For the release of the seventh album of Captain Biceps, Philippe Chappuis, aka Zep, evokes at the microphone of Isabelle Morizet the genesis of this zany superhero, which he created with the designer Tébo.

INTERVIEW

Zep, the author of the cult comic book Titeuf, released at Glénat the seventh album of the adventures of Captain Biceps, crazy superhero, inspired C omics . Originally, the screenwriter Philippe Chappuis, aka Zep, and Tébo, the designer, have imagined a story of superheroes that has slipped. Zep told Isabelle Morizet on Sunday about Europe 1.

>>> READ ALSO - Zep: "With Titeuf for 25 years, even if the topics are repeated, the news is changing"

Captain Biceps was, in his past, Elmer, a schoolboy complexed by his buttons, gifted in maths but bad in gym, and who has no success with girls. Thanks to the comics of superheroes, Elmer forgets this cruel world. But one day, his mother throws his comics in a dumpster. Elmer then plunges into the bucket, which closes on him and he is a victim of a biochemical reaction that turns into a condensed of all his superheroes adored. This is the birth of Captain Biceps.

This idea of ​​character, Zep said to have developed it in collaboration with Tebo. "I read comics when I was a child like all the little boys of my generation, but Tebo, the designer, really bathed in it," he says.

#CaptainBiceps is finally back and even Chuck Norris is scared of him. ♂️

Available in bookstore! https://t.co/w1e722uwG4pic.twitter.com/gLLwXnb1aL

- Editions Glénat (@GlenatBD) August 28, 2019

Captain Biceps would not have existed without Tchô, their magazine, now gone. "We were looking for story ideas and Spider-Man by Sam Raimi had just been released, he had a huge success and revived all this superhero fashion in the cinema, and I thought it would be nice to present for the young people. readers of superheroes, with their history, their origins that are often quite funny, "he recalls.

Hulk to Potage-Man

Zep and Tebo have therefore taken the model of American comics to produce an offbeat version. "What's funny is this sidebar 'Did you know?' where we explain the origins, an anecdote or a secret about the life of the characters.It was done in the comics culture of Stan Lee.It was explained that Peter Parker was stung by a spider exposed to gamma rays, "recalls Zep .

>>> READ ALSO - Marvel: why Stan Lee's superheroes still hit today

Yet Zep also explains how to break away from the traditional codes of comics. In Captain Biceps, characters are not locked in bubbles or boxes. "Captain Biceps at first, it was a magazine section so it looks more like a theater scene," the author analyzes. "The characters are standing, standing and fighting, it's a style exercise."

A funny and transgressive drawing

When Zep and Tebo decided to work together, Zep said spontaneously: "When I got this idea for a topic, I showed it to him. I'm not going to do that, I'm the super-hero cartoonist. ' I was very happy he said that because I'm a fan of his drawing. "

Zep evokes the leg of Tebo, identifiable by "a funny drawing and youth". "If he draws a character who has the guts in the air or who has a broken neck, it's still pretty and children will find it funny," says the scriptwriter. "It's funny and cool, even if it's disgusting, it's great because you can do super-transgressive things."