Comics as Mosaics: Calypso by Baltus and Peeters

Abstract

With its complex vignette arrangement and juxtaposition of semantically and aesthetically correlated still images, the comic strip is undoubtedly indexed to the mosaic paradigm, the historical importance and contemporary validity of which Lucien Dällenbach has reminded us. To explore the relevance of this critical metaphor to the study of comics, we propose to take a look at a comic that itself evokes the mosaic, not only as a narrative theme, but also as a structuring principle: the album Calypso by Anne Baltus and Benoît Peeters (1995). Mosaics play a key thematic role in the story of a young art historian busy restoring a mosaic panel. A specular image of the young woman’s impossible love affair, the mosaic is displayed not only as a representation within a representation (a frequent mise en abyme in Peeters’ scripts), but also as an aesthetic model that presides over the layout of the entire album, and contributes more specifically to its fantastic effects.