 Born Herv� Barulea in 1947 in France, Baru's communist parents were convinced there was no money to be earned in drawing. He became a gym teacher.
In his early thirties, he decided to devote his time to making comics, drawing subjext matter from his teenage years in France and his travels in the 60s. Soon he proved his parents wrong by becoming a full-time, established comic artist.
Thoroughly influenced by the raw humor of Reiser and the expressionist drawings of Mu�oz, Baru's debut, Qu�qette Blues was an instant classic. A moving semi-autobiographical tale of everyday life of French working class youths, it represented all Baru's later work in a nutshell.
Some fifteen years later, Baru finally broke through to a larger comix audience with the stunning Euro-manga, l'Autoroute du Soleil, which won the prestigious Alph' Art award for the best original French language comic in 1995.
Baru's latest works are the impressive sixties tribute, Sur la Route Encore and the cynical apocalyptic drama, Bonne Ann�e. (Thanks to Lambiek.net's Comiclopedia)
Though a latecomer to comics, Baru has been an enormous success ever since his first published material in 1982. In 1984 Baru�s very first comic book Qu�quette Blues was awarded the Alph�art, the most prestigious award at the Angoul�me Festival, known as the Cannes of European comics. A perennial award-winner and famed throughout Europe and Asia for his distinctive style, he is known in American comic circles as one of France�s best-kept secrets.
"[An] exemplary graphic novel, informative and gripping, and Baru's muted colors and mournful caricatures are a welcome break from the American style."--Nick Hornby, NY Times Book Review
"...Road to America excels at ...atmosphere. Gorgeously printed in full color on large, nearly nine by twelve, heavy, off-white paper, it looks fantastic. Layers of translucent watercolor seem to have soaked into the paper, achieving one of the most varied and spectacular of palates I've seen in a comicbook. Typical of European comic-making Baru puts his stylized characters into carefully-detailed, realistic settings. While its setting becomes nostalgic, its sense of danger does not. Filled with paranoia, prejudice and terrorism, the time and place have a particular resonance now." --Time.com
|
