“For me, Cambodia has always been linked to the graphic novel”
Interview with Séra, Cambodge Soir, 3 April 2007
Life is nowadays very busy for the Franco-Cambodian graphic novel author, Séra. Tomorrow evening, during a conference at the French Cultural Centre, he’ll present the Khmer version of Water and Earth, published by Editions du Mékong. He’ll also talk about his new graphic novel, Following Days of Ashes, where the story starts with the fall of the Pol Pot regime. During the same evening, the FCC will inaugurate the exhibition “Deux Faces” which will feature images from this book and large format drawings.
Cambodge Soir: For you who were born in Phnom Penh in 1961, with a Cambodian father and a French mother, and lived here until 1975, what does the Khmer translation of the comic book Water and Earth represent?
Séra: It’s a great joy and pride to be able to let people read this story in the language of the country. I’ll be paying a lot of attention to how the Cambodian people will welcome it. With 3000 published copies, this graphic novel is of course intended for the locals but might also be interesting for the Khmer community in the United States and in France.
What’s the story of your new graphic novel, Following Days of Ashes, coming out soon?
The graphic novel Impasse et Rouge evokes the Cambodia during the years ’70 – ’75, Water and Earth, the years ’75 – ’78 under the Pol Pot regime, and this new opus relates the itinerary of two people who take advantage of the decline of the Khmer Rouge in order to find a way out of difficulties. I should include sketches that I drew in Cambodia in 1993, at the end of the repatriation of refugees from the camps along the Thai border. At the end, violence overtakes the main character; he can’t run away from it.
A tragic story…
A little bit according to the image of Cambodia. But it’s true that the country is doing much better today. Moreover, I already started to work on another graphic novel with a story that takes place within the actual context.
You’ll finish the editing of Following Days of Ashes in Cambodia?
I should in fact already have finished but I was slightly delayed because of my busy schedule. In reality it’s better; by finishing the editing here I can wander around the countryside for example, and gather some details that can be added to the images and the text.
Which are the “Two Faces” of your exhibition?
These are two different approaches to the drawing; the one is a pure and simple graphic novel, the other more artistic. It will contain images of Following Days of Ashes, which I present here before the stage of computer processing. It’s a sneak preview because even my editor hasn’t seen them yet! It will also feature ten drawing of more than one meter fifty high with motifs coming from the Angkor statuary without therefore trying to repeat them. Today I see that Cambodians are often reluctant to distance themselves from the ancient models, out of fear of destroying their divine nature. I draw in function of the past but without the intention of locking myself in. This is the way that I’m trying to show.
This month you’re conducting two comic book workshops for young cartoonists and authors of Cambodian comic books. In a country where this form of expression isn’t yet very popular, are there many people who take interest?
There are already approximately twenty people who registered for these workshops, it’s huge. In 1999 and 2005, I already conducted workshops here. I believe that Cambodians are very sensitive to the narration because they have a tradition of fairy tales. They’re particularly sensitive to visual narration through the Angkorian bas-reliefs. Showing things through the image makes sense here, even if the comic book is not yet very popular because of its cost. For me, Cambodia has always been linked to the graphic novel. It’s here that I discovered the graphic novel. I created my first album in Phnom Penh when I was 12 years old.
What will your workshops entail?
The goal is not to teach how to make comic books my way. I try to give codes, keys in order to better understand the comic book language and to help the participants to acquire a more mature style and a sharper critical sense.
Do you have other projects concerning Cambodia?
I’m thinking about adapting The Anarchist of Soth Polin and I’d also like to evoke the Sangkum period of Norodom Sihanouk with images. On the other hand, I’ve written an autobiographical story about my youth and my relationship with women, The Smile of the Apsaras, but I still have to turn it into a graphic novel. Realising work about Cambodia allows me to talk about a tragedy in which I was personally involved and to be at peace with my past. On the other hand it seems important to me to perpetuate the past. For those who are alive and out of respect for those who aren’t any more.
Interview by Sarah Oliveira, courtesy Cambodge Soir