Grandville Noël annotations

Go to any of the Grandville Noël annotations pages:

- Batch 1 for pages 1 to 20

- Batch 2 for pages 21 to 40

- Batch 3 for pages 41 to 60

- Batch 4 for pages 61 to the end

 

Also see the annotations for all of the other Grandville graphic novels:

- Grandville

- Grandville Mon Amour

- Grandville Bête Noire

- Grandville Force Majeure


Grandville Force Majeure original art and other Bryan Talbot artwork now on sale

Page 54 of Grandville Force Majeure by Bryan Talbot

Grandville Force Majeure original artwork is now available to buy.


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Grandville miniature figures on sale at Crooked Staff

The Crooked Dice site now has not only LeBrock and Ratzi and Billie miniatures - but also Chance Lucas, Hawksmoor, Koenig and more!



Buy the Heart of Empire Directors Cut

This labour of love from Bryan and myself contains every single page of Heart of Empire in pencil, ink and final full colour format - as well as over 60,000 words of annotation, commentary and explanation from Bryan... - as well as the whole of the Adventures of Luther Arkwright!

Or see the Heart of Empire Directors Cut page for more details.



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But the whole of the original Bryan Talbot fanpage is still online


Grandville Noel annotations - batch 2

Grandville Noël annotations - batch 2

This is similar in concept to the Directors Cut of Heart of Empire that Bryan and myself created: it is an attempt to answer the eternal "where do you get your ideas from?" question, and a way to showcase the influences and images that went into the creation of Grandville.

We are publishing updates to this page every Sunday and we will cover the entire Grandville series: we have already completed the annotations for Grandville, Grandville Mon Amour and Grandville Bête Noire.


This is the second batch of Grandville Noël annotations: also see the first batch that covers pages 1 to 20, or the final batch covering pages 41 to the end of the graphic novel.

Start reading the Grandville Noel annotations below, or jump straight to page 22, page 23, page 24, page 25, page 26, page 27, page 28, page 29, page 30, page 33, page 34, page 35, and page 39.

Page 22

Panel 1
The building in the background is the Sorbonne, where Agatha Ursine lectures.

Panels 2 & 3

Characters based on the hugely popular French BD heroes Asterix and Oblelix, created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo.

Characters based on the hugely popular French BD heroes Asterix and Oblelix, created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo.

Panel 5
This doorway is loosely based on the entrance of the Lisbon University of Technology, where, I seem to remember, the caryatids really do hold giant cogs.

Page 23

Professor Agatha Ursine is one of my favourite Grandville characters. I originally scripted the story with her as a male bear. Mary is always the first to read my scripts and suggested that I make him female. It was a brilliant idea. I didn’t change the character at all, just made her female and had her wearing a skirt instead of trousers. I like the way she has to constantly adjust her glasses to stop them from slipping off, an almost subliminal character trait.

Professor Agatha Ursine is one of my favourite Grandville characters. I originally scripted the story with her as a male bear. Mary is always the first to read my scripts and suggested that I make him female. It was a brilliant idea. I didn’t change the character at all, just made her female and had her wearing a skirt instead of trousers. I like the way she has to constantly adjust her glasses to stop them from slipping off, an almost subliminal character trait.

Panel 1
The Great Deluge is indeed present in mythology all over the world and in many such stories, as in the one in the world of Grandvlle’s Bible, it is the event that creates the world.

Panel 3
The “Divine Template” here is a reworked version of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. The was a clever reason why I had it as being by Michelangelo but I can’t now remember what is was. Possible answers to this address.

The “Divine Template” here is a reworked version of Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. The was a clever reason why I had it as being by Michelangelo but I can’t now remember what is was. Possible answers to this address.

Panel 4
There’s always at least one jackass in any class of students.

This mention of Mars here and its influence on the history of this planet would have become relevant if I’d decided to carry on producing Grandville Books after the now final one, Volume 5, as I had a possible story in mind of a Martian invasion, in which the Martians were anthropomorphic insects.

Page 24

Panels 6 & 7
This really is the standard pattern of how religious cults operate.

Panel 8
Apollo: as with unicorns, Apollo is often connected to Christ. To quote DM Murdock:

“The Greek god of the sun and oracles, Apollo, possesses important attributes in common with the Jewish savior Jesus, including his status as the son of God. As Jesus was titled "the Christ" or Christos, so too was Apollo purportedly styled Chrēstos.”

Page 25

Panel 1
The Winter Velodrome: I’ll cover this later on, in the annotations to page 74.

Panel 2
Ermintrude Bovery: “Ermintrude” after the cow from The Magic Roundabout, “Bovary” because it sounds close to “bovine”.

She really is a sacred cow.

Ermintrude Bovery: “Ermintrude” after the cow from The Magic Roundabout, “Bovary” because it sounds close to “bovine”.  She really is a sacred cow.

Panels 5 & 6
All quotes from the French writer Voltaire (1649 – 1722). In this world, Britain was under the sway of the French Empire and its culture for so long, LeBrock assumes him to have been British.

Panels 8 & 9

Agatha’s dialogue here is taken almost directly from something once said to me by reproductive biologist Jack Cohen.

Agatha’s dialogue here is taken almost directly from something once said to me by reproductive biologist Professor Jack Cohen.

Page 26

Some of the masks on the wall in this sequence decorate our living room. The large carved head to the right of panel one is an Indonesian ranga, and is drawn from one of them.

Some of the masks on the wall in this sequence decorate our living room. The large carved head to the right of panel one is an Indonesian ranga, and is drawn from one of them.

Panel 6
In our world, the St Bartholemew’s Day Massacre of 1572 was, to quote Wikipedia:

“a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion.”

And, as stated here, it was repeated all over France.

Page 27

Panel 1
A 17th century woodcut illustration of executed witches.

Panel 4
Angoulême is, in case you don’t know, is the town in France where the largest European comic festival takes place every January. Now in its 46th year, it attracts around a quarter of a million visitors annually. Angoulême also houses the French bande dessinée centre and the national BD museum. Even the street name signs are on speech balloons and the main street is Rue Hergé. I chose it as many of the doughface characters seen in Grandville are based on French comic characters.

Panel 6
Historia Animaliam.: Wikipedia again:

“Historia animalium ("History of the Animals"), published at Zurich in 1551–58 and 1587, is an encyclopedic "inventory of renaissance zoology" by Conrad Gessner (1516–1565). Gessner was a medical doctor and professor at the Carolinum in Zürich, the precursor of the University of Zurich. The Historia Animalium is the first modern zoological work that attempts to describe all the animals known, and the first bibliography of natural history writings. The five volumes of natural history of animals cover more than 4500 pages.”

The pages we see here are from this book.

Page 28

Panel 5
With the exception of the “True Gospels” (my invention!), all the information on history of the Knights Hospitaller and the Holy Sepulchre in this panel is correct.

Panel 6
Napoleon did conquer Egypt but, in our world, did not go on to conquer India, as he originally planned. In the world of Grandville, he built a massive empire.

Page 29

This actually is a quote from the bible.

This actually is a quote from the bible.

Apollo has a collection of medieval unicorn tapestries, which we see several times throughout the book.

Panel 2
“Unicorns are mentioned in the bible a dozen times or more”. This is true.

 Psalms 92:10, Deuteronomy 33:17, Deuteronomy 33:17, Job 39:9-10,  Job 39:12, Job 39:11, Psalms 29:6, Numbers 23:22, Numbers 24:8, Isaiah 34:7,  Psalms 22:21, Psalms 92:10

Page 30

Panel 4
The Soubise Mansion: L’Hotel de Soubrise hosts the Musée de l’Histoire de France andreally does house Napoleon’s personal papers.

Page 32

Chance Lucas (“Chance” Fr. “Luck”) is a homage to the extremely popular BD character Lucky Luke. Created by Belgian cartoonist Morris in 1946, he’s a gunslinger who can draw and shoot “faster than his shadow”, referred to here. He was constantly drawn with a hand-rolled cigarette in his mouth up until 1983, when Morris changed it to a wisp of straw.

Chance Lucas (“Chance” Fr. “Luck”) is a homage to the extremely popular BD character Lucky Luke. Created by Belgian cartoonist Morris in 1946, he’s a gunslinger who can draw and shoot “faster than his shadow”, referred to here. He was constantly drawn with a hand-rolled cigarette in his mouth up until 1983, when Morris changed it to a wisp of straw.

In the forthcoming Grandville RPG from Crooked Dice, Chance has a partner who’s a horse-headed woman called “Jollie”. In the Lucky Luke books, his horse is “Jolly Jumper”. Here’s their figurine of Chance.

In the forthcoming Grandville RPG from Crooked dice, Chance has a partner who’s a horse-headed woman called “Jollie”. In the Lucky Luke books, his horse is “Jolly Jumper”. Here’s their figurine of Chance.

Panel 2
The gun is a Colt 45 “Peacemaker”.

Panel 5
Chance’s shield is based on a real Pinkerton Detective Agency badge.

Chance’s shield is based on a real Pinkerton Detective Agency badge.

Page 33

Panel 5
“Doc” Elvis Yorkshire: He’s a Yorkshire terrier, based on one owned by my daughter-in-law, and was chosen because he looked like an old codger. His name was Elvis.

Find the Lady, the Old Fiddle Game and The Pigeon Drop are all names of classic con tricks.

Page 34

Panel 2
Mithras: The Indo-Persian god, yet another association of Apollo with Jesus Christ

"Both Mithras and Christ were described variously as 'the Way,' 'the Truth,' 'the Light,' 'the Life,' 'the Word,' 'the Son of God,' 'the Good Shepherd.' The Christian litany to Jesus could easily be an allegorical litany to the sun-god. Mithras is often represented as carrying a lamb on his shoulders, just as Jesus is. Midnight services were found in both religions. The virgin mother...was easily merged with the virgin mother Mary. Petra, the sacred rock of Mithraism, became Peter, the foundation of the Christian Church."
Gerald Berry, Religions of the World

Nicolas “Greasy Thumbs” Gryphon: Jake “Greasy thumb” Gerzik was Al Capone’s accountant, treasurer and Legal advisor.

Animal magnetism: also known as mesmerism.

Panel 3
The Yasgur Farm Massacre: For those too young to know, Yasgur’s Farm, New York state, was the location of the famous Woodstock music festival in 1969.

Page 35

Panel 2
“The Final Solution”: the Nazi plan for the extermination of the Jews during World War 2.

The strange creature to the left of Nicolas is a naked mole-rat, a native of East Africa.

The strange creature to the left of Nicolas is a naked mole-rat, a native of East Africa.

Panel 3
“Nits make lice”:

“Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians! ... I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians. ... Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice.”
— Col. John Milton Chivington

A total fascist bastard. Wikipedia:

John Milton Chivington (January 27, 1821 – October 4, 1894) was a former Methodist pastor who served as colonel in the United States Volunteers during the Colorado War and the New Mexico Campaigns of the American Civil War. In 1862, he was in the Battle of Glorieta Pass against a Confederate supply train.
Chivington gained infamy for leading a 700-man force of Colorado Territory militia during the massacre at Sand Creek;in November 1864. An estimated 70–163 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho – about two-thirds of whom were women, children, and infants – were killed and mutilated by his troops. Chivington and his men took scalps and other body parts as battle trophies, including human fetuses and male and female genitalia.”

Panel 4

This is the most obvious visual reference in all of the Grandville books, The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci.

This is the most obvious visual reference in all of the Grandville books, The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci.

I was very pleased at the way the script corresponds with each of the characters’  body language.

I was very pleased at the way the script corresponds with each of the characters’  body language.

Page 39

Panel 6
The picture in the background is adapted from the Maiden and the Unicorn by Domenico Zampieri (1581 – 1641)

Maidens and Unicorns: see notes page 43, panel 7.

Now go to the final batch of Grandville Noël annotations.