• The notebooks to spirals of LOUSTAL

• Avantportrait 

• LOUSTAL, the painter of the comics

• Jacques de Loustal imposed itself by an atmosphere made of permanence and mystery of the Simenon in painting.

By the late 1980s the masterworks of both European and Japanese crime comics had begun to be published in the USA by Catalan Communications in New York City, (no longer in business, alas). It was Catalan first, and later Fantagraphics of Seattle, who would provide an American audience with the graphic novels of Munoz and Sampayo. It would be Catalan as well who would first publish the two most gorgeous color artists in the history of noir comics, the Frenchman, Jacques Loustal, and the Italian, Lorenzo Mattoti. Loustal's Love Shots, and Mattoti's Fires are two authentic masterworks of the postmodern noir comics movement.

New York, Miami / [illustrated by] Jacques deLoustal ; [stories by] Philippe Paringaux ; translated by Elizabeth Bell. -- New York : Catalan Communications, 1990. -- 64 p. : col. ill. ; 32 cm. [ out of print] $11.95, Adult Graphic novel. Oversize pictorial wrappers. Fine
ISBN: 0874160731
ISBN-13: 9780874160734

In this collection of short stories, the creators of LOVE SHOTS perform their jaded ventriloquy on a new assortment of American losers, and a few from other continents as well. From Death Row in the Mississippi Delta to New York's backstage groupie scene, the imagery shunts from eye-level subjective focus to the remorseless leer of the hidden camera. The lighting trips brusquely with each vignette, enveloping us in the indoor cloudiness of cheap hotel rooms, Africa's immemorial starlight, the incandescent ghetto. Illuminated by the glare is a portrait gallery of the used, the useless, the unchosen, the stooge, as the authors split the spectrum of human desolation. Often we find ourselves eavesdropping at the endpoint of some inevitability too dreary to be called fate: the moment our subject ,catches on.,, The spare text of inner emptiness contrasts painfully with the overwhelming visuals, resulting in a sort of high-decibel understatement that is the Loustal/Paringaux genius. ....comics of unusual literary artifice and sensitivity.. inventive and beautifully executed drawing styles...(Publishers Weekly)

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:
In such previous collections as Love Shots, Loustal's illustrational gifts, in combination with Paringaux's fixation on lower-class squalor and upper-class decadence, produced a vision of America influenced by detective movies and crime journalism. The two Frenchmen again offer comics of unusual literary artifice and sensitivity with this new volume that continues to present oddly affecting extracts from the lives of their eccentric and convincing characters: the deluded rock groupie of "Miss Fan USA"; the mordantly witty-and stylishly rendered-sexual encounter of "The Question"; or the noirish male lovers of "Marcello" and their amusing and violent partnership. The drawing styles, inventive and beautifully executed, vary between stories, changing the mood of each. The collaborators' fascination with black American life, not always successfully utilized here, is best interpreted in "La Vie En Blues," where their ability to create lyrical period pieces captures both the blues sensibility and the gritty mythologies of 1940s urban black life. (May)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY/ APRIL 13, I990, Vol. 237 Issue 15, p60, 2p by Kaganoff, P.
Reviews the graphic novel `New York/Miami 90,' by P. Paringaux, translated by E. Bell, illustrated by J. Loustal. ISSN:0000-0019

Hearts of Sand / Loustal & Paringaux ; transl. [from the French] by Elizabeth Bell ; [ed. by Bernd Metz]. - New York : Catalan, 1991. - 64 p. : gekleurde ill. ; 30 cm  Trans.: Coeurs de sable. - Tournai : Casterman, 1985.
ISBN 0-874161347
ISBN-13: 9780874161342
$13.95.

Publishers Weekly:
Paringaux and de Loustal ( Love Shots ) are neatly matched collaborators. The interconnections between words and pictures are so well established that it is impossible to just look at the images or read the text. De Loustal draws in the tradition of early 20th-century European artists, de Chirico and Picasso in particular. Paringaux's story recalls modernist French cinema: lots of smoking, sweating and sex, and against the clear-cut happy-ending tradition (not to mention the heterosexual tradition) many Americans are accustomed to in popular fiction. The story involves an American tennis player named Baby and three people who are attracted to her: her German chaperone, Eva; a French soldier named Robert; and an Arab who kidnaps Baby out of love. Baby spends the bulk of the story being passive while others take control of her actions. Eva and Robert appear to be stereotypes--she, the classic lesbian bitch, he, the brave male hero--but Paringaux turns the images on their ear. Eva receives no comeuppance for not being a ``proper'' woman, and Robert is an ineffectual drunkard with delusions of chivalry. A fine work from two prime French talents. (May)
Publishers Weekly, 3/22/91, Vol. 238 Issue 14, p76, 1/6p by Kaganoff, P.Reviews the novel `Hearts of Sand,` by Philippe Paringuax, illustrated by Jacques de Loustal. ISSN: 0000-0019

Library Journal:
Paringaux's scripts combine the best elements of French modernist literature and film, and de Loustal unites Giorgio de Chirico's reverberating emptiness and Picassoesque faces. This story-involving a cosmopolitan cast and a bizarre love triangle-ridicules romance/adventure conventions with deep character insights: (Their other work includes Love Shots and Barney d the Blue Note.)
Library Journal, 6/1/91, Vol. 116 Issue 10, p134, 1p, 2 bw by DeCandido, K.R.A.
Reviews several comic books which are becoming a mainstream presence in popular culture. Includes `The Complete Crumb Comics,' by R. Crumb; `Love That Bunch,' by Aline Kominsky-Crumb; `Hearts of Sand,' by Philippe Paringaux and Jacques de Loustal; ISSN 0363-0277

The Barnes & Noble Review  
It's often bizarre, usually weird, occasionally creepy, and always fun. It's Little Lit: Strange Stories for Strange Kids, the second book in the quirky series that began with Folklore and Fairy Tale Funnies. With a roster of writers and illustrators that reads like a who's who of children's lit, this offbeat collection of stories and activities is as eye-catching as it is thought-provoking. 

Marc Rosenthal offers an assortment of goofy jokes sure to tickle juvenile funny bones, while Paul Auster and Jacques De Loustal get serious with their tale about one man's experience when he steps -- quite literally -- outside himself. Francois Roca offers a picture of a cityscape in which at least 22 things seem oddly wrong or out of place, and for puzzle lovers, Lewis Trondheim has created the fittingly named "A-maze-ing Adventure," a story shaped like a maze that follows the travails of a squatty little character who finds himself trapped inside. 

From Britain's preeminent cartoonist, Posy Simmonds, comes the story of a vengeful and mean-spirited Mr. Frost, who drives home that old adage about being careful what you wish for. Kim Deitch takes readers along to Katropolis, a world inhabited by cats and powered by dogs, while Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jules Feiffer tells the story of a boy trapped inside a comic book with a couple of battling superheroes. Caldecott-winning author Barbara McClintock follows the adventures of a runaway shadow, while Martin Handford, the author of Where's Waldo?, asks readers to examine a busy full-page picture to try to find 11 odd socks, 10 aliens, and 6 worms. There's also an ugly little girl who hates the fact that she's turned pretty; a baby that eats everything in sight...including his family; a Fairy Godfather with a temporary case of amnesia; and a house that decides to run away from home. 

Strange Stories for Strange Kids may not be your typical fare, but it's never dull. These colorful pages, quirky characters, and twisted adventures will provide hours of stimulating fun to young minds of all ages. (Beth Amos)


From the Publisher
The second groundbreaking anthology from the New York Times best-selling team of Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly is here! The everyday world is turned upside down and the ordinary becomes extraordinary in this collection of the strangest tales. From Art Spiegelman's "The Several Lives of Selby Sheldrake" to Maurice Sendak's "Cereal Baby Keller" to Jules Feiffer's "Trapped in a Comic Book," these stories are sure to entice any young reader. Also included are comics and features by Ian Falconer and David Sedaris, Paul Auster and Jacques de Loustal, Crockett Johnson, Richard MGuire, and Barbara McClintock, a puzzle by Lewis Trondheim, and make-your-own comic-book endpapers from Kaz, Little Lit: Strange Stories for Strange Kids continues the tradition of bring the pleasure of books and reading into the hands and minds of kids.

Love Shots
Philippe Paringaux (stories), Bernd Metz (Editor), Illustrated by Jacques de Loustal Format: Paperback, 62pp.
8 1/2 x 11 inches large format 
Publisher: Catalan Communications
Pub. Date: November 1988
Translated from the original French "Clichés d'amour" by Elizabeth Bell 
ISBN: 0874160596
ISBN-13: 9780874160598