Published by Delcourt, Célestin is the third story of the tales of the Octopus. A story about the tentacles of the Italian mafia? Not really even if a little… In any case, it is much stranger.
A very discreet hero
In the second half of thenineteenth century, Celestin is an efficient waiter but reserved at the Auberge de la Octopus in Paris. He is so shy that he preferred to hide his talent to prevent others from taking advantage of him. Discerning, he can see the true personality of people. In his eyes, all human beings have the appearance of monsters. Gess alternates boxes of the real world and this disturbing world seen through Celestin's eyes. He can even read people's souls in their eyes. However, he remains positive: he wants to make everyone happy. It must be said that he is the only good soul among criminals. He is used to this fauna because his father had dropped him off at the café at a very young age but he never returned. He has logically become the waiter of the hostel and he is proud of it. His bosses are the four leaders of the underworld. Each has an enlarged meaning. 
The beginning of Célestin et le Cœur de Vendrezanne creates a mystery as dense as the fog of the capital at the time. A prologue sees a child attacked by a floating organ, the heart of Vendrezanne then the first chapter shows a group of street children lost in the quarries of Montmartre. The rest of the book will take care of dispelling this mist. Through Celestin, we penetrate the bowels of the Octopus even if much of the action takes place in and around the inn. The story follows in parallel her wanderings and the attempts of a gang leader, the Eye, to protect the birth from the threats of the heart of Vendrezanne. In the last part of the volume, these two parallel narratives come together on a street corner in Paris. The drama is tied and will affect everyone.
A new past
Celestin is part of the Tales of the Octopus a series composed of several complete stories that take place in different historical periods but in a fantasy universe. Célestin is also a dive into the downgraded of Paris. Of course, it is a fantastic story and therefore very free but it still allows the reader to discover the misery of some, the lost children and the criminal environment. Magic disrupts the historical narrative. However, we discover the past of the capital. The hostel was initially in the countryside before being swallowed up by the sprawling urbanization of the capital. In a few boxes, Gess tells the story of the arrival of the train, the integration into the ramparts and the construction of the streets. In addition, the inn is not located in the beautiful neighborhoods but in Batignolles where the thugs find themselves after being chased out of the center by the works of Hausmann. We discover the criminal plans of the thugs of the area and their flowery vocabulary. Despite the monsters, nothing is more frightening than this morgue where the bodies of anonymous people were exposed to the public behind glass to facilitate their identification. 
Gess, both writer and artist, uses historical events sometimes even banal (a period of extreme cold in 1879) to make his story plausible. His drawing with fine black felt pens also seems inspired by the engraving of this time even if a street of the comic is called Tardi as the creator of Adèle Blanc-Sec, obligatory reference. The conception of the book is also thought to evoke this past. The pretty canvas back of the book plunges the reader into the past. The square format is closer to the format of novels or children's books of the time as is the narrative by chapter. The paper is yellowed and stained on some pages. Reading the first pages, the reader expects an intimate narrative centered on a few characters but quickly, he discovers a hallucinated fauna in the inn of the Octopus and the book ends with a pitched battle worthy of a blockbuster. By this third volume, the tales of the octopus is therefore an exciting series of fantasy and a dive into the dark districts of Paris in thenineteenth century. If you like historical narratives, feel free to dive into the hell of Shanghai Red or Once & Future.
