Trondheim, Lewis 1964-

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TRONDHEIM, Lewis 1964-

PERSONAL:

Born November 11, 1964, in Fountainbleu, France; married Brigitte Findkaly; children: two.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Montpellier, France. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Fantagraphics, 7563 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115.

CAREER:

Cartoonist. Cofounder of L'Association Publishers, 1990—; creator of Lapinot (published as McConey in the United States).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Nominated for one Harvey award and two Eisner awards, all 2000, all for Nimrod.

WRITINGS:

COMICS AND ALBUMS

Psychanalyse, Le Lézard (France), 1990.

Moins d'un quart de seconde pour vivre, L'Association (France), 1990.

Un intérieur d'artiste, L'Association (France), 1991—.

Monolinguiste, Le Lézard, 1992.

Lapinot et les carottes de Patagonie, L'Association/Lézard (France), 1992.

Le dormeur, Cornélius (France), 1993.

Slaloms, L'Association (France), 1993.

Approximate Continuum Comics 1-6, Cornélius (France), 1993–94.

Gare Centrale, illustrated by Jean-Pierre Duffour, Rackham (France), 1994.

Mildiou, Le Seuil (Paris, France), 1994.

Nous sommes tous morts, story by Jean-Luc Coudray, L'Association (France), 1995.

Approximativement, Cornélius (France), 1995.

La mouche, Le Seuil (Paris, France), 1995.

Blacktown, Dargaud (Paris, France), 1995.

Diablotus, L'Association (France), 1995.

Les aventures de la fin de l'épisode, L'Association (France), 1995.

Génèses apocalyptiques, L'Association (France), 1995.

Chiquenaude, Dargaud (Paris, France), 1996.

Pichenettes, Dargaud (Paris, France), 1996.

Walter, Dargaud (Paris, France),1996.

Non, non, non, L'Association (France), 1997.

Les aventures de l'univers, Dargaud (Paris, France), 1997.

Le pays des trois sourires, L'Association (France), 1997.

Amour et intérim, Dargaud (Paris, France), 1998.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon Zénith 1: coeur de canard, Delcourt (Paris, France), 1998, translated as Dungeon Zenith, NBM (New York, NY) 2004—.

Nimrod 1-7, Fantagraphics (Seattle, WA), 1998–2002.

(With Matt Konture) Galopinot, L'Association (France), 1998.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon Zénith 2: Le roi de la bagarre; Delcourt (Paris, France), 1998.

Vacances de printemps, story by Frank LeGall, Dargaud (Paris, France), 1999.

Monstrueux Bazar, Delcourt (Paris, France), 1999.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon crépuscule 101: Le cimetière des dragons, Delcourt (Paris, France), 1999.

Pour de vrai, Dargaud (Paris, France), 1999.

Monstrueux Noël, Delcourt (Paris, France), 1999.

(With Joann Sfar and Christophe Blain) Donjon Potron-Minet-99: La chemise de la nuit, Delcourt (Paris, France), 1999.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon Zénith 3: La princesse des barbares, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2000.

Les cosmonautes du futur, illustrated by Manu Larcenet Dargaud (Paris, France), 2000, translated as Astronauts of the Future, NBM (New York, NY), 2004.

Monstrueux Dindon, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2000.

La couleur de l'enfer, Dargaud (Paris, France), 2000.

Petit père Noël, illustrated by Thierry Robin, Dupuis (France), 2000, translated as Little Santa, NBM (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon parade 1: Un donjon de trop, illustrated by Manu Larcenet, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2000.

Les trois chemins, illustrated by Sergio Garcia, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2000.

Politique étrangère, illustrated by Jochen Gerner, L'Association (France), 2000.

Monstrueux dinosaure, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2001.

Venezia 1: triple jeu, illustrated by Fabrice Parme, Dargaud (Paris, France), 2001.

Le roi catastrophe: Adalbert ne manque pas d'air, illustrated by Fabrice Parme, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2001.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon Potron-Minet-98: un justicier dans l'ennui, illustrated by Christophe Blain, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2001.

Les cosmonautes du futur 2: le retour, illustrated by Manu Larcenet, Dargaud (Paris, France), 2001.

Joyeux Halloween petit père Noël (tome 2), illustrated by Thierry Robin, Dupuis (France), 2001, translated as Happy Halloween, Li'l Santa, NBM (New York, NY) 2003.

Monstrueuse école, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2003.

Le roi catastrophe 2: Adalbert perd les pédales, illustrated by Fabrice Parme, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2001.

Allez raconte (une histoire), Volume 1, illustrated by Jose Parrondo, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2001.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon monsters 1: Jean-Jean la terreur illustrated by Mazan, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2001.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon monsters 2: le géant qui pleure, illustrated by Jean-Christophe Menu, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2001.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon parade 2: le sage du ghetto, illustrated by Manu Larcenet, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2001.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon crépuscule 102: le volcan des Vaucanson, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2001.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon parade 3: Le jour des crapauds, illustrated by Manu Larcenet, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2002.

Le roi catastrophe 3: Adalbert a tout pour plaire, illustrated by Fabrice Parme, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2002.

Les ineffables, L'Association (France), 2002.

Mister O, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2002, NBM (New York, NY), 2004.

Carnet de bord 1-28, L'Association (France), 2002.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon Zénith 4: sortilège et avatar, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2002.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon crépuscule 103: Armaggedon, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2003.

(With Joann Sfar) Donjon monsters 3: la carte majeure, illustrated by Andréas, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2002.

Venezia 2: Codex Bellum, illustrated by Fabrice Parme, Dargaud (Paris, France), 2002.

Kaput et Zösky, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2002.

(With Joann Sfar and Jean-Emmanuel Vermot-Desroches) Donjon monsters 5: la nuit du tombeur, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2002.

L'accélérateur atomique, Dargaud (Paris, France), 2003.

(With Joann Sfar and Stéphane Blanquet) Donjon monsters 4: le noir seigneur, Delcourt (Paris, France), 2003.

Also creator of "McConey" comic-book series, Fantagraphics, an English-language version of the author's "Lapinot" series.

ADAPTATIONS:

La mouche was adapted for a series of five-minute animated cartoons in France.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

More work on the "Nimrod" and "Donjon" titles.

SIDELIGHTS:

Lewis Trondheim is one of the "innovators of the French comics scene," according to a contributor for Lambiek.com. Popular in his native France, Trondheim is best known for two ongoing comic-book series: the "Lapinot" series, featuring a rabbit-like protagonist in a comedy-adventure-fantasy series, which is published in the United States as the "McConey" series, and the "Donjon" series, a sword-and-sorcery series created in collaboration with fellow artist Joann Sfar. Fantagraphics also publishes Trondheim's autobiographical works in the Nimrod books. Additionally, Trondheim's work has been collected in book form and published by the prestigious French publishing house Seuil. In 1994's Mildiou he tells a "Lapinot" story that is set in medieval times, while 1995's Le mouche presents a wordless tale as seen through the eyes of a fly.

A wordless tale, also published in the United States, Mister O features a small and rather geometrical stick figure whose route is interrupted by a ravine or chasm. Mister O wants to make it to the other side of this chasm, but his ventures usually land him in the bottom of the ravine. Trondheim presents this predicament in thirty cartoons of sixty panels each. A contributor for Publishers Weekly found the effect to be "reminiscent of a collection of Charlie-Brown-and-the-football strips or Road Runner cartoons stripped down to their barest, micro-minimal essence." Mister O is not uninventive: he uses wings, hot air, bridges, springs, and other mechanical devices to help get him across, all with no success. Dan Nadel, reviewing the book in the Washington Post Book World, observed that Mister O's "wordless exercises in futility are rendered with evident delight by the French cartoonist Lewis Trondheim, whose nimble pen strokes can imbue even a squiggle (or an 'O') with humor and pathos." More wordless adventures are served up in Happy Halloween, Li'l Santa, in which the eponymous protagonist battles some loggers who are about to turn his woods into so many match sticks. He teams up not with Santa's helpers, but with a bevy of "Tim Burtonesque monsters who create Halloween mischief," according to Booklist critic Carlos Orellana. The same reviewer went on to call the book a "thoroughly enjoyable holiday adventure."

Trondheim is best known, however, for his larger series works. His "Lapinot" series has "an open, associative, improvised structure," according to the contributor for Lambiek.com, and "moves freely between different genres, such as science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy." This series debuted in France with 1992's Lapinot et les carottes de Patagonie, published by Trondheim's own company, L'Association. The first of the titles published in the United States was Harum Scarum, brought out in 1997 by Fantagraphics. This was the first in "The Nifty Adventures of McConey," featuring the rabbit-like McConey, a dog, and a cat. Writing on the Fantagraphics Web site, Kim Thompson, the editor and translator of the series, compared the books to the Marx Brothers movies. "In each movie, Groucho is the same wheeling-and-dealing sleazball, but he may be an attorney, the president of a college, or an African explorer," Thompson explained. Thus with the "McConey" books, the characters remain the same, but the genre and milieu change, from a horror story set in a European city of the 1930s in "Harum Scarum" to a contemporary comedy thriller in "Hoodoodad." There is also a Western McConey, one set in the Middle Ages, and even a children's story. Thompson went on to praise Trondheim's dialogue in the series as "consistently witty" and the stories as "fast-paced."

Fantagraphics also publishes Trondheim's "Nimrod" books, which feature a variety of titles from the versatile French cartoonist, many with an autobiographical emphasis. For example, Nimrod 1 is a 144-page autobiographical graphic novel, Approximativement, originally published in France. In Nimrod 7 readers can find out what an editorial meeting at L'Association is like, while in Nimrod 6 Trondheim recounts, among other things, a summer camp adventure. Writing on the Fantagraphics Web site about his "Nimrod" books, Trondheim noted that "although I enjoy working in the European album format …, I have a special fondness for the American comic book format. I love that the author can do exactly as he pleases, and that this kind of publication is so much cheaper than the French album."