Presented in comic strip format, Histoires du Vendée Globe is a true documentary on this mythical race. Unlike the other collections that gargle with drama and tragedy, here the stories are simple facts that give a new look at the race.
The authors, Alexandre Chenet for the texts and Renaud Garreta for the drawings met 11 skippers from the last editions of the event. They collected key moments of their race to transcribe them, in text or drawing and allow us to discover the inside of the race.
Here no tongue sewn together in the great south, nor even catastrophic shipwreck, not the events reported are the game with a depression or the explanation of the fear of material breakage.
This book opens the reader's eyes to make him discover the pleasures of solo sailing - Arnaud Boissières's account of his pleasure at sea is incredible in sincerity! - or scared at times - Samantha Davis does not hide being locked in her boat sometimes more than 48 hours for fear of going out..
Both authors had produced a comic strip for the previous edition in 2012. "Alone around the world" was a (fictional) story based on real facts produced in racing. The result was not up to our expectations, the story being too soft compared to the message to convey. This time, supported by a superbly produced drawing and poignant texts, this book is a real success. Rarely has a book as simple and accessible as this told as well what the skippers of the Vendée Globe can experience.
The end pages, a final 10-page dossier, constitute an educational guide to follow the 2016 edition, with a presentation of the skippers and boats as well as a detail of what constitutes a 60-foot IMOCA.
As for the reproaches (but really nothing compared to the quality of this book) we will regret that the texts are not signed - but that we have to go to the end of the book in the table of contents to see who produced them. But the most reproachable point to this work remains the drawing of cover. We see this lonely man at the helm, wet by the spray. The wheel in his hands is much more like a Volvo steering station than an IMOCA. Very few IMOCAs have had wheel steering and especially none of the current boats have it. Why this unrealistic choice when all sea drawings are technical and do not make such a gross mistake?
- Editions Dargaud
- 128 pages
- 22.7 x 29.7 cm
- Price: 17,95 €
