One of France's top modern webcomics creators, Boulet, is finally coming to us English speakers

French webcomics giant Boulet has won over a country - now he's going to win over yours!

Image credit: Boulet (Oni Press)

News by Chris Arrant Editor-in-Chief

Published on Dec. 13, 2023

One of the France's national comic heroes is Gilles Roussel, better known as Boulet, and while he is yet to be a household name among us English-language folk, that might be about to change, thanks to a new book allowing them to better understand (and frankly just laugh at loud with) his work.

Boulet's Notes: Back in Time — Image credit: Boulet (Oni Press)

Oni Press, a long-time bastion of innovative comics, is bringing an anthology of the cartoonist's short comics to us (and the English language) with summer 2024's Boulet's Notes: Back in Time. Nearly 300 pages of comic strips and cartoons are in this hardcover tome, sampling work from across his 22-year career.

Boulet is known for his work on the Dungeon: Zenith series with Lewis Trondheim, and for being one of the biggest stars in the internet age of comics in France. He has been doing webcomics since the early '00s, and in France he has been collecting these in an ongoing series of anthologies under the title of Notes. Oni Press' hardcover of the same name (well, almost) is a greatest hits of Boulet's early years, drawing from the 11 Notes collections to date.

"Boulet’s improvisational, imaginative, and insanely creative comic strips have been a key part of the world of webcomics since he started posting them online way back in the early '00s," says Notes' translator and editor François Vigneault in a statement provided by the publisher. "This new collection, featuring a curated and newly-translated selection of his work from the early years, is truly a ticket back in time to the start of the webcomics era!"

Boulet's Notes: Back in Time goes on sale June 11, 2024, and is available for pre-order now on Bookshop. Of course, you can also ask your local comic shop to hold one for you, of course. (If so, tell 'em Popverse sent ya!)

If you're needing to be more convinced, check out this preview of Boulet's Notes: Back in Time: