Written by: Zidrou
Illustrations: Francis Porcel
Coloring: Francis Porcel
Publisher: Dargaud
De Nar – Comic Book Review
Jesters, the medieval versions of a clown, are often portrayed as small little hobbit-like human beings who have the impossible task of making an evil dictator or a fat swine of a king laugh. If they succeed, they live another day, if not, rats will feast upon their flesh and bones in the royal dungeons. Nonetheless, these funnymen never get a leading role in stories, they never get to save the damsel in distress, they never find the hidden treasure, they just get to live. This time a young mutilated man will take up the role of a fairytale-like jester, albeit in a dirty world.
Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, in a prison cell of the local dungeon, a meaningless woman gives birth to a mutilated child, which immediately gets thrown to the warden’s dog to serve as his next meal. Nonetheless, the brutal animal, which ate its own pups earlier that day, mothers the young gruesome looking being until passing away a few years later. The young child, being dubbed Flem (Fluim in Dutch, but we’ll go with Flem to make things easier.), has no surrogate mother anymore, as well as his birth mother who and als his birth mother passed away after one of the rape sessions that went wrong. Flem decides to start following the maniacal warden around, who makes him do his bidding, whilst keeping the fun work for himself. Nonetheless, Flem is content (by) chatting with the prisoners, who offer him some information about the outside world.
When the count who controls the land where the prison is founded comes by to drop off a new prisoner, he notices Flem. The count finds Flem such an amusing little midget that he forces the warden to donate him, in order to serve as a jester/pet for the count’s daughter, Livia. Whilst many normal people would find this depressing, Flem was actually quite happy to finally see daylight, to feel the heat of the sun on his skin and to make the beautiful Livia laugh. It seems the little jester has fallen in love with the daughter of the count. For a tale about love, it’s only natural that the lead character would fall in love. Nonetheless, love comes in many ways. Luckily does the ill befallen protagonist have a slumbering magic ability that would make every prince charming jealous.
The flow of the story follows a steady pace, but it feels quite different because most of the narrative is told by an actual narrator, namely one of Flem’s acquaintances from the dungeon. He does his best to make the story as juicy as possible, with the necessary amount of wit and snide remarks to make the story feel light, yet a bit more personal at the same time.
Zidrou, who came up with the story of this subtle wink to a typical fairytale, has produced a truly wonderful, yet sad, plot for this tale about love. It’s fun to see that the comic book remains very interesting from beginning to end, even though the characters themselves hardly speak, making it all depend on the locked up narrator. This makes the issue strangely pleasant and original.
The illustrations were handled by Francis Porcel, who presents the reader with very detailed drawings. The right things are emphasized, pushing certain more bland illustrations to the background. All of the pictures are colored in fairly pale colors, which look right out of an older storybook, making them fit right into the theme of the story. Overall a fitting body for a great story.
Conclusion
De Nar is a great standalone grim fairytale about love, ugliness and the overall ugliness of love. The story is nicely packed in a blanket of wit and pleasant storytelling, with authentic illustrations accompanying the tale of many hardships. Overall, it would be a jest to jest this jester. Join a poor soul on his misadventure that could save the lives of many.
De Nar - Comic Book Review,
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