This is how Rachida Dati, French Minister of Culture, announced the entry into the collections of the National Library of France of the comic book album entitled The Bete is death! The world war chez les animaux illustrated by Edmond Francois Calvo (1892-1957), recognized by many other illustrators, from Uderzo to the great contemporary Japanese mangaka, as one of the masters of their art. This album, made by Calvo himself, which brings together 77 original tables used in printing comic published in two parts in 1944 and 1945, occupies a prominent place in the French history of ninth art. Complete except for a single missing page, it combines illustrations executed with pen and brush in direct colors that have retained all their brilliance, with printed text formatted by the illustrator.
The original edition
The scenario was born from the partnership between the publisher Victor Dancette (1900-1975), founder and director from 1937 to 1967 of the publishing house Générale Publicité, and the journalist Jacques Zimmermann (1902-1951), who, after being one of the first winners of the Albert Londres prize (received in 1939), had joined the Free French in Algeria in 1943. This graphic novel of the history of the Occupation, which was conceived clandestinely and in a spirit of resistance, denounces the disasters of the Second World War in the form of an animal fable relying on the power of visual rhetoric. It is one of the first war stories, which also has an educational purpose and contains in particular one of the first mentions of the deportation of the Jews. The work is a remarkable work for its dimension of committed testimony, but also for its graphic and aesthetic qualities, the virtuosity of its staging, which plays on various panel formats and a developed art of framing, inspired by cinematic writing and knowledge of the achievements of Walt Disney.
A rare book for the National Library of France
Due to its obvious historical interest, this album, which now enters the reserve of rare books of the National Library of France, is fully in line with the missions of the institution. The recognition of the great patrimonial interest of La Bête est morte ! granted with the favorable opinion of the Consultative Commission of the National Treasury, has allowed the State to use patronage to mobilize through this mechanism in favor of this enrichment of the national collections the participation of two corporate sponsors, including Septodont. A project that has seen the participation of many patrons in favor of the preservation of the heritage. The entry Its entry into the collections of the National Library of France will allow the conservation and study of this precious historical testimony and will ensure its dissemination and transmission to future generations. " declared the Minister
The financing of the acquisition also benefited from the contribution of the Feldstein Foundation under the aegis of the Fondation du Judaïsme Français, the corporate foundation La France Mutualiste and YA La Fondation Istel, the Khôra Foundation – Institut de France, Mr. Robert PEUGEOT, the Friends of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Squair Avocats, participants in the annual dinner in favor of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France's acquisitions in September 2024, but also more than 2.400 individual donors, who responded to the call for generosity launched by the institution from August 27 to December 31, 2024.
