Henriette Valium
Encyclopedia
Henriette Valium whose real name is Patrick Henley, is a comic book artist
and painter
based in Montreal
, Quebec
. Although Valium did gain substantial recognition from the underground comics scene in Europe and North-America since his beginnings in the early eighties, his provocative and hallucinogenic style has kept him well away from the mainstream comic book industry.
In addition to frequent collaborations with various independent zines across Europe and North America, such as Zero Zero (which led to a US reprinting of Primitive Crétin! in 1996), Valium also started by the mid-nineties to experiment more formally with collage
, which moved his art toward a more abstract and horrific form. Among the interesting collages of that period, we find La Prison Anale des Frères Rouges (1996) and the Curés Malades ("sick priests") series. The later, through the depiction of machine parts and pornography
blended over portraits of priests, is a gloomy and graphic criticism on the Catholic Church’s historical influence in Quebec. Valium’s collage work, with its incorporation of explicit sexual imagery (often going as far as bestiality) and gruesome press photos, has prevented him from getting any kind of public recognition, including government subsidies. Since the 1980s, Valium has mostly made a living from printing posters for various Montreal rock bands and bars, such as Le Café Campus and Les Foufounes Électriques
.
family picture that was shown at Gallery Clark http://www.clarkplaza.org (Montreal) along with Les Curés Malades, and several other works. Finally, he also participated, in the spring of 2000, in an exhibition of his work at the La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles.
More recently, Valium has kept experimenting with collage, integrating Photoshop into his creations, which led among other things to a series of serigraphs titled Les Héritiers du Rêve (2002), and the small books Mutants I (2002) and Mutants II (2003). His latest comic book, Princesse Brune (“Brown Princess”), was completed in 2006. His most recent collage, Djoker, was showed at the Voltigeur gallery in Toulouse in the summer of the same year. Valium is currently working on Mutants III, a tribute to Hans Bellmer
, which will mainly consist of pornographic computer collages.
In spring 2007, L'Association
from France plan to publish a complete anthology of his comics. Another French collective, Le Dernier Cri, are working on a box set that will include the book from L'Association, an audio cd, and an anthology of all his drawings and paintings. Valium's web site was finalized in February 2007.
Comic Book Artist
Comic Book Artist was an American magazine founded by Jon B. Cooke devoted to anecdotal histories of American comic books, with emphasis on comics published since the 1960s...
and painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
based in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. Although Valium did gain substantial recognition from the underground comics scene in Europe and North-America since his beginnings in the early eighties, his provocative and hallucinogenic style has kept him well away from the mainstream comic book industry.
Biography
Spanning over a career of three decades, Valium’s creations are widely dispersed through numerous anthologies, fanzines, self-published comics, and various mixed-media collaborations, which makes it difficult to establish a detailed chronology of his work.The 1980s
With the exception of Vagorbine 14 (1981), his first self-published title, Valium’s early incursions into the comic book world can be found through various Quebec compilations and fanzines like Motel, Tchiize and Rectangle. One notable contribution during that period was made to Iceberg (1984), in which he introduces himself for the first time under the pseudonym “Henriette Valium”. Many of the stories written during the eighties were compiled into 1000 Rectums, It's an Album (1987), a self-published anthology. The book introduces many themes and characters that will become the author’s trademarks over the years. In particular, Valium brings in some of his most recognizable protagonists, such as his alter-ego Pattou, the enigmatic Mister Iceberg, and the evil scientist Doc Lekron. The stories, often one-page short, mostly revolves around Valium’s usual themes, mainly sickness, addictions, abnormal sexuality and social decay in general. Even though the drawings are strongly marked by a penchant towards punk aesthetics, 1000 Rectums does not yet exhibit the complex and violent graphical excess that will characterize later publications such as Primitive Crétin.The 1990s
Along with a brief punk rock experiment as a singer for Valium et les Dépressifs and the subsequent release of C'est un monstre (1992), the early 1990s were a prolific period that led to the creation of Primitive Crétin! (1993), a self-published 11.5" by 17.5" anthology. The book, which probably constitutes Valium’s most widely recognized work up to date, is a collection of demented and often absurd stories that carry on with the themes and characters of 1000 Rectums, along with the addition of short-lived yet memorable characters like The Boxing-Glove Family or Tiplouplou. The truly remarkable feature of the book, however, lies within its staggering surreal drawings. Each page of Primitive Crétin! is a world onto itself, in which images of strange organisms, distorted everyday objects, and extreme urban density are intertwined to create a general impression of disorder. The complexity of the drawings combined with their considerable scale generate an immersive chaotic environment that is almost impossible to decode at first glance. In order to achieve this effect in Primitive Crétin! and his other comics in general, Valium has to work for several months on each page. Thus, the conception of a whole comic book represents a long and strenuous process that can take up to 6 years.In addition to frequent collaborations with various independent zines across Europe and North America, such as Zero Zero (which led to a US reprinting of Primitive Crétin! in 1996), Valium also started by the mid-nineties to experiment more formally with collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
, which moved his art toward a more abstract and horrific form. Among the interesting collages of that period, we find La Prison Anale des Frères Rouges (1996) and the Curés Malades ("sick priests") series. The later, through the depiction of machine parts and pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
blended over portraits of priests, is a gloomy and graphic criticism on the Catholic Church’s historical influence in Quebec. Valium’s collage work, with its incorporation of explicit sexual imagery (often going as far as bestiality) and gruesome press photos, has prevented him from getting any kind of public recognition, including government subsidies. Since the 1980s, Valium has mostly made a living from printing posters for various Montreal rock bands and bars, such as Le Café Campus and Les Foufounes Électriques
Les Foufounes Électriques
Les Foufounes Électriques is a concert venue located at 87 Saint Catherine Street East in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada in a neighbourhood known as the Quartier Latin . It is a multi-level establishment with 3 dance floors...
.
Recent Work
The year 2000 was marked by the publication of Coeur de Maman (“Mother’s Heart”), a self-published 11.5" by 17.5" silkscreened comic book. Coeur de Maman, a bizarre story about an oversized, monstrous mother’s heart, picks up where Primitive Crétin left, with the pages being so heavily illustrated that they become almost unreadable. In the same year, Valium also completed The Survivor, a monumental painting centered around a Joseph GoebbelsJoseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
family picture that was shown at Gallery Clark http://www.clarkplaza.org (Montreal) along with Les Curés Malades, and several other works. Finally, he also participated, in the spring of 2000, in an exhibition of his work at the La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles.
More recently, Valium has kept experimenting with collage, integrating Photoshop into his creations, which led among other things to a series of serigraphs titled Les Héritiers du Rêve (2002), and the small books Mutants I (2002) and Mutants II (2003). His latest comic book, Princesse Brune (“Brown Princess”), was completed in 2006. His most recent collage, Djoker, was showed at the Voltigeur gallery in Toulouse in the summer of the same year. Valium is currently working on Mutants III, a tribute to Hans Bellmer
Hans Bellmer
Hans Bellmer was a German artist, best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. Historians of art and photography also consider him a Surrealist photographer.-Biography:...
, which will mainly consist of pornographic computer collages.
In spring 2007, L'Association
L'Association
L'Association is a French publishing house which publishes comic books. It was founded in May 1990 by Jean-Christophe Menu, Lewis Trondheim, David B., Mattt Konture, Patrice Killoffer, Stanislas, and Mokeït, who left soon thereafter...
from France plan to publish a complete anthology of his comics. Another French collective, Le Dernier Cri, are working on a box set that will include the book from L'Association, an audio cd, and an anthology of all his drawings and paintings. Valium's web site was finalized in February 2007.
Influences
- Benito JacovittiBenito JacovittiBenito Jacovitti was an Italian comic artist.Benito Jacovitti was born in Termoli, Molise in the southern part of the country. He was still a kid when he started drawing on the pavement of the village's streets. The son of a railwayman, Benito entered Macerata's art school at age 11, graduating to...
- Hans BellmerHans BellmerHans Bellmer was a German artist, best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. Historians of art and photography also consider him a Surrealist photographer.-Biography:...
- HergéHergéGeorges Prosper Remi , better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also...
- R. CrumbRobert CrumbRobert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
- WillemWillemWillem is a Dutch given name. The name is Germanic, and can be seen as the Dutch equivalent of the name William in English, Guillaume in French, and Wilhelm in German...
Fellow artists
Valium is part of an informal movement known as the Montreal Comix Scene. Among the best-known artists associated with this movement are:- Kurt Beaulieu
- Guy Boutin
- Rupert BottenbergRupert BottenbergRupert Bottenberg is an illustrator, comic artist and writer. He is currently the music editor of the Montreal Mirror newsweekly.Bottenberg grew up in Montreal...
*Eric Braün - Caro Caron
- Julie DoucetJulie DoucetJulie Doucet is a Canadian former underground cartoonist and artist, best known for her autobiographical works such as Dirty Plotte and My New York Diary...
- Billy MavreasBilly MavreasBilly Mavreas is a Canadian cartoonist and artist living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada whose mostly silent or wordless comics revolve around the themes of language, sexuality and spirituality...
- Diane O'Bomsawim
- Eric TheriaultEric TheriaultÉric Thériault is a Canadian comics artist and writer, illustrator and blogger living in Montreal in Quebec .- Biography :...
- Siris
- Guim
- Richard Suicide
- Rick Trembles
- Swiz