COMIC: The Many Lies and Slander Regularly Attached to One Maximilien Robespierre

[backupmemories]

In further evidence that I procrastinate way too much, I present a small comic which has demanded the pretentious title of "The Many Lies and Slander Regularly Attached to One Maximilien Robespierre".

Mmmm...let's see, preliminary comments...well, please forgive the horrible attempt to write in cursive with a mouse, for one thing. For another, I'm willing to make more of these, so if anyone has ideas for more slander (and I'm sure there's plenty), please, share! Of course, it may be amusing only to me, but at least I found it amusing to draw. ^_^






It's all in books somewhere, I'm sure. The original slander, not the image that goes with it! (I don't think the Hannibal Lector connexion has been made yet...or at least I hope it hasn't) This was inspired when I was flipping through the pages of a book on the French Revolution in which Robespierre was not only described as being "sea-green" in color, that's basically just how they referred to him for the rest of the book. As in, instead of saying "he said to Robespierre", they would say "He said to the Seagreen", and we were supposed to know who they meant. *roll eyes* ^_^

...also, I apologise for the awful dictator image, I couldn't figure out what to put there. I'd already used "horrified into speechlessness" too many times...

Comments

[zigsternenstaub.livejournal.com]

Hi! I noticed that you'd added me as a friend at some point and decided to add you back! Nice to meet you--you probably saw me on Maelicia's journal. I'm the one with the weird, poetic commentary that is more amused than outraged (On Maelicia's f-list, I often feel like Fabre, just without the embezzlement...).

This little comic is, by the way, deliciously incisive, beautifully sharp in its observations, and absolutely hilarious. And all of your historically-inaccurate-completely-biased Maximes look adorable! My favourite is devil!Robespierre--he looks so helpless and inefficient. I suspect the residents of Hell are about to start running amok in the face of his mortification any minute now...

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

Hi! Yes, that's where I found you. It's nice to meet you too - I'm certain we'll get along splendidly. ^__^

Thanks a lot! I'm glad you liked it. Yes, devil Robespierre is one of the ones I think came out best. He's clutching at the trident for dear life. He'd make a horrible administrator of Hell, I think. I'm sure Lucifer!Saint-Just is standing by to help him, though...

[zigsternenstaub.livejournal.com]

I'm certain we'll get along splendidly. ^__^

Given your wicked sense of humour, I certainly anticipate the same:D

I'm sure Lucifer!Saint-Just is standing by to help him, though...

Behind every neurotic, incompetent ruler of Hell there's an even more neurotic, slightly more competent ruler of Hell.

[josiana.livejournal.com]

&hearts Squee! I love them all. Um. Artistically speaking. I am amused by all of their little horrified expressions. I want to make little plushies of them all.

Also, when I'm a Very Serious Artist, I am going to change my name to The Seagreen. For great lulz.

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

Thanks! ^_^ And oh god, plushies. XD That's wonderful. I can just see little devil!Maxime, too...with his little trident in one hand...

If you do that, I may actually die of laughter. XD And no one will get it, and it will be wonderful.

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Awww. ;-; It would be so pitiful. They would have to make some kind of eeevil noise when you squeezed them, too.

Yes. XD

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I can just see them squeaking "guillotine!" every time you hug them. Just to be appropriately evil, of course.

...hmmm, I wonder if my 6-year-old sister would want one for her birthday...

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Aww. So cute, and yet so evil. ;_; They could come with little baskets of severed heads, too.

Probably. :D Doesn't every child?

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

With little button eyes, and small strings of red yard emerging from the neck, too.

XD I know I would have wanted one when I was six...sadly, I think I was being told bedtime stories about the French Revolution right around that time, too...*not joking*

[josiana.livejournal.com]

XD Of course. Would the little Maximes have detachable heads?

I'm envious. I was still being subjected to bible stories then. ;-;

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

Sure, why not? And it'll come packaged with "Baby's First Guillotine", for utility.

My parents generally preferred mythology and history stories, which is probably why I know so much random trivia about things. ^^ My parent's view on bible stories can basically be summed up with the conversation of, Me: "Dad? What's the biggest lie you've ever heard?" Dad: "Well, it starts like this - 'In the beginning, God created...'" Mom: !!! Dad: "Joke, joke! ^_^" Me: *roll eyes*

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Oh, good. ^__^ The little children will be educated and entertained all at once.

XD Awww.

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

And to think my baby sister originally wanted a unicorn or something. Tsk. XDD

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Oh noes. ;o; The poor child has already been indoctrinated.

[polypragmosyne.livejournal.com]

MASTERFUL. And cute too! Awww, even Vampiric!

AND!!! ZOMG! Robespierre the Incredible Hulk!

p.s. the Orange icon is my Robespierrish icon :)

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

XD Thanks!

Oh dear god. MAXIME SMASH! *dies of laughter*

Very, very appropriate icon. XD Robespierre's love of oranges is possibly the only thing that has been able to make my friends forget the "spontaneously appearing orange" incident, for which I am forever grateful.

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

Those are all so... I don't know, somewhere between adorable, horrible and hiarlious. XDDDDD

I love the tiger and serial killer ones. Just because they're so random. XD

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

XD Yes, they are random. Yet ironically, Robespierre looking like a tiger is one of the most popular descriptions I've seen of him...though admittedly the serial killer one is completely random. XD

My favorites - drawing-wise - are the green one and the devil one, but my favorite concept was the puppetmaster/only-revolutionary-in-the-whole-revolution one. Just for the little sock-puppets which are being bratty and so not listening to him, which is far more accurate. ^^

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I love these! The expression on green!Robespierre's face is especially good. And how secretpuppetmaster!Robespierre can't even control his own puppets. XDD (Poor Maxime, though, forever stuck in all these inappropriate disguises. D:)

Would the "historian" referring to Robespierre as "Seagreen" happen to be Carlyle...?

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

Thanks! ^___^ Poor Maxime indeed. He's constantly stuck with some variant or another. I'm sure if I can come up with more ideas that I could fill up a whole new sheet...


I have no idea, I just gaped at the book in disbelief for a few minutes before edging away. The writing style was rather, hmm, unique, though, so probably yes.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

*sighs* Yes, it does seem to be that way. You should do another sheet... You could do some of the ones for Saint-Just and the other Robespierristes too, since they have them too. >.>

It probably was Carlyle, then. I was going to say, "run from it like the plague," but you seem to have done a pretty good job of that yourself. XD

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, good point. Care to suggest some good pejoratives for the others? If I get enough people, I'll do a "incorrect representations of Robespierrists/Revolutionaries" dinner table. A la the Last Supper. Because I mean, if you're going to be drawing incorrect and pejorative historical views of them, you might as well put it in the one scenario which would REALLY make them spin in their graves....XD

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

For Saint-Just you should definitely appeal to maelicia; she can probably give you as long a list as you have for Robespierre (my personal favorite botched characterization is Saint-Just the human ice-cube machine). I would call Le Bas the invisible, since no one seems to recognize his presence--and therefore never really bothered to slander him much. Couthon was, I believe, also referred to by the epithets of "tiger" and "drinker of blood," but I'd have to see whether there are others specific to him... I have somewhat disproportionate knowledge of Éléonore Duplay, and can thus say specifically that she's been portrayed as everything from a tricoteuse to a child abuser.

Other than those though, people aren't too original; they just tend to call them "bloodthirsty" or "dictators" or both--they usually call the more "peripheral" Robespierristes something on the order of "fanatical followers," "accomplices," etc. As for non-Robespierristes, they weren't typically calumniated, so there's not much to work with there.

...And I think you might have hit on the one image that would make them roll in the graves more than all the others. -__-; (Though certainly, that wouldn't be anything new either--quite a few people have been crazy enough to compare Robespierre to Jesus.)

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

Saint-Just is, as usual, soooo being cast into the fake Mary Magdalena from the Da Vinci Code (being in fact, of course, swooning-and-effeminate/very-likely-would-be-eromenos John).

And it works sooooooo very well, because David can be Peter.

Though on Da Vinci's painting, Peter has a knife, which fits better a future Thermidorian, like Tallien, but since Tallien was never a Robespierriste to start with, let's say Collot d'Herbois (who sort of pretended to be) is Judas.

Now they're spinning.

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

I can hear the spinning. Haven't read/seen/have-actually-avoided-like-the-plague Da Vinci Code, but having taken art classes, I know which one John is! And yes, that would be Saint-Just, poor thing.

And yes, David will deny him three times before the emperor crows.

Who else would be there, though? And where There's thirteen places in the picture, and only 4 have been filled...

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, my Mom adores it, even though every time she dares watching it, I do my best at being abominable and wrecking all her fun by criticising everything. From "Yes, Leonardo would rather paint a pretty boy next to Jesus than a silly slut" to "The Prieuré de Sion was a fake, a fraud by a royalist French pretending to be yet another heir to the pseudo-throne of France, and therefore the entire argument for the film is royalist propaganda, as always". Mom doesn't appreciate. *grins*

Ah, yes, I'm sure if we count, David did it.

Hm, well, there must be Couthon, Le Bas and Augustin, at least, which means we now have 7 places taken. Wait that I think of other minor robespierristes... There's Jullien de la Drôme, but he's really young, and the place of the youngest is already taken by Saint-Just... Um... Ah, well there's Hanriot, from the Garde nationale, Fleuriot-Lescot, the mayor, and Payan, from the Commune, who all died on Thermidor. There's Coffinhal, whom I think was also in the Commune, and Buonarroti, the future associate of Babeuf in the Conspiration des Égaux, who didn't die because he was in mission, far from Paris on Thermidor... I'm sure there are others I forget right now...

[nirejseki.livejournal.com]

Perhaps a better question would be, "who is there that has enough physical descriptions/pictures available somewhere so I could try to draw them"...x_x

Well, 7 is a good start, anyway. ^^ Besides, with the amount of work I have, it's going on the "to do" list, not the "to be done now" list...

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

It's better to put it on that list, so they will stop spinning now. XDDD