The Dragons of Paris
Dragons stir at the turn of the century in Joann Sfar’s entertaining, absurdist graphic novel The Dragons of Paris, which builds on a cheeky alternate history of the City of Lights.
The centuries-long war between humans and dragons ignited because of a simple, albeit violent, misunderstanding. It only quieted after quick-thinking Mabillon, a monk with an extraordinary attachment to his vegetable garden and an affinity for long naps, helped hide the creatures as status in once rural Paris. Over the course of a thousand years, the city grew to glory around them. Most people began to think of dragons as myths.
In the book’s Belle Époque present, Kapa’akea, a Caribbean queen turned circus performer, is turned out on the streets for being too tough. She finds a new community in the Parisian underground, among fantastical creatures whom others believe are fictional. But when she dares to rescue a dying siren whom priests meant to offer as a sacrifice to the dragons, her bold desire has consequences for all.
Featuring sapphic romance, a catacomb alarm that wakes a slumbering monk, a sewer octopus, excesses of copulation and violence, and a caretaking dragon disguised as a prayer-leading old woman, this is a busy, funny tale. Its antiheroes fast discover that, in “adventure stories … there’s always someone around to keep you from getting lucky.” Intractable, they also decide that, even when the threat of an interspecies war looms, there’s always time for a snack. Slyly anachronistic references and shameless quips complement the active comic panels, which themselves lean into twisted humor with their exaggerated details.
Fever dreams become reality in The Dragons of Paris, an irresistibly fun graphic novel that twines ancient myths with Parisian delights as it works toward a surprise revelation—and an unlikely moral.
Reviewed by
Michelle Anne Schingler
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