by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Sunday afternoons, you can find Jimmy Beaulieu manning the cash register at Fichtre, the high-end comics boutique near Mont-Royal metro. But retail's just part of Beaulieu's involvement in the local comics scene.

Go to the www.bandeapart.fm, the Web site for Radio-Canada's indie music show, and you'll see Beaulieu's weekly comics critiques. "They are a very dynamic bunch," says Beaulieu of the Bande à Part gang, "always going into some crazy project or another. Some of these projects involve comics, like the pages we did about music artists for the ADISQ gala."

Then there's Beaulieu's role as editor of the forthcoming Plan Cartésien, an anthology exploring the theme of the city. "I asked a huge bunch of artists from Montreal and Quebec to do a few pages around this theme. I'd like the final result to be a snapshot of the Quebec comics scene in 2004, like L'enfance du cyclope has been in 2002."

And then there's Beaulieu the comic artist in his own right, responsible for books such as the recent –22°C (published by Mécanique générale) or the springtime-slated mega-opus Le moral des troupes. Inspired as much by filmmakers Jacques Tati and Woody Allen as by cartoonists Jean-Claude Forest, Jules Feiffer, Sempé and Charles "Peanuts" Schulz, Beaulieu says of his art, "I think my line is a bit loose compared to others. I value liveliness a lot - too much tightness doesn't work for me, my art looks dead when I try too hard. I'd rather have a picture that says what it has to say, instead of trying to impress people with fancy art. I feel like I'm a lot closer to a comedian than to a painter."

So what are his comics about? "Nothing much happens in my stories. I like slow-paced, quiet, everyday-life observations. Reading comics asks a great involvement from the reader. It's not shoved in your face like say, hysterical TV ads, Hollywood blockbusters or video games. To me, in terms of sheer spectacle, comics can't rival those, but they can be a damn good antidote for all this visual aggression."

Salesman, critic, editor, artist - oh, and he's a dedicated collector too!

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