Congo 1905 #[nn]

Vincent Bailly and Tristan Thil bring a striking and sobering piece of historical comics journalism with Congo 1905 — Le Rapport Brazza, subtitled "Le premier secret d'État de la 'Françafrique.'" The cover's blood-red palette sets an immediately charged tone, depicting a procession of African men and women moving through a village while a massive column of dark smoke rises from burning structures behind them — armed figures visible in the background, the whole scene rendered in Bailly's expressive, loose watercolor style. Published by Futuropolis in 2018, this is the kind of ambitious bande dessinée that uses the graphic form to confront difficult colonial history head-on.