Paris-based graphic artist Nicolas Wild moved to Afghanistan to create a comic book that would explain the Afghan constitution to kids. his book Kabul Disco shows you a country you don't see on television
Paris-based graphic artist Nicolas Wild moved to Afghanistan to create a comic book that would explain the Afghan constitution to kids. his book Kabul Disco shows you a country you don't see on television
Nicolas Wild, a graphic artist based in Paris, was 28 when he did something few people in his part of the world would consider doing -- he moved to Afghanistan. It wasn't exactly tourist season, considering how years of war had left the country unstable. Wild went because he was offered a rather unusual, if temporary, job: He had to create a comic book for children, explaining to them the Afghan constitution.
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The book sticks to the black-and-white style much favoured by French artists like Pierre-Franu00e7ois David Beauchard (Epileptic). Its title comes from a CD compilation created for expatriate parties and, if it works, it is because Wild has a dry humour that comes through on every page. There is no informed commentary on why Afghanistan is the way it is, but one suspects the artist simply decided to leave political insights to the many journalists still in the country. Not a bad idea at all.
In conversation with Nicolas Wild
Given the nature of your chosen medium, despite the advantages it offers, isn't there a risk of trivialising what is obviously a difficult subject -- the horror of war?
I think I have avoided that risk. Firstly, I see no reason why images from a graphic novel should trivialise the horror of war more than another media. Then, the horror is not exactly my topic. I haven't seen real violence, haven't been on a battlefield or stepped on a mine. War was more in the background of our daily lives.
One assumes you were influenced, to some extent, by the work of Art Spiegelman and Marjane Satrapi. Were there others?
Hergu00e9 had a deeper influence on my work, especially for the way he created his characters -- each having a specific behaviour, and way of speaking. I also like English humour, like the Monty Python and their great sense of 'non sense'. I saw lots of non sense in Kabul. As for describing life in a war-torn country, with humour, I may have been influenced by Roberto Benigni's movie La Vita u00e8 Bella.
Assuming some of them have seen it, how do locals in Afghanistan react to Kabul Disco?
They were very happy to read something light and funny about their country. They suffer from the bad image Afghanistan has in the media. It is possible to have a "normal" life in Kabul and that is something I wanted to talk about.
What can we expect from you next, in this series?
The second book, published in French already, talks about the opium situation and anti-US riots of June 22, 2006. The third, which I haven't finished yet, is about how war and chaos came back in a country supposed to be done with war. The trilogy is a little historical fresco running from 2005 to 2009, a geopolitical tale.
Kabul Disco, Nicolas Wild, HarperCollins India, 148 pages, Rs 325. Available at all leading bookstores
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