“I don’t want to create alone in my corner”

The designer achieved success by drawing inspiration from his childhood and his author and collaborator Emmanuel Guibert. And don’t imagine his work in any other way than in collaboration. His readers will be able to meet him at the Salon de Montreuil during the debate and signing.

He arrives at the happy meeting, in a state of weightlessness, a little here, a little elsewhere. He crossed Paris incognito, with a yellow cap, a blue scarf, and a single-speed bicycle. Ride, star of youth illustration, without anyone recognizing you! Marc Boutavant enjoys this anonymity more than celebrity, a designer’s privilege, even freshly crowned with the Ursa Major, the top prize awarded by the Salon de Montreuil., which takes place until December 5. He sees in this a reassuring proof that he does not resemble his characters: “Imagine if someone said to me: ‘Hello rotten dog!’ or “Here’s this Ramono pig…” on every corner! »

Dare we say we find him as Ariol, his main hero, a cute blue donkey CM1, imbued with wisdom and sensitivity? Something soft and sharp in the smile, the bottom of benevolence that cannot be said, and the beautiful part with doubt. Not to mention the glasses, Ariol’s main attribute, which Marc Boutavant doesn’t have as big, but he’s been wearing them since childhood: “I remember the shock, in a large part of the kindergarten. I used to be normal, and one day my mother dragged me to school wearing glasses. I didn’t understand what was on my head, and I had to wear it all the time… Good little trauma! »