heyOn the morning of June 4, when I heard the news of Marjane Satrapi’s death, I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. Although I met him in person only a few times – despite living in Paris for 16 years and contributing to his book woman, life, freedom – I felt a deep connection to his work and legacy.
Our collaboration on that book occurred mostly through email correspondence, but I always held her in the highest regard. I admired his intelligence, his extraordinary sense of humor and, above all, his remarkable gift for visual storytelling.
What he achieved through simple looking paintings was actually exceptionally difficult. The black and white spaces of his pages, the economy of his lines, the apparent simplicity of his compositions – all serve to express deep human emotions with a clarity that very few artists can achieve. As a cartoonist, I know how difficult it is to reach that level of expressive accuracy while still making it look effortless.
Marjane opened the door not only for me, but for many Iranian comic book artists, such as Parsua Bashi, Mansoureh Kamari, Majid Bita and Shaghayegh Moazzami, etc. More broadly, he opened a path into the comics world for artists from smaller and less visible countries – artists who had personal stories to tell but whose voices were often overlooked. with PersepolisHe gave Western publishers the confidence to invest in our work. Many of us owe a part of our careers to the space they have created.
Once I absorbed the news of his death, my thoughts changed Chicken with PlumsMy favorite of his books. I was reminded of its protagonist, Nasir Ali Khan, whose beloved musical instrument is broken and who decides to stay in bed until he dies. In his last days, he refused to eat even his favorite dish, chicken with plums. Looking back now, the character almost seems like an extension of the author’s own sensitive spirit, perhaps even an unconscious foreshadowing.
I find myself thinking about Marjane, about her final days, and about whatever device may have broken inside her. And every time I do this my eyes fill with tears.
