VANCOUVER: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, world-famous as France's first lady and as a model and singer, has now been “immortalized” as a comic-book heroine, an American publisher said.
The wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy has already made an international splash, said a statement by Bluewater Productions, announcing:
“And now Bruni-Sarkozy will be immortalized in comic-book form.” The 32-page comic book, released last month in English but yet to find a publisher in France, is an unauthorized political biography with a difference.
A depiction of Bruni-Sarkozy is on the cover, bare-shouldered in an evening gown with her hands crossed demurely in front of her, poised before a billowing French tricolour.
A narrator named Rene, drawn as a moustached official, promises readers: “I'll take you through the files on our French First Lady ... Being a French story, it has romance, sensuality, the occasional menage-a-trois.” Bluewater publisher Darren Davis told AFP the Bruni-Sarkozy story is part of a series called “Female Force” that is aimed at “female empowerment.” Other women who have received its comic-book treatment include UD First Lady Michelle Obama, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling, author of the American “Twilight” vampire series Stephenie Meyer, and Australian-British singer Olivia Newton-John.
Bruni-Sarkozy “has a really interesting story,” Davis said in a telephone interview with AFP from Bluewater's US studio.
“She has drive and ambition. When girls read this they're going to see they can do anything, and be what they want to be.” The comic's colourful panels tell the story of Bruni-Sarkozy's life from her birth in Italy to her 2008 marriage to Sarkozy.
In between, scenes depict her family's move to France during the 1970's Red Brigades attacks, her modeling and music careers, her views and work on AIDS fundraising and her controversial meeting with the pope.
It also features her past romances including with actor Vincent Perez, musician Eric Clapton and former French prime minister Laurent Fabius, an alleged scandal involving Mick Jagger, and her child by French philosopher Raphael Enthoven.
“It is unbiased, so we do talk about things in there... but the struggles that she had make her a stronger person,” said Davis.
Davis, who worked for large American comic book publishers before founding his own Bluewater studio in the small US town of Vancouver in Washington State, said the comics are sold in the United States and Britain, as well as eight other countries, mostly to a young audience but also collectors of political memorabilia.
“People are buying them for their daughters, and schools and libraries are picking them up.”
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.