Celebratring Joz’s new tome of his trademark history through comic books, 1870: l’insurrection du sud [1870: The Insurrection of the South], the Schœlcher Municipal Library in Martinique recently presented an exhibition of images from the author’s work. Joz (whose real name is José Clavot) met with his audience after the projection of a short animation film focusing on this episode of Martinican history.

José Clavot, who is known as a painter, is also one of the first illustrators of Afro-Caribbean comic books. In his conversation with the Martinican audience, he recalled his rich but discreet journey as an illustrator with many reviews around the world such as Croissance, Jeunes Nations, Afrique-Asie, Différence, Sans Frontière, and the Pan-African daily newspaper Continent. With the pseudonym Joz, he ventured into the world of publication in 1974 in the magazine Charlie and he is the founder of the first Caribbean comic book Djeno, which appeared in 1976. It is not surprising that Joz, who studied at the École d’ Arts Appliqués of Corvisart and received an MA from the University of Paris VIII, is a master of the use of color in his work.

Joz is now facing a challenge. After reading that a Japanese painter who produced one hundred portraits of Mt. Fuji pronounced that the mountain could not be equaled in beauty, Joz proposed 101 Faces of Mont Pelée [101 visages de la Montagne Pelée]. Taking the statement as a dare, he plans to produce one hundred portraits . . . plus one, for good measure.

For full review (in French), see http://www.potomitan.info/bibliographie/clavot_jose.php