{"id":96852,"date":"2016-04-12T13:05:35","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T17:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=96852"},"modified":"2016-04-12T15:48:27","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T19:48:27","slug":"from-peplum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/","title":{"rendered":"From Peplum<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Peplumcover\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Blutch\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>Peplum<\/a>,\u00a0a graphic novel, is out this month from New York Review Comics. A phantasmagoric take on the\u00a0<\/em>Satyricon, it was originally serialized in the French magazine <\/em>\u00c0 suivre in 1996; this is its first appearance in English. In his new introduction, Blutch\u2019s translator, Edward Gauvin, writes,\u00a0<\/em>\u201cTaking as its title the European term for the sword-and-sandal cinematic subgenre, <\/em>Peplum offers a decidedly different take on the toga epic\u2014one of aporia and ambiguity, a fractured tale of antiquity in all its alien majesty.\u201d<\/em>
<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"peblum2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Peplum3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"peblum4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Peplum5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"peblum6\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"peblum7\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"peblum8\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"peblum9\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Translated from the French by Edward Gauvin. Reprinted with permission of New York Review Comics.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Blutch (Christian Hincker) is an award-winning, highly influential French cartoonist. He has published almost two dozen books since his 1988 comic debut in the legendary avant-garde magazine<\/em>\u00a0Fluide glacial, including<\/em> Mitchum,<\/em> Le petit Christian, and<\/em> So Long, Silver Screen, his only previous book to be published in English. His illustrations appear in<\/em> Les inrockuptibles, Lib\u00e9ration, and<\/em> The New Yorker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Blutch\u2019s\u00a0Peplum,\u00a0a graphic novel, is out this month from New York Review Comics. A phantasmagoric take on the\u00a0Satyricon, it was originally serialized in the French magazine \u00c0 suivre in 1996; this is its first appearance in English. In his new introduction, Blutch\u2019s translator, Edward Gauvin, writes,\u00a0\u201cTaking as its title the European term for the sword-and-sandal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":961,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[21915,2589,21918,131,529,10344,21916,21917],"class_list":["post-96852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-blutch","tag-cartoonists","tag-christian-hinckner","tag-comics","tag-french","tag-graphic-novels","tag-peplum","tag-satyricon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAn Excerpt from Blutch\u2019s \u201cPeplum,\u201d a Graphic Novel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"April 12, 2016 \u2013  Blutch\u2019s\u00a0Peplum,\u00a0a graphic novel, is out this month from New York Review Comics. A phantasmagoric take on the\u00a0Satyricon, it was originally\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Peplum by Blutch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 12, 2016 \u2013  Blutch\u2019s\u00a0Peplum,\u00a0a graphic novel, is out this month from New York Review Comics. A phantasmagoric take on the\u00a0Satyricon, it was originally\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-12T17:05:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-04-12T19:48:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/peplumcover.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1386\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1064\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Blutch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Blutch\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Blutch\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5ef06db765873a48b922624be990ac48\"},\"headline\":\"From Peplum\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-12T17:05:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-12T19:48:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/\"},\"wordCount\":163,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/peplumcover.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Blutch\",\"cartoonists\",\"Christian Hinckner\",\"comics\",\"French\",\"graphic novels\",\"Peplum\",\"Satyricon\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Look\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/\",\"name\":\"An Excerpt from Blutch\u2019s \u201cPeplum,\u201d a Graphic Novel\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/peplumcover.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-04-12T17:05:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-12T19:48:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"April 12, 2016 \u2013  Blutch\u2019s\u00a0Peplum,\u00a0a graphic novel, is out this month from New York Review Comics. A phantasmagoric take on the\u00a0Satyricon, it was originally\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/peplumcover.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/peplumcover.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"From Peplum\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5ef06db765873a48b922624be990ac48\",\"name\":\"Blutch\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b901137ee7e26b9b0e887a3095b7251590a5b94c3d9adaea88f4471cff2ddd0d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b901137ee7e26b9b0e887a3095b7251590a5b94c3d9adaea88f4471cff2ddd0d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Blutch\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/blutch\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"An Excerpt from Blutch\u2019s \u201cPeplum,\u201d a Graphic Novel","description":"April 12, 2016 \u2013  Blutch\u2019s\u00a0Peplum,\u00a0a graphic novel, is out this month from New York Review Comics. A phantasmagoric take on the\u00a0Satyricon, it was originally","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From Peplum by Blutch","og_description":"April 12, 2016 \u2013  Blutch\u2019s\u00a0Peplum,\u00a0a graphic novel, is out this month from New York Review Comics. A phantasmagoric take on the\u00a0Satyricon, it was originally","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2016-04-12T17:05:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-04-12T19:48:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1386,"height":1064,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/peplumcover.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Blutch","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Blutch","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/"},"author":{"name":"Blutch","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5ef06db765873a48b922624be990ac48"},"headline":"From Peplum","datePublished":"2016-04-12T17:05:35+00:00","dateModified":"2016-04-12T19:48:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/"},"wordCount":163,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/peplumcover.jpg","keywords":["Blutch","cartoonists","Christian Hinckner","comics","French","graphic novels","Peplum","Satyricon"],"articleSection":["Look"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/","name":"An Excerpt from Blutch\u2019s \u201cPeplum,\u201d a Graphic Novel","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/peplumcover.jpg","datePublished":"2016-04-12T17:05:35+00:00","dateModified":"2016-04-12T19:48:27+00:00","description":"April 12, 2016 \u2013  Blutch\u2019s\u00a0Peplum,\u00a0a graphic novel, is out this month from New York Review Comics. A phantasmagoric take on the\u00a0Satyricon, it was originally","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/peplumcover.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/peplumcover.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/from-peplum\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"From Peplum"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5ef06db765873a48b922624be990ac48","name":"Blutch","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b901137ee7e26b9b0e887a3095b7251590a5b94c3d9adaea88f4471cff2ddd0d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b901137ee7e26b9b0e887a3095b7251590a5b94c3d9adaea88f4471cff2ddd0d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Blutch"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/blutch\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/961"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96852"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96910,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96852\/revisions\/96910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}