24
Mark McKinney
here. The same holds true, but to a lesser degree, for Switzerland, where Swiss German and
Italian are also native languages.
12. Cf. www.centrenationaldulivre.fr/Lacunes-bande-dessinee.html (consulted October 12,
2007).
13. Retrieved at www.centrenationaldulivre.fr/spip.php?rubrique224 (consulted July 26,
2007).
14. This section relies heavily on information kindly provided to me by Xavier Löwenthal
(2007a, 2007b, 2007c). Cf. www.5c.be/annales.php?news_id=54&, on the Web site of
Löwenthal’s publishing house, La Cinquième Couche (consulted October 12, 2007).
15. Löwenthal (2007b); these figures come from budgetary reports located on the Web
site of the Direction générale de la culture of the Ministère de la Communauté française de
Belgique (www.culture.be/index.php?m=convention_view&fi_id=80; consulted July 26, 2007).
According to Löwenthal (2007a), the commission distributes 100,000 euros per year. By con-
trast, the budgetary reports mentioned above give the following sums distributed: 87,500 euros
in 2003; 40,880 euros in 2004; and 2,017 euros in 2005. Löwenthal (2007b) could not explain
the discrepancy between the figures, was surprised by the low amount listed for 2005, and
wondered whether there was an error in the document that I had consulted, but did state that
in two instances budget problems had cut the commission’s budget in half.
16. Cf. www.ccf.org.yu/fr/02c.htm#boucq (consulted July 26, 2007).
17. On the autobiographical trend in French-language European comics and beyond, cf.
the dossier in 9e art, no. 1 (1996: 56–83); Baron-Carvais (1997); Mercier (1999); Baetens (2004);
Beaty (2007: 138–70).
18. Cf. www.centrenationaldulivre.fr/Vous-etes-editeur.html; Crépin and Groensteen
(1999); Joubert (2005); Menu (2005b: 75–76).
19. Although Ann Miller (2003: 136) states that “recently, in the 1990s, a number of mangas
(Japanese BD) were banned” in France (cf. Pascal 1996).
20. On the corresponding debate in Belgium, cf. the chapter by Michel Defourny in Crépin
and Groensteen (1999).
21. For a very useful English-language survey of the field, cf. Miller (2003).
22. For additional information on this commission and the issue of censorship as it has
affected comics and cartoonists in France and Belgium, cf. the special dossier in 9e art, no. 4
(1999: 14–45); Crépin (2001); Morgan (2003); Joubert (2005); Menu (2005b: 75–76). Of course,
the French history of censorship of comics and especially of editorial cartoons (another broad
topic in itself) is only partially due to the 1949 law and to the existence and activities of the
commission: for example, it occurred notably during the Algerian War.
23. E.g., Umberto Eco on “Le mythe de Superman”; Vicky du Fontbaré and Philippe Sohet
on “Codes culturels et logique de classe.”
24. I thank Sylvie Durmelat for having kindly brought this work to my attention.
25. The bibliography at the end of this volume provides references to many other significant
works in the field.
26. As a reading of Lefèvre’s chapter makes clear, we have markedly different views of some
key issues and texts that he analyzes: for example, “Blondin et Cirage: Le nègre blanc” [The
White Negro] (1951), by Belgian cartoonist Jijé. I read that work as a representation in fiction
of the transition from direct colonial rule to neocolonialism, and am convinced that it owes
much to the racist, colonialist, and American tradition of blackface minstrelsy.