L'Association is a French publishing house located in Paris which publishes comic books. It was founded in May 1990 by Jean-Christophe Menu, Lewis Trondheim, David B., Mattt Konture, Patrice Killoffer, Stanislas, and Mokeït.

L'Association is one of the most important publishers to come out of the new wave of Franco-Belgian comics in the 1990s, and remains highly regarded. They were among the first to publish authors such as Joann Sfar and Marjane Satrapi, and also are known for publishing French translations of the work of North American cartoonists like Julie Doucet and Jim Woodring.

Mon Lapin quotidien (MLQ, formerly Lapin and Mon Lapin) is the group's magazine.

History

The forerunner of the association was founded in 1984 as "Aanal", or Association pour l’Apologie du 9e Art Libre. Various other structures were set up by the founding members, and in 1990 they decided to return to an independent organisational structure, based on Aanal. At the time, the comics industry dominated by a number of large publishers who did not publish comic books exclusively. Similar to alternative comics in North America at the time, L’Association focused published works based on reality-based, and exclusively in black and white. David B. left the group in spring 2005; Lewis Trondheim left in autumn 2006, followed shortly after by Stanislas and Killoffer. (At that point, L'Association's "editorial board" was dissolved, since it was originally composed of the company's founders.) This left Menu as sole director of L’Association. Although he had been the driving force, there had been dissatisfaction with his lack of collaborative approach. Konture remained loyal and stayed on, but was not involved in operations. It was managed by Menu and a board of directors who had been in place since 1993: Patricia Perdrizet as president, Isabelle “Zab” Chipot as secretary, and Laetitia Zuccarelli as treasurer.

In May 2011, after nearly six months of debate Menu announced his official departure from L'Association, and Stanislas also left, leaving only Mattt Konture from the original group. Shortly afterwards, co-founders David B., Killoffer, and Trondheim returned to the publishing house, as president, secretary, and treasurer respectively. A new editorial committee was created, comprising Konture, David B., Killoffer, François Ayroles, Jochen Gerner, Étienne Lécroart, Lisa Mandel et Jérome Mulot, with Céline Merrien as president. It was resurrected from a period of dormancy in 2007 as a platform for emerging authors, which gave exposure to people such as Lisa Mandel, Nine Antico, and Matthias Picard. In 2017, it was relaunched as Mon Lapin quotidien (MLQ) as a large format ( by ) magazine, in its sixth series, starting with issue 1. Its appearance follows that of an ordinary mainstream newspaper, but its title is misleading: it is not published daily (quotidien), but quarterly.

Titles (by author)

Anthologies

  • Comix 2000 (2000)
  • Oubapo
  • OuPus 1 (1997)
  • OuPus 2 (2003)
  • OuPus 3 (2004)
  • OuPus 4 (2005)

Edmond Baudoin

  • Le portrait (re-issue of Baudoin, collection 30x40, originally published by Futuropolis in 1990)
  • coll. Eperluette
  • Éloge de la poussière (1995)
  • Terrains vagues (1996)
  • coll. Patte de Mouche
  • Made in U.S. (1995)
  • Nam (1998)
  • coll. Ciboulette
  • Le voyage (1996)
  • Salade niçoise (1999)
  • Le chemin de Saint-Jean (2002)
  • Araucaria, carnets du Chili (collection Mimolette, 2004)
  • Couma acò (2005; re-issue, originally published by Futuropolis in 1991)
  • Crazyman (2005)
  • L'Espignole (2006)

David B.

  • le Cheval blême (1992)
  • le Cercueil de course (1993)
  • L'ascension du haut mal
  • Vol. 1 (1996, )
  • Vol. 2 (1997, )
  • Vol. 3 (1998, )
  • Vol. 4 (1999, )
  • Vol. 5 (2000, )
  • Vol. 6 (2003, )
  • la Bombe familiale (1997, )
  • L'Association en Égypte (with Golo, Edmond Baudoin, Jean-Christophe Menu) (1998)
  • Maman a des problèmes (with Anne Baraou) (1999)
  • les Incidents de la nuit
  • Tome 1 (1999)
  • les Traces du dieu Enn (2000)
  • l'Embuscade (2002)

Guy Delisle

  • Réflexion (October 1996, )
  • Aline et les autres (April 1999, )
  • Shenzhen (April 2000, )
  • Albert et les autres (June 2001, )
  • Pyongyang (June 2003, )

Julie Doucet

  • Ciboire de criss

Patrice Killoffer

  • Killoffer en la matière (1992)
  • Billet SVP (1995)
  • La Clef des champs (1997)
  • Six cent soixante-seize apparitions de Killoffer (2002)
  • Le Rock et si je ne m'abuse le roll (2006)
  • Quand faut y aller (2006)

Mattt Konture

  • coll. Patte de Mouche
  • Supra plus (1992)
  • Glofluné Triblonto (1996)
  • Galopinot (story and drawings) (with Lewis Trondheim) (1998)
  • coll. Mimolette
  • Printemps, Automnes (1993)
  • Krokrodile comix II (1999)
  • Tombe (la veste ?) (1999)
  • Head banger forever !? (2000)
  • Barjouflasque (2000)
  • Cinq heure du Mattt (2001)
  • Sclérose en plaques (2006)
  • Ivan Morve (coll. Éperluette, 1996)
  • Les Contures (coll. Ciboulette, 2004)
  • Galopu sauve la terre (Hors-Collection, 2005)
  • Archives - Mattt Konture (coll. Archives, 2006)

Étienne Lécroart

  • Pervenche et Victor (1994)
  • Cercle vicieux (2000)
  • Le Cycle (2003)
  • Scroubabble (2005)
  • L'élite à la portée de tous (2005)

Jean-Christophe Menu

  • Moins d'un quart de seconde pour vivre (with Lewis Trondheim) (1991)
  • Dinozor Apokalips (1991)
  • Omelette (1995)
  • Livret de Phamille (1995)
  • Gnognottes (1999)
  • Le Livre du Mont-Vérité (2002)
  • Mini Mune Comix (2003)
  • Meder (2005; originally published by Futuropolis in 1988)
  • Plates-Bandes (2005; writings)
  • La Marraine des Moines (2008)
  • Lock Groove Comix
  • Lock Groove Comix N°1 (2008)
  • Lock Groove Comix N°2 (2009)
  • Lourdes coquilles (2009)
  • Corr&spondance<!--sic--> (with Christian Rosset) (2009; writings)
  • La Présidente with Blutch (2010; originally published by Autrement in 1995)
  • La bande dessinée et son double (2011; writings)

Léo Quievreux

  • Agents dormants (2008)
  • Sphynx song (with J. M. Bertoyas, 2012)

Riad Sattouf

  • La vie secrète des jeunes (2007)

Marjane Satrapi

  • Persepolis
  • Broderies (2003, )

Joann Sfar

  • Le petit monde du Golem (1998, )

Lewis Trondheim

  • Genèses apocalyptiques
  • Non, non, non
  • Le pays des trois sourires

Jim Woodring

  • Frank
  • Frank (1998, )
  • Frank, Tome 1 (2001, )
  • Frank, Tome 2 (2006, )
  • Frank's Real Pa: Suivi de Frank et la corde de luth (2007, )
  • Weathercraft (2010, )
  • Frank et le congrès des bêtes (2011, )
  • Fran (2014, )

References