Anaïs Flogny

followed by a wikipedia link to the Apalachin Meeting of November 14th, 1957. I was not previously aware of this meeting but this sent me down a rabbit hole, and long story short, it was a meeting of about 100 mafiosi from the US, Italy, and Cuba, to discuss business, held at the home of one Joseph Barbara. Apalachin was a little town where nothing ever happened, so when a bunch of really expensive cars showed up in front of this one house — especially since Barbara was known to associate with documented mafiosi — the police got suspicious and set up some blockades. More than 60 were arrested, and 20 were charged, though they'd had no proof going in so no one died or anything, unlike in Smoke.

Now,

this is what Barbara's house, 625 McFall Road, looked like. Awfully familiar, isn't it?

During my researches, I needed something happening around 1957-1958 to have it believeable that a hundred bosses would gather somwhere to talk business. History was on my side for this one.

The adress the Don gives Jules and Eufrasio is also the real adress of the house!

Fun fact: when I wrote this scene (and mostly, everything in the book), I told myself : "This will be a very niche mafia history reference, it isn't mandatory to understand the scene, but if some know, they'll know"

here is a scene we can be sure happens in the present day, because we know Adam was planning on moving to Vegas with his buddy Hetman. Also he looks notably older. In this scene we can see him wearing a wedding band.

so that's pretty conclusive evidence, case closed, but i do want to take this opportunity to analyse the style of the new book!!

Anaïs mentions this in an ask from March, and the thing that jumped out to me was this panel

the bottle is blurry. everything in the first book was sharp and crisp, and here we have young Adam holding a bottle of moonshine that's blurry at the edges. perhaps blurry like a memory?

compare to this panel, which has the same crispness that we are used to. we can anchor this to the present day just solely based on the fact that Adam is visibly much older in this than the previous panel, which in turns supports both theories: that Madeline is part of the Vegas arc, and that the blur is used to indicate a flashback. then there's this moment:

Samuel we know has to be part of the prequel, on account of the. being dead. and if you look at the edge of the table, the outer post of the chair, the pages on the book, and the edges/folds of the blanket in some places, you can see that distinctive blur.

looking at these side by side we see that the Samuel scene does indeed have blur (on the book and pen) that the Madeline one lacks. the Samuel scene also seems to have scratchier lines used to render the suspenders and tie. looking at all these images together, we can also see that the flashback panels tend to be more desaturated, with a more neutral color palette, perhaps reminiscent of an old photograph.

that's all for now! if you need me, you can find me counting down the days until Rivages Lointains - Adam comes out!! (and perhaps comes out though the chances of that are extraordinarily slim)

also

introductory scene Drinking: No Smoking: Yes

cheerfully prepping to pull a guy's teeth out. also with the iconic "i got me a smith & wesson with six bullets in the cylinder" line Drinking: No Smoking: Yes

family life montage Drinking: Yes Smoking: No

christmas party Drinking: Yes Smoking: Yes

side note, he definitely figured out jules was gay in this scene, and i am 100% certain that when he later says "the chicks love that" about jules' bruises he was just thinly veiling the "i think your mugshot is sexy" comment

i'm-a-capo party. this narration makes me want to bawl my eyes out Drinking: Yes Smoking: No

life as capo montage. counting these as one because they are on the same day. he's clearly drunk in the third to a degree that the previous scene cannot account for so even though we don't see it i am going with Drinking: Yes Smoking: No

meeting with adam. insert joke here about the wife meeting the goomar Drinking: No Smoking: No

french dream scene Drinking: No Smoking: Yes

the "you didn't say no did you" scene Drinking: No Smoking: No

being a sore loser at gambling, and jules going "look how great of a friend i am" Drinking: Yes Smoking: No

couch scene. even though he's drunk out of his mind technically he doesnt drink anything in this scene and he's only drunk from the previous one so i'm gonna have to say Drinking: No Smoking: No

meeting discussing mole problem + upcoming dinner party Drinking: No Smoking: No

car scene, aka photos taken moments before tragedy Drinking: No Smoking: No

Drinks in: 5/13 scenes Smokes in: 4/13 scenes For a total of 8 scenes where he is doing either with 1 where he is doing both.

Until the very last sentence.

cake in fork dominated field (violent crime)

Thank you for your patience, and sorry if there are unanswered posts, DMs or asks. I'll try and come back soon.

"protect his love" being presented as the goal sets you up to root for him and Adam staying together. it puts you into Jules' mindset so that you are less likely to see too clearly too early on that this is never going to work. also the funniest thing is that he does end up "protecting his love and proving his loyalty", as they put it, it's just. it's bad. it's bad that he did that. we were all hoping he wouldn't do that.

and then we have this banger from the publisher Dargaud's pride month post:

"In the Chicago of the 30s, Jules, a young Italian immigrant, climbs the ranks of the local mafia, all while living out a secret and dangerous love story with a powerful mob boss."

"love story" is craaaazy. but i've made that post, that's not what i'm here to talk about. I'm here because this framing specifically makes it sound like your good ol' mafia romance. "secret and dangerous" oh so like, bad boy forbidden romance type story? no he threatens to shoot him if anyone finds out. like yeah i guess that does make it secret and dangerous but you KNOW that's not the impression you're giving. which of course is an excellent marketing tactic because it draws you in expecting one type of story, which the narrative itself wants you to mistake it for, and that ensures the maximal effectiveness of the twist.

and then there's the specific way they frame Eufrasio like here is the official blurb on Dargaud's website:

"crosses paths with Eufrasio, an impulsive mafioso who pulls him into a game that has become uncontrollable and dangerous, especially as the FBI begins taking a close interest in their affairs..."

look he was neck deep in the game long before Eufrasio. by the time Eufrasio showed up he was actively digging himself further into the game. the way this is framed naturally makes Eufrasio look like a bad influence and associates the situation spiralling out of control and the Feds closing in with Eufrasio when like. that's Adam's fault. but like i can't even call this innaccurate because even within the book itself, Jules paints Eufrasio as a bad influence on him, it's just a lot more subtle and therefore harder to argue against

anyways the english version really lays it on thick.

they get three words to describe him and they use violent as one of them. Jules already being established as being with Adam earlier in the blurb, the descriptor of "handsome" also implies an association with treachery and temptation. "insists that Adam is holding Jules back" makes him sound a lot pushier than he is. I mean, does he ever even do it outright? mostly we see Adam insisting that Eufrasio is a problem. so this primes you to expect a love corner situation where one of the love interests is trying to distance Jules from the other, but it implies this of the wrong person. once again, nothing they say here is technically untrue, it's just that they are extremely selective about what they tell you, so that you don't suspect a thing of Adam until it's too late.

then in New York when Adam becomes divorced from that world, his source of power, he is reduced to nothing more than a man. now, his favor is not enough, is not going to get Jules anywhere; Adam has lost his value as the symbol of the powerful underground and thus it becomes clear that he offers very little value on a personal level. he loses his mythology, his veneer, and in the end is just a petty, insecure, "pathetic little man whose glory days are over".

If there is anything that can rival this comic in my affections right now, it would be perfumery. So I thought Wow, wouldn't it be a GREAT idea to combine the two?

[montage of raiding the spice cabinet, speading hours on Fragrantica, screaming into a pillow because I don't have any real materials to work with]

Since you can't smell a post (where's THAT update, tumblr?) I made moodboards to evoke the notes! I have never made moodboards before in my life. I also just had to match them to the character colors which. well it was sure A Process!

But after a week of toil, my labour has finally borne fruit. Without further ado, allow me to introduce

the « Distant Shores » collection!

[warning: images of syringe, substances, guns]

Starting with our protagonist and definitely very reliable narrator: