When ideas take shape in comics
It is 15 June 2025. Apolline Fest is in full swing and the venue has been transformed into a hive of artistic activity.
There is noise everywhere. Music, laughter, families weaving between workshops, pushchairs passing each other. The energy is palpable, almost electric.
But in the midst of all this excitement, there is a bubble of calm.
Daniel, 12, stands a little apart. He and his classmates have come today to exhibit the fruits of a whole year of lessons.
However, for Daniel, it's a little different. He is holding an object in his hands that he is proudly leafing through and that has only recently come into existence: his own comic book, finally in print.
It's not just a collection of drawings. It's the culmination of a relentless logic born in the mind of a little boy.
The origin of the line
To understand this moment, we need to go back in time, well before that sunny month of June.
Daniel has been drawing "since forever". But the real turning point came from a childhood frustration. As a little boy, he wanted to read comics. He looked at the panels and speech bubbles, but the meaning escaped him. He didn't understand everything.
So, instead of giving up, he made a mature decision:
"I told myself that I would make my own comics. That way, everyone would understand."
His motivation was not fame. It was clarity. The desire to be understood.
From pencil to print
It has been a long journey. He began his stories "at home", scribbling down his initial ideas. His drawings were "super simple" at the time.
But a year ago, Daniel crossed the threshold of the Apolline school. It was there, guided by his teacher Laurène, that he refined his art.
For him, there are no graphics tablets, no "apple-Z" to undo a mistake. Daniel works the old-fashioned way. With a pencil. He likes the feel of the lead on the paper.
His creative process is instinctive, almost dizzying. Where others would spend weeks writing a script, Daniel plunges into the void:
"For this one, I didn't write a script. I just made up the story as I went along."
Panel after panel, the adventure took shape. A story of friends who go to relax in the forest, get lost, spend the night there and eventually find their way home. A simple, effective adventure.
When it comes to style, Daniel knows exactly what he wants. He draws "a little bit" of inspiration from Hergé. Like Tintin's creator, he strives for clarity: he chooses "not to use too many shadows" and makes sure that the colours are "clearly distinguishable" and "not too close to each other".
During this year of classes, he has made his lines more complex. He has added the "final touches" and refined the details until the object is ready.
"It's his inner self that speaks"
In the middle of the exhibition, Daniel smiles as he admits to this total improvisation. There he is, his work in his hands, ready to be shown, loaned, given away.
A few steps away, his mother watches him. Her gaze is unmistakable. She is "very proud", of course, but above all "very, very happy".
She sees more than just a beautiful drawing. She sees a truth being expressed. For her, Daniel has found "something that has fascinated him since he was a little boy".
"It's a passion that comes from within. It's his inner self speaking."
These stories don't stay on a shelf. They live with him. They have followed him from his bedroom to the playground, to the tables at this party. And tomorrow?
Daniel simply tells us that he "always takes his comics with him on holiday".
Because deep down, when you create your own world to make sure you are understood, you want to take it with you everywhere you go.