Table Of ContentStudieS in ComiCS and Cartoon S
LuCy She Lton CaSwe LL and Jared Gardner, Serie S e ditorS
À Valérie et Louise, encore et toujours.
R e d Raw i n g   FRe n c h   em p iRe   i n   co m i c s
mark mc kinney
the ohio State u niverSity PreSS  • Co LumbuS
Copyright © 2013 by The Ohio State University.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McKinney, Mark, 1961–
Redrawing French empire in comics / Mark McKinney.
p. cm. — (Studies in comics and cartoons)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8142-1220-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8142-1220-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8142-9321-8 (cd)
1. Comic books, strips, etc.—France—History and criticism. 2. Imperialism in popular 
culture—France. 3. France—Colonies—In literature. 4. France—Colonies—History. 5. Alge-
ria—History—1830–1962. 6. Indochina—History. I. Title. II. Series: Studies in comics and 
cartoons.
PN6745.M39 2013
741.5'35820971244—dc23
2012043008
Cover design by Laurence J. Nozik
Text design by Juliet Williams
Type set in Adobe Sabon and Formata
Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc.
 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American 
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Mate-
rials. ANSI Z39.48–1992.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Conte ntS
List of Illustrations  vii
Acknowledgments  ix
ChaPter 1  Redrawing French Empire in Comics: An Introduction  1
ChaPter 2  Redrawing Colonial Algeria  35
ChaPter 3  The Fall of French Indochina  84
ChaPter 4  The Algerian War and Its Aftermath  145
ChaPter 5  The Voyage Out and the Voyage In  211
Notes    225
Works Cited    244
Index    267
i LLu Str ation S
1.1:   Jambon-Beur: Les couples mixtes, life and death in the Algerian War  2
1.2:  La décolonisation, the French repression at Sétif  11
1.3:  Le cimetière des princesses, colonial genealogy  13
1.4:  D’Algérie, recalling the murder of Audin  15
1.5:  Les oubliés d’Annam, quoting a historical study  21
2.1:  “Enlèvement de la sultane favorite,” a harem fantasy  42
2.2:  “Une visite sous la tente,” Algerian violence symbolized  47
2.3:  Les mésaventures de M. Bêton, a Turco in Paris  49
2.4:  Les voyages d’agrément, tourism and colonial otherness  51
2.5:  “Nous civiliserons ces gaillards-là . . . ,” satire by Raffet  60
2.6:  “Nous civiliserons ces gaillards-là . . . ,” an engraving redrawn  61
2.7:  An Intercepted Correspondence, Cairo, a harem painting redrawn  71
2.8:  Le centenaire, colonial postcards redrawn  74
3.1:  Bernard Chamblet et l’Indochine, courageous legionaries  97
3.2:  Bernard Chamblet et l’Indochine, temple ruins  98
3.3:  Les oubliés d’Annam, a photo of a rallié  119
vii
viii  •  iLLuStration S
3.4:  Les oubliés d’Annam, a murder by a legionary  123
3.5:  Les oubliés d’Annam, a mythical confrontation  125
3.6:  Les oubliés d’Annam, Joubert is tortured   126
3.7:  Le choix de Hai, Hai dies  131
3.8:  Le choix de Hai, retaking Saigon   132
3.9:  Quitter Saigon, an American promise  135
3.10:  Quitter Saigon, hiding métissage   137
3.11:  La décolonisation, satirizing Dien Bien Phu   140
4.1:  La décolonisation, satirizing the OAS   150
4.2:  Journal d’un embastillé, OAS autobiography   156
4.3:  Azrayen’, a father’s post-war journal   163
4.4:  Azrayen’, a French and Algerian couple   165
4.5:  Azrayen’, murder in wine vats   167
4.6:  Azrayen’, the Philippeville massacre  170
4.7:  Azrayen’, an interrogation  171
4.8:  Algérie française!, the casbah of Algiers  175
4.9:  Algérie française!, Ahmed as a romantic figure  177
4.10:  La guerre fantôme, an improbable mixed couple  179
4.11:  D’Algérie, ancestors as colonial settlers  188
4.12:  D’Algérie, Le Pen justifies torturing  189
4.13:  Le cousin harki, abandoning the Harkis  196
4.14:  Petit Polio, Mahmoud seeks solace  198
4.15:  Petit Polio, redrawing a Canadian story  199
4.16:  Fais péter les basses Bruno!, an explosive war memory  204
4.17:  L’ascension du haut mal, a child imagines the war  205
4.18:  L’ascension du haut mal, stories of torture   206
5.1:  D’Algérie, a Pied-Noir missionary uncle  217
5.2:  Les oubliés d’Annam, a métisse granddaughter  222
aCknowLe dG m e ntS
I thank my colleagues at Miami University, who have been extremely sup-
portive of my research over the years: Jonathan Strauss, Chair of French 
and Italian; my other departmental colleagues, who have heard and com-
mented on my presentations of this material in our Irvin works-in-progress 
series (2000, 2009); Juanita Schrodt, departmental Administrative Assis-
tant; and the university colleagues who awarded me a Hampton Grant in 
2006, allowing me to carry out research at the Cité Internationale de la 
Bande Dessinée et de l’Image, in Angoulême.
  Several colleagues read drafts of the manuscript at various points and 
made invaluable comments on it: Bernard Aresu, Cécile Danehy, Valérie 
Dhalenne, Ann Miller, Todd Porterfield, Dominic Thomas, Rusty Witek, 
and two anonymous readers for The Ohio State University Press. I am 
deeply grateful to all of them for their excellent suggestions and for their 
kind encouragement.
  Colleagues also provided very useful feedback and support when I pre-
sented drafts of portions of this study as invited lectures and conference 
presentations: Peter J. Bloom, Paul Cohen, Anne Donadey, Sylvie Durmelat, 
Hugo Frey, Laurence Grove, Alec G. Hargreaves, Pascal Lefèvre, Fabrice 
Leroy, Wendy Michallat, Adrianna M. Paliyenko, Kees Ribbens, Matthew 
Screech, Vinay Swamy, and Jane Winston. I presented this research at sev-
eral fora, including: MMLA (Chicago, 1997); France: History and Story 
(Birmingham, 1999); Faculty Lecture Series, Department of French and 
ix
x  •  aCknowLedG mentS
Italian, Miami University (2000); 20th/21st-Century French and Franco-
phone Studies (Urbana, 2003; Tallahassee, 2004); Georgetown University 
(2004); KFLC (Lexington, 2003, 2008); IBDS (Manchester, 2005, 2011); 
Technologies of Memory in the Arts (Nijmegen, 2006); Graphic Engage-
ment (West Lafayette, 2010); Florida State University (2012); and the Uni-
versity of Toronto (2012). I much appreciate the efforts of the colleagues 
who organized these conferences, panels and lectures, and am grateful for 
the feedback received then.
  I assigned comics studied here in several classes at the university, and 
thank the students who took the courses. They contributed in many ways to 
my reflection on the meaning and value of the works.
  I am grateful to The Ohio State University Press for publishing my 
study: I especially thank Malcom Litchfield, Director, Sandy Crooms, Senior 
Editor, as well as Lucy Shelton Caswell and Jared Gardner, Series Editors.
  Catherine Ferreyrolle, Jean-Pierre Mercier and Catherine Ternaux at the 
Cité Internationale de la Bande Dessinée, in Angoulême, and the staff of the 
Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée, in Brussels, were most helpful during my 
research trips there.
  Various cartoonists kindly and generously shared their thoughts and 
sources, and in some cases welcomed me into their studios or homes. For 
this I am deeply grateful to Yvan Alagbé, Clément Baloup, Baru, Nadjib 
Berber, Farid Boudjellal, Pierre Christin, Jacques Ferrandez, Frank Giroud, 
Annie Goetzinger, Kamel Khélif, José Jover, Lax, Leïla Leïz, Larbi Mech-
kour, Amine Medjdoub, Séra, Slim and Jean-Philippe Stassen.
  I put final touches on the manuscript in 2012, as events commemorat-
ing the end of the Algerian War and fifty years of Algerian independence 
unfolded. Azouz Begag, Farid Boudjellal and Alec G. Hargreaves kindly 
gave me access to pre-publication copies of two comic books scheduled for 
release on the anniversary.
  Cartoonists and publishers very generously granted permission to 
reproduce the illustrations in this volume. I warmly thank: Yvan Alagbé; 
David B. and L’Association; Clément Baloup and Mathieu Jiro; Baru; Farid 
Boudjellal; Rebecca Byers and Editions Plon-Perrin-Presses de la Renais-
sance; Michel Deligne of 2e Souffle; Jacques Ferrandez and Editions Caster-
man; Frank Giroud and Lax; Grégory Jarry, Otto T. and Editions FLBLB; 
and Morvandiau and L’oeil électrique/Maison rouge. I also thank Jeanne 
Strauss-De Groote and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton 
County for assistance with illustrations.
  I gratefully acknowledge kind permission granted by the editors of jour-
nals that published earlier versions of portions of this study: parts of Chap-
ter 2 appeared in Modern and Contemporary France; and parts of Chapter