We talked about polyamory and virtual reality with the authors of the comic “Le Champ des Possibilities”

With the album “Le champ des chances”, released on February 9th published by Dupuis, the screenwriter Vero Cazot and the designer Anaïs Bernabé offer a joyful and poetic comic on the themes of polyamory and virtual reality. Encounter.

To miss. In your introductory text you talk about a project that “sprouted in pain and grew in joy and complicity”. Can you tell us more about this gestation?

True Fuck. I lived a personal story quite close to the one told in the comic. And this experience happened at a very painful time. And then I pitched the project to an editor who had no empathy for the main character. He was very violent to me. I lost confidence in myself and in my project.

Ultimately, my editor, who specializes in children, fell in love with this story. What followed was a grueling search for designers. And then I met Anaïs and everything took shape! The painful experience turned into a truly amazing creative experience. Something really strong and joyful happened during the three years of creating this comic. From an intimate point of view, it was refreshing. A true catharsis.

Can you explain your creative process together?

VC I had Anaïs read an overview of the story, about thirty pages long. Then I sent him about ten pages of scenarios, cut out box by box. This is a fairly detailed, but very open first cut shape. The goal is to give an intention, a rhythm and the dialogues. Subsequently, everything can change in Anaïs’s vision. He offers me a storyboard and we discuss it together.

“We really had the feeling of being in symbiosis on this album. »

Anais Bernabé

Anaïs Bernabé. When I get a script, I’m able to break everything down in terms of a board layout, to do it my way. What’s great about Vero is that he also has a visual vision for his album. We operate with creative ping-pong. When I get stuck on something, she will find a solution, send it to me and generate a new idea. On some forums we will exchange a lot, on others everything will go very quickly. Depends. We both really had the feeling of being in symbiosis, in a deep co-creation of this album. Véro’s scenarios are little jewels.

Anaïs, you use two different drawing styles to represent the real world on one side and the virtual world on the other. Can you detail them for us?

AB. My style changes from comic to comic. About this project I had a dream a few months before, in which I was drawing with colored pencils. And I was so happy! When Vero proposed his album in two parts to me, the idea of ​​making two different styles emerged very quickly. I did some tests with colored pencils. He was so happy. And on the other hand, I stayed true to something classic, with a line and a color created on the computer. This allowed me to work with a color that could fit the pencil part, to transition from one world to another. I don’t work with realistic colors, but we needed to find homogeneity. I really enjoyed this album!

Along with polyamory, the other major theme of comics is virtual reality, a world that is both scary and exciting. How did you build this universe?

VC. I based it on what we’re experiencing right now with social networks. We can have very strong relationships with people we never see. And it’s just as powerful as what we experience in real life. With progress, the line between the two will become increasingly thinner. Our virtual world is very everyday. I forced myself to add extraordinary things, like the idea that we could be birds. But ultimately, it’s about imagining another life. Maybe we would have the house we could never afford here. He remains very human. Virtual reality also allows us to explain in comics how it is possible to lead a double life, while being very present with others. It makes polyamory so much easier. In terms of time and space management, it’s much simpler. It seems more doable that way.

AB. Your scenario is ultra-optimistic. Try to find solutions. In other words, it also shows that it’s not easy. Because your characters, especially Harry, are still pretty great! Not everyone has this degree of openness and kindness. And even if we are open, this can generate jealousy, stress, clashes… And at the same time, there could also be this use of the virtual, which is quite stigmatized today. Virtual reality tends to scare everyone. But if you are well aligned with yourself, it can be used for something nice. I also liked this possibility.

We can have very strong relationships with people we never see.

True Fuck

The heroine of the story, Marsu, is black. Her husband, Harry, is of Asian origin and helps his lesbian best friend have a child. Is it important to you to offer inclusive stories?

VC Certain. And it’s really natural. It is a reflection of the world we live in. Comics didn’t reflect the outside world well enough. We have always had the same stereotypes, the same looks, the same cultures… In reality, as soon as we go out on the street, when we are with our families, with our friends, we see clearly that this is not life. It’s very important to me to represent everyone I know. It’s about adding normality to reality.

AB. Then, it’s not in an album like “Le champ des chances” that we have to remain in something closed within ourselves. It would not make sense. I don’t think we even asked ourselves the question. True, you thought it was obvious. It was for me too.

Did you have any references in mind while creating this comic? Books, series, films or an aesthetic universe?

VC. We’ve had many nightmarish counterexamples, dystopias around virtual reality. The same goes for love triangles, they always end in drama! We wanted to do the opposite, the anti-Jules and Jimthe anti-Mrs. Bovary also, as well. For the rest, in the comics, I liked him Alternative life. And the series Sense8, where spiritual relationships exist, with a form of telepathy. And for once the conclusion is positive. Everything is love. She talked to me a lot.

“We’re in a pattern of feeling like we should never get along with our ex or that we can’t love two people at the same time. »

Anaïs Bernabé

Would you say that “The Field of Possibilities” belongs to the utopia genre?

VC. Unfortunately yes. We hope to give ideas. Making comics about things that only exist a little or aren’t very acceptable makes it seem possible. There are utopias that can become reality, just because we thought of them.

AB. Some characters have limitations in the album. But when there is the possibility of having a crisis, of shaming others, of criticizing or judging, three-quarters of the time, we have not chosen this option.. We talk to each other, we try to understand each other, to see if there is a solution. The idea is to show that we have a choice. We live in a pattern where we feel like we should never get along with our ex or that we can’t love two people at the same time. But there are other possibilities. It’s not utopian, but it’s by no means the majority.