by MATTHEW WOODLEY

I just finished Six Hundred and Seventy-Six Apparitions of Killoffer and, by golly, never has a book filled with drawings of a naked man defecating all over himself looked so good.

The book is a sprawling, obtusely autobiographical account of a stint the one-named artist spent in Montreal, a commission for a first-person reportage sidetracked by his mind’s veering off to the sink full of dirty dishes he left behind in Paris. The dishes spawn Killoffer alter-egos, unleashing his ids about the streets of Montreal, chasing the women he lusts for, getting into bar brawls, assaulting each other and committing atrocities of all sorts, climaxing in a horde of blood and bile-covered naked doppelgangers in a grotesque clash of vanity and self-disgust. Come on, Montreal ain’t that bad.

“My stay in Montreal was very nice,” says Killoffer. “A lack of material wasn’t the problem... I initially intended to do a sort of autobiographical voyage, but the feeling completely dissipated. It all seemed vain, and, paradoxically, for a book that has such a title and within which I appear so much, too anectdotal, too centred on my small self. I needed to break away from myself and enlarge the question. As strange as it may seem, I think that 676 Apparitions of Killoffer is a book turned toward others, that deals with more universal questions.”

There’s nothing new about comic artists revealing their dark side, but Killoffer’s particular approach stems from a self-centredness he sees (and clearly depicts) as destructive.

“This current of selves has invaded us and it ended up overwhelming me,” he says. “In part the book is a reaction to that phenomenon. It’s disgust for the human species as a whole. Not that I find us more contemptible than any other species. But we’re too many and I feel guilty being part of the dominant ones, at the summit of the food chain. I feel like we’re consuming the world, so inevitably, in my book, I’m vomiting. I’m trying to restore balance.”

Killoffer recently teemed up with the reknown artist and illustrator Charles Burns, a man who’s also in fine tune with the dark side, to collaborate on a piece he’ll personally bring to Pop Montreal’s art component, along with other works.

“Charles and I have met twice: once a long time ago in Luzerne (a fond memory—we sat side-by-side and made a drawing together on a paper place mat, which I still have), and two years ago, briefly, at Angoulême... I won’t be showing panels from 676—after all, there is already the book. So perhaps some things that that haven’t been seen yet. I’m excited to see their effect next to Burns’s work.

Charles Burns and Killoffer vernissage Oct. 5, 6 p.m., At Madame Edgar (6370 St-Hubert). Exhibition continues until Oct. 19