Jean Teulé, we wish you a rapid transit to the Xerox paradise you depicted like no other

There are many artists in Franco/Belgian bande dessinée that are still beyond obscure to American readers. Despite their few opportunities to leak through the existent methods of exposure they have managed to seep through in other ways. Author and artist Jean Teulé excelled in an open maximalist field informed by photographic imagery, to one degree or another, that was all his own. Very few of his works were ever released in English: A serialized graphic novel in Neal Adams’ Echo of Futurepast, Issues 1, 3, 4, 6 & 7  in 1984–5; a pair of pages each in Heavy Metal November 1980 and March 81; and, the 42-page ‘Daughters of the Night’ in Heavy Metal’s January 1986 issue… The one where Daryl Hannah appeared on the cover in full Clan of the Cave Bear makeup, when the mag notoriously moved to a larger, but quarterly format. Jean passed away on October 18, 2022. Actua BD reports that the cause of death was a heart attack brought on by acute food poisoning. Deep knowledge gathered by Escape genius and old friend Paul Gravett contributed to this article. 

First we have some samples from Heavy Metal’s January 1986 issue which included the 42 page graphic novel ‘Daughters of the Night’, which features Teulé’s best known photo-derived style in English publication — which consists primarily of this and  ‘Virus’ in Echos of Futures Past.

And here we have an excerpt from “Les Messieurs en Cravate Autour du Lit de Salvador Dali, Reportage de Jean Teule” or “The gentlemen in ties surround the bed of Salvador Dali. As reported by Jean Teule. (my translation) as it appeared in (A Suivre) 105 — October 1986, Casterman. 


JEAN TEULÉ: (1953-2022): BD AUTEUR & MUCH MORE BESIDES
As reported late on October 20 by Paul Gravett on the Facebook:

ActuaBD reports the sudden death of Jean Teulé on October 18th, who never entirely left comics, but found more fame and fortune in other media. As Didier Pasamonik writes: Teulé ‘published his first comic strips in L’Echo des Savanes in 1978. His graphics are in the wake of those authors who, like the Bazooka group, Chantal Montellier, Jean-Claude Claeys, or Romain Slocombe, are inspired by photography. His beginnings were promising: his adaptation of the novel by Jean Vautrin, ‘Bloody Mary’ (Glénat), won a prize from the specialist comic book critics in Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême (1984). His album ‘Gens de France’ (Fakir) published in 1988 received the Alphart for  best album. But this welcome does not result in sufficient sales for him to live on. He returns to comics sporadically, notably for Florence Cestac, in ‘I would like to kill myself but I don’t have time’, in which he talks about his friend Charlie Schlingo.’ https://www.actuabd.com/Jean-Teule-l-Histoire-en-rigolant

As Paul mentions, M. Teulé’s fame was mostly outside the panels of the compelling BD he rendered in a variety of styles. His novels The Suicide Shop and The Poisoning Angel have both been translated into English as well as films. Four other of his novels have been adapted into feature films, including Darling from 2007. Other Teulé novels available in English translation include The Hurlyburly’s Husband and Eat Him If You Like.
 
Correction: The proper title of the Neal Adams anthology was corrected to it’s actual name “Echo of Futurepast”
 

Very early work. The album cover for Ricet Barrier’s Les Spermatozoïdes, 197