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>> Comix artist extraordinaire Simon Bossé by RUPERT BOTTENBERG There's no question that Montreal has a massive surplus of talented comic artists--last week's Comix Issue of the Mirror was a pretty clear indication of that fact. However, as people active in any creative medium will tell you, the artists are merely one piece in a larger puzzle. In that respect, we are fortunate to benefit from the crazed hubris of Simon Bossé. A renaissance man of the comics world, Bossé can pad his résumé with roles like publisher, curator, retailer, silkscreener and cartoonist. Under his imprint Mille Putois ("a thousand weasels," a term borrowed from Tintin's temperamental pal Capitaine Haddock), Bossé has published minicomics by Julie Doucet, Henriette Valium and French Zéro Zéro regular Stéphane Blanquet. More recently, the Mille Putois empire has expanded to include a high-end silkscreening service, along the lines of Frank Kozik's in the States. Ironically, indulging his silkscreening jones has limited Bossé's activities elsewhere. "It hasn't been a good year for Mille Putois as a publisher," he says, "because basically, I haven't done dick. But now that all my silkscreening equipment has been moved into my home, I can get back on track." Already in the final stages of preparation are minicomics by Holland's Marcel Ruijters and Pierre Druilhe of France, as well as a second volume of Bowling for Souls, Bossé's collection of self-portraits by an international melange of cartoonists.
Given the spectacular success of Mastik, Bossé's summertime exhibition of three-dimensional works by traditionally 2D cartoonists, that project may return in the new year as well. "I already have Cheval Blanc reserved for September, for either Mastik 2 or perhaps even for my own work." The latter would be quite welcome. As much as he's done for the local comics scene, Bossé's reckless philanthropy has deprived us of his work as a cartoonist. Having recently received a grant to do a 40-page book of his own comics, Bossé promises to fill that void this year as well.
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Master of a thousand weasels
Bossé's European contacts gave him the material to assemble Kouine Komics, a weekly kiosk at the bar Cheval Blanc, where Bossé sold rare, limited edition underground comics from the U.S. and Europe. "I got such a kick out of ordering these things for my own collection that I wanted to fill that gap for others. The idea was to sell stuff that you simply can't get in Montreal." While Kouine Komics has been temporarily suspended, Bossé insists that the fat lady has yet to sing on that account. "I did it every Saturday night for four months. It became too time consuming, too diluted. When I bring it back, it will probably be as a big, one-shot event."