[Review] Love is Love: artists at the service of tolerance

On June 12, 2016, an assailant massacred 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Shocked, Marc Andreyko decides with IDW Publishing to bring together different comic book authors to pay tribute to the victims. It is Bliss Comics who publishes this book in French of which you can read an overview on their website. However, behind the act of charity, what is this book worth?

A mosaic of comics

Do not expect a single story, a series or even a joint work of several artists, but rather an exercise in style. Each writer or cartoonist seizes this event on one or two pages. Many artists choose to show their emotion (Joshua Hale Fialkov & Gabriel Bautista), others to reveal a little-known part of the history of Harley Queen (Paul Dini & Bill Morrison), to tell a story against homophobia (Teddy Tenenbaum & Mike Huddleston) or an ode to tolerance and love (Joe Kelly & Victor Santos). Each story is interspersed with illustrations like Rafael Albuquerque's.

We find ourselves in front of a kaleidoscope of images and stories but especially emotions that make you think or touch. Inevitably, the result is uneven. We find very good like Joe Kelly's very touching story. There is also less than Jeff Ensen who waits for God's help. The whole is however of high quality. These are not necessarily militant stories but artists' reactions to a mass crime. The stories do not miss the racist and homophobic motives of the act or violence. We also learn how Americans can react to these mass crimes, unfortunately very numerous. However, few narratives are frontally violent as if the shock makes the gore impossible to use.

A quality edition

Bliss Comics is in tune with the subject. Indeed, all profits are donated to American and French associations fighting against homophobia. Far from simply translating the American book, the French publisher called on French authors (Paul Renaud, Phil Briones, J.L. Mast, Marguerite sauvage or Vincent Dedienne) to create an original edition. The translation is impeccable and the quality edition with a glossy paper very pleasant. As always with this publisher of Valiant en France whose Faith series we criticized, the quality is at the rendezvous and the respect of the reader with a more than honorable price.

In a world where homophobia is still present, this sensitive subject is most often well treated. As the director of the film Wonder Woman writes, these stories succeed in "transforming darkness into light through art".