In a survey published on May 4, the Mediapart site reveals that it has collected numerous documents and the testimonies of a dozen women implicating the author of comic strip Florent Ruppert. The latter, now 43 years old, had already been the subject of two criminal complaints in 2021, one for “sexual assault”, the other for “rape”, closed without further action in 2022. He denies en bloc the facts alleged against him in the Mediapart article.
The investigative media reports that the young woman who filed a rape complaint, initiated into sadomasochistic practices by the cartoonist, said in her report: “It was he who manipulated me to make me take the positions he wanted, I was a bit like his puppet”. But also : “I felt like an inflatable doll. »
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In 2015, then aged 20, she suffered, blindfolded and tied fists, an act without consent. ” I was young. I don’t know how it’s supposed to be. I don’t really have a choice, I think. Asking to stop, it did not seem to be part of the contract”, she reacted during her hearing. Questioned by Mediapart, Florent Ruppert repeats that “this scene was desired by her and made at her request”. The lawyer of the young woman denounces the absence of prosecution: “This demonstrates once again the lack of recognition by the magistrates of the prosecution of the seriousness of these acts and the consequent suffering endured in silence by the victims in a deadly patriarchal system. »
The stories told by Mediapart have similarities. Women often in their twenties, who, at parties where alcohol and drugs circulate, come across the self-proclaimed cartoonist « polyamoureux ». He is described as “charismatic”, ” impressive “ et ” without limits “. Consent, at the very least, seems a gray area. “Everything changed the day he (l’a) taken as an object, says one victim. “From that day on, I was no longer there. He takes. It’s a chasm. It’s violent. It is an act of dispossession. » Another victim details: “We feel reduced to the state of an object without having consented to that. » Then : “As part of sex, I often felt that once started, there was no place to say stop, unless the body took care of it. »
In an email to one of its former partners that Mediapart was able to obtain, Florent Ruppert writes:
“We are in a time where collectively we are in the process of identifying behaviors that we no longer want today. I’ve had some of these behaviors, I’ve hurt people, and I’ve had a hard time realizing it. »
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The end of “Ruppert and Mulot”
After the Mediapart revelations, Jérôme Mulot, with whom Florent Ruppert has produced all of his comics, has announced that they are ending their collaboration, which began almost twenty years ago. “I would like to salute the courage of the women who spoke and give them my public support. Their testimonies came to reveal a behavior that upsets me and a reality of which I was not aware “, writes Mulot on his Instagram account. Then :
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“The investigation also formalizes the end of “Ruppert and Mulot”. From now on, I will continue alone this activity that I love the most in the world: thinking, writing and drawing books. It will be different, or rather in my way now. »
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Instagram – A post shared by Jérôme Mulot (@jerome.mulot)
It was indeed rare that one speaks of one without the other. It’s even a safe bet that comic book lovers were unaware of Florent Ruppert’s first name. The duo met at the Beaux-Arts in Dijon and had retained a taste for contemporary art, which they breathed into their production. Ruppert and Mulot have often been nicknamed “the visual artists of comics”. Notably for their extremely inventive books published by L’Association, which reinvented the very format of comics. This is the case of “A gift” (L’Association, 2013), a comic strip that needs to be cut out and hollowed out in order to be able to read it, or “Soirée d’un faune” (L’Association, 2018), which unfolds like a road map. In 2007, they received the Essential Revelation from the Angoulême Festival for “Panier de singe” (The Association). One, a former dancer, was as affable and at ease discussing sexuality (Ruppert) as the other was discreet (Mulot).
The Mediapart investigation comes as a #MeToo of comics is struggling to take hold in this small environment – despite the initiatives of certain collectives. A few months ago, in mid-December, it was Bastien Vivès who was under the radar, after the Angoulême Festival wanted to give him carte blanche during its January edition. The ex-comics genius was implicated by two petitions and hundreds of messages on social networks pointing to the trivialization of incest and child crime in his books. Angoulême had ended up backpedaling, but too late and too little to put out the fire. Two child protection associations have lodged a complaint against the author and his publishers Glénat and Les Requins Marteaux. The Nanterre prosecutor’s office then indicated that it was opening a preliminary investigation for the dissemination of child pornography images.
“We can’t dialogue”: in Angoulême, the delicate evocation of the Bastien Vivès affair
It should be noted, Bastien Vivès and Florent Ruppert know each other. Together, they signed “Olympia” (Dupuis, 2015), and before that “La Grande Odalisque” (Dupuis, 2012), a story of museum thieves inspired by the famous 1980s cartoon “Signé Cat’s Eyes”. The album was adapted for the screen by Mélanie Laurent, with Adèle Exarchopoulos, Manon Bresch and a three-star cast ranging from Isabelle Adjani to Philippe Katerine. Last I heard, the film was to be released on 1is November on Netflix.
