Bran Ruz
Auclair & Deschamps
Ed. Casterman; 157 pages; black and white; soft cover

Claude Auclair (1943-1990) was an inspired comic-artist and an inspired human being. His inspiration was the source of many of his stories and the way he told them. Unfortunately not always in favour of the quality of his storytelling.
That same inspiration led Auclair to one of the highlights of his oeuvre. More or less controlled by his cooperation with Alain Deschamps, Auclair succeeded in making the impressive graphic novel called Bran Ruz. Bran Ruz does right to the inhabitants of Bretagne without exaggerated romantics or moral and political grandiloquence. At the beginning of the story, the two artists make perfectly clear what they want: writing a minority’s history, because official historiography has failed to do so.

By using a frame-story the authors manage to make a pointed connection between the present and the past. Not only with the purpose to do justice to history, but also to do justice to the cultural heritage of the inhabitants of Bretagne.
The events in Bran Ruz take place in Bretagne at the end of the fourth century. Gauls from the British Isle conquered Armorica and settled there. In a slow but effective rhythm the personal story of the Armorican bastard Ran Ruz is told and used as a frame to describe a merciless society, where magic still is reality. In the mighty town Ker-Is reigns Gradlon, who has an incestuous relationship with his own daughter. Her encounter with Bran Ruz makes her turn away from her father. Bran Ruz turns out to have great powers and eventually he becomes the leader of the Armorican rebels against Ker-Is. After a decisive single combat between Bran Ruz and Gradlon, the town is taken by the former slaves. Yet in the end victory is for the sea. An enormous storm is the end for both winners and defeaters. Even the town Ker-Is is regained by the waters. Only Gradlon and his grandson survive.
More than telling the story of Armorica and Ker-Is, more than telling the story of Gradlon and Bran Ruz, this graphic novel is about power and oppression in many forms; masters and slaves, dogma and freedom, men and women.
With so many themes a story can easily become as overly filling as a good cheese soufflé. Besides that the connecting sentences regularly are too pompous. Nonetheless, Bran Ruz is a breathtaking graphic novel. This is mainly due to the structure Deschamps chose to use; namely concentrating on the development of Bran Ruz and the growing tormentation of a bitter Gradlon. Beside that there are Auclair's wonderful pleasant drawings. Deschamps takes care of a thrilling but even so meaningful story. Auclair translates the message in a slowly told graphic novel, powerful enough to drag the reader straight to the end.
Bran Ruz is graphic literature in the truest sense of the word. Potentionally too great pretensions are fully neutralized and balanced by the great skills and talents of both the authors. The result is a great and profound graphic novel.
Jef Nieuwenhuis