This was supposed to be yesterdays post but then my internet decided to go out. So anyway, I’m back. Man it’s frustrating not to have internet.

I love the retro style of Canadian Pascal Blanchet’s work. His illustrations are so well designed and so consistent stylistically with limited palettes and sharp geometric curves. He also uses some intense perspectives making an illustration of just an office building so exciting to look at. This book is one of his graphic novels about a isolated town made by the Shawinigan Water and Power Company created so that workers could move there with their families while working on a dam. There’s very little text on each page and when it is there, it’s creatively mixed into images like on signs, the credits on a movie screen, or a paper someone happens to be holding. There’s a little bit of dust speckle all over the illustrations too giving the paper an interesting old cardboard-ish feeling. The story follows the whole history of the town from it’s beginning to it’s demise in 1971. It kind of reminds me of this historic town in Chicago we visited called Pullman created by the railroad car company headed by George Pullman. It was really interesting to see this weird neighborhood and imagine what it once was. Anyway, you can get a copy of this book here and see more from Pascal here.

© Julia Rothman 2007