Le choix des armesLe temps est à la révolte qui gronde et à la révolution qui couve. Gabriel de la Serna, jeune séminariste, fils d'une grande famille de Managua, a pris le maquis. Il a fui en claudiquant dans la forêt. Il était venu à San Juan, petit village niché dans la montagne nicaraguayenne, pour peindre la Passion du Christ. Il y a rencontré la passion des villageois, des paysans, en butte à la répression militaire. Nourri de Justice divine, il régurgite comme un mets faisandé l'injustice du pouvoir en place et de ses hommes de main. Recueilli et soigné par les guérilleros, il renie son nom à particule et troque fusains et crayons de couleurs contre des armes autrement percutantes. En "soulevant la peau des choses", Gabriel découvre aussi son humanité, faite de chair et de désirs...Violence immorale de la répression qui brise l'âme et le corps, violence idéale de l'élan révolutionnaire vers l'improbable, l'impossible liberté, violence du courage et de l'abnégation, violence du renoncement et de la trahison, violence de l'homme neuf qui se défait de sa peau d'enfant, violence des sentiments, des désirs, de la passion, rien n'est violence, tout est humain. Dessinateur hors pair et coloriste lumineux, avec ce second tome, qui clôt magistralement Muchacho, Emmanuel Lepage se révèle un scénariste inspiré, exhalant le souffle des grands écrivains de bande dessinée.

En soulevant la peau des choses...Nicaragua, 1976. Secondé par la sinistre Guardia, "Tachito" Somoza règne en maître sur ce petit pays d'Amérique centrale. Jeune séminariste, fils d'une grande famille de Managua, la capitale, Gabriel peint. Le Christ, la Passion, les saints. Il est doué pour ça. C'est la raison pour laquelle on l'envoie exercer son art auprès de Ruben, le prêtre de San Juan, un petit village niché dans la montagne. Peu apprécié des villageois, parce qu'il est le fils de son père, Gabriel devra apprendre à les connaître et à les aimer, encouragé par un Ruben l'exhortant à les peindre tels qu'ils sont, hommes et femmes de chair et de sang. Ainsi, en "soulevant la peau des choses", Gabriel découvrira la répression militaire contre les paysans, et contre lui-même le joug écrasant de sa sensualité. Pour lui comme pour les villageois, les temps sont à la révolte qui gronde et à la révolution qui couve...

It's a time of grumbling rebellion and brooding revolution. Gabriel de la Serna, the teenage son of a well-to-do family, has gone into hiding. He fled, limping, into the forest. He had come to San Juan, a little village nestled in the mountains, to paint the Passion of the Christ. There he came to understand the passion of the villagers, the country folk, all victims of military repression. Nourished by a sense of divine justice, he begins to understand the villainy of those in power and their cronies. When he's eventually taken in and treated by the guerillas camped out in the forest, he lies about his family name and swaps his pencils and paint brushes for firearms. As he gazes beyond the surface and deeper into the depths, Gabriel also discovers his own humanity, made of flesh and desires...

In 1976 Nicaragua "Tacit" Somoza rules the small Central American country with the support of the ruthless Guardia. The son of a powerful family from the capital, Managua, Gabriel is a young priest with an incredible talent for sacred art. He is sent to enhance his painting skills with Ruben, a priest in San Juan--a little village located at the base of a mountain. Despite his difficulty integrating with the villagers due to his father's reputation, Gabriel slowly gets to know them and, eventually, to love them. Encouraged by Ruben, he paints the villagers. He paints them as they are--men and women of flesh and blood. But Gabriel is soon witness to acts of military repression of the locals. It doesn't take long for him and the villagers to get swept away in these times of growing rebellion and smoldering revolution. Artistic passion, romantic passion, revolutionary passion. Passion courses though the pages of Muchacho, a two-part series. Here is part one.

1976, Nicaragua. "Tacit" Somoza rules the small Central American country with the support of the ruthless Guardia. The son of a powerful family from the capital, Managua, Gabriel is a young priest with an incredible talent for sacred art. He is sent to enhance his painting skills with Ruben, a priest in San Juan--a little village located at the base of a mountain. Despite his difficulty integrating with the villagers due to his father's reputation, Gabriel slowly gets to know them and, eventually, to love them. Encouraged by Ruben, he paints the villagers. He paints them as they are--men and women of flesh and blood. But Gabriel is soon witness to acts of military repression of the locals. It doesn't take long for him and the villagers to get swept away in these times of growing rebellion and smoldering revolution. Nourished by a sense of divine justice, Gabriel begins to understand the villainy of those in power and their cronies. When he's eventually taken in and treated by the guerillas camped out in the forest, he lies about his family name and swaps his pencils and paint brushes for firearms. As he gazes beyond the surface and deeper into the depths, Gabriel also discovers his own humanity, made of flesh and desires...