World Record Holders (2022)

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Long before he was known for acclaimed biographical travel memoirs like Pyongyang, Shenzhen, Jerusalem, or dispensed Bad Parenting advice, Guy Delisle was just an aspiring cartoonist trying to make a living. World Record Holders collects nearly two-dozen samples of his earlier works never published in English until now, a nice look back on a career approaching three decades in that proves he’s every bit a product of Albert Camus as he is Charles Schulz.

There’s little tying these stories to one another, other than their creator, as they vacillate between comic zaniness to existentialist dread, but always with the excitement and joy of an artist slowly becoming himself in the process. Part fiction, part autobiographical, many of the stories included run the gamut from observational humor to sci-fi, some more ambitious than others. With 22 entries you’re bound to find something that tickles your fancy.

Delisle’s frequent translators (from the French) Rob Aspinall and Helge Dascher work overtime in retaining that special je ne sais quoi of the time and place of each entry that translation alone could not. This is especially evident in ‘Bows and Prostrations’, an easy companion for the events in Factory Summers, where Delisle reminisces about a chance encounter with one of his comic heroes, Muñoz, and his maturation from fan to respect for a fellow artist.

We also see him experimenting not just with the possibilities of sequential storytelling but with his own artistic personality, from scratchy inks to the digital cleanliness of his more recent work. The chunky lines of ‘Single File’ and ‘A…’, both from 1997, look almost alien compared to what would become his signature style, both visually and tonally.

The newest (but not final) entry, ‘Opening Night’, showcases an artist in full command of his powers, both in style and presentation, with an autobiographical anecdote of how the price for fame can be prohibitively expensive when others are writing the check. My only gripe is that not every story is labeled, despite the table of contents appearing at the end of the collection (which, generously, does list their original dates of publication and where each appeared), but that’s just nitpicking.

World Record Holders is really more for the dedicated Guy Delisle enthusiast than as an introduction to his oeuvre, which is hardly a negative. Much as we saw in last year’s Factory Summers, this is a collection reaching back into the past to show us how it all came about, a reflection of an artist evolving into what he was meant to be and making it happen. You don’t have to be a diehard comic historian to enjoy this delightful little trip down memory lane.