Theodore Pousin

 Theodore Poussin by Frank Le Gall.



Theodore Poussin was one of these stories that appeared in Spirou and right off the bat I was mesmerized by the art work. The first page especially. It was a building on a dark evening, the trees had no leaves, there were boats in the back, and I could tell the ground was wet, or felt wet because of the reflection of the building.
It had a very Belgian tradition of being curvy lines rather than a straight edged rendition but something made me pose.
It felt…solid? There was a sense of space that caught my eye.
The writing was also inviting. Something about a person looking over the paperwork of boats coming from all over the world and dreaming of traveling to these places.
At that time in my life, I felt stuck where I was( High school days!) and that story was an invitation to dream travel.

I kept reading the story and it kept getting better.
It took me a minute but I realized what I was responding too was how the author would create interesting shots. There was a panel of the main character walking on the boat and I felt there. I wanted to be there.
It became a game for me, to look for all the interesting shots in the story. MORE than reading the actual story, seeing how it was set up was fascinating because it was a big nose graphic novel doing very cinematic things with the storytelling.( Ok this is ADULT me analyzing this, at the time I don’t think I had the words to articulate these thoughts, I just saw cool shots).

Eventually,I read the books more for the way the story was told, then the stories themselves.
I re read the books a few years ago and realized I remembered almost nothing of it. It was a pleasant surprise because the stories are really good.Gosh, I feel horrible saying this because as a storyteller I want people to respond to the stories as well as the art.  Interesting that even as an adult with decades of experience in the industry I still get surprised by how I approach certain things.


Theodore Poussin is an adventure story that is filled with mood, hot nights, busy ports, rainy ships and Intrigue.
Something I did really appreciate re reading the books is to see how the creator made the character evolve, age, mature through the books. He is aware of the adventures he’s had before and what it has done to him.