In 1896, gold was discovered in “the Klondike region of northern Canada.”

“Thousands of men, questing for fortune or adventure, lost themselves and perished in this desert of snow and ice.”

The cold…

Man vs. the cold. Traveling alone. Not heeding good advice. And the dog.

This book is great! Beautifully drawn and well written! The story feels as cold as it looks on the page! And that ending... Bravo!!!! ( )

I have taken a personal vow to not read any more graphic novel adaptations of works I have not read, so in order to read this book I have spent the week making my way through [book:The Call Of The Wild And Selected Stories|2626625]. My wife advises me that "To Build a Fire" is a popular example to use in units on "man vs. nature" in most secondary school English classes, but I don't believe I've ever read it before. The only Jack London work I've ever read in full is [book:White Fang|43035] decades ago (though pre-vow, I have read several adaptations of Call of the Wild.)

Unfortunately for this adaptation, it suffers in comparison to the original when read the same day, but is still a fairly remarkable attempt at capturing the heart of the story: a man's confidence in his ability to safely walk with his dog to a far-off refuge begins to crumble as he faces a series of mishaps in -75 degree Fahrenheit temperatures in the Yukon. (This seems particularly timely as I confidently drove to work during two days of subzero temperatures in Iowa this week.)

Chaboute uses a minimal amount of words, relying on his art to convey the coldness and the danger of the environment. And it does for the most part. But the power of London's story is how its third-person omniscient narrator lets you know everything the protagonist is choosing to ignore and gives you a front-row seat to the changing tide of his thoughts as outside forces come crashing down on his bubble. Chaboute (or his translator) tries to make the few words used in this graphic novel more immediate by switching to second-person narration, and that's not a bad choice, but the little caption boxes scattered across a page give us ellipse-laden sentences like this: "...but the distant trail, no sun in the sky...this great cold...the weighty silence and the strangeness of it all has no effect on you...you are not worried...even though you are a newcomer to this land...a cheechako...and this is your first winter..."

The original is a classic for a reason, and this adaptation serves as a fine chance to revisit it. ( )

Le récit, un homme en quête de fortune ou d'aventures sur la fameuse route vers la région aurifère du Klondike. Perdu quelque part dans le Grand Nord, il tente de rejoindre ses compagnons dans ce désert de neige et de glace, avec comme seul compagnon un
chien et quelques allumettes pour se faire un feu. Librement adapté du texte de Jack London, la force de Christophe Chabouté réside dans la puissance de son graphisme. La maîtrise de son travail se porte sur le jeu de contrastes du blanc et du noir rehaussés par quelques couleurs, notamment lors des scènes de feux (superbe !). L'ambiance entre les trois personnages (l'homme, le chien et la nature) est pesante même lors des scènes silencieuses. Du tout beau travail.

Bibliothèque de la C.F. Nivelles - JLC ( )