EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 34 by Book Palace Books * 96 PAGES IN FULL EDITION

64 Perhaps Sicomoro’s masterpiece, ‘La Porte au Ciel’ (‘The Door to Heaven’) is a two-part graphic novel telling the story of three teenagers: Manu, Julie and Anna — known as the “Japanese” because all three of them have attempted to commit suicide as the Japanese kamikaze did. The girls try escaping their urban violent world by taking refuge in an abandoned country house. There they discover a menhir with a symbol that translates as ‘door to heaven’. At once a drama and psychological thriller, it features some of Sicomoro’s best artwork: drawn in graphite and coloured with ecoline (with a little help from three of his students). FACING PAGE: Top right panel of page 5 from the second volume of ‘La Porte au Ciel’, graphite on watercolour board, 2008. Panel reproduced at its original size. RIGHT: Julie , graphite and liquid watercolour on board, 2013.