Cases remémorées, redessinées. Mémoire de la bande dessinée, détournement et traces graphiques dans 'Au travail' d'Olivier Josso Hamel

In his autobiographical comic Au travail, published at L’Association in 2012, Olivier Josso Hamel remembers his childhood readings of classic Franco-Belgian bandes dessinées by redrawing panels and sequences from these comics into the texture of his own graphic novel. This citational practice works as a détournement of the original material based on the author’s memories of specific images. Embedded in an autobiographical perspective, this appropriative technique sustains a retrospective reflection on what it means to be marked by an image. In this sense, Au travail offers a compelling ground to rethink the “case mémorable” (or ‘remembered panel’) a concept put forward by Pierre Sterckx to refer to comics panels remembered from childhood because of their visual impact. Through an analysis of Josso Hamel’s graphic novel, this paper argues that the remembered panel is not stictly mental but implies an active remembrance linked to the desire to share those personal images. As such, it is an intimate act of canonization based on the collective sharing of a personal history of comics. Expanding on Sterckx’s concept, this paper further seeks to show how the détournement of Franco-Belgian comics – as well as other graphic materials – in Au travail compels the author to reconsider his approach to drawing, reinventing his own style through the ‘graphic traces’ of his childhood. In turn, this carries further weight on the concept of the remembered panel: Josso Hamel’s practice of citation foregrounds the fragmentation of the narrative into fetishized images that become rooted in a personal history. In this way, Au travail highlights how non-narrative reading practices can break up the narrative into fragments that are reorganized into new combinations: not only in the author’s memory, but also and foremost in an ever-changing collective memory of the past of comics.