s tomb Théodore Géricaultborn in the city of a hundred spires: “To tell the truth, he was not one of the 16 characters selected. It was a Danish designer who made me think of it. And it comes naturally to me, it connects me to my hometown. »

Indeed, Théodore Géricault is one of the celebrities resting in the Parisian cemetery. The difference is that the artist’s real tomb is in Rouen, at the Museum of Fine Arts.

“There is a room at the museum dedicated to Géricault’s first tomb. It was made of marble and therefore did not last long at Père-Lachaise. This is very interesting information, which few really know,” he finally added.

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