Fantastic Mister Fox. By the tender age of seven I was on sharp lookout for every broadcast of the Christmas movies of Wolfgang Reitherman, one of the “Nine Old Men” from Disney Animation Studios.

I’ve never ceased since to be awed by artists who’ve delighted in seizing the personalities of their fellow men and transposing them on animal faces chosen for the circumstance, first and foremost Charles Le Brun, J.J. Grandville, Heinrich Kley and Benjamin Rabier.

When I think of these talking animals that enthralled me when I was a child, I remember realistic, plausible creatures, with genuine faces and authentic expressions. They were characters I would have loved to meet, very different from the stylized caricatures, all angles and exaggerated scowls that we sometimes come across in contemporary “character design” …

Years later, I started sketching those “animals” (but does that really define them?) myself out of pure fun and I thank my children for having asked me to give birth to a great many of them in order to amuse them in turn.

My biggest joy would be for readers, in their turn, to dream and laugh a little thanks to the characters gathered here…

-Armel Gaulme

In an age where a few strands of DNA separate us from the humblest of creatures, in an age where we question our place, inherited from the time we gave names to all the animals, Armel Gaulme’s Bestiary is a salutary exercise where deft acuity of spirit and pencil line are displayed in equal measure.

Giambattista della Porta, Charles le Brun, Heinrich Kley, Arthur Rackham, Walt Disney, all have questioned and blurred the line that separates man from beast.

And in the end, can we accept the qualities to which we aspire: brave as a lion, strong as a bull and others, without regarding face to… muzzle the less redeeming human qualities that animals selflessly ignore? This is a book created with sensitivity, razor-sharp observation and a lively dose of humor, a mirror in which we would be well inspired to look long and carefully. We might just get a clearer glimpse of ourselves.

-John Howe

(John Howe is a Canadian illustrator, mainly known for his work as artistic director on The Lord of the Rings’ and The Hobbit’s trilogies, by Peter Jackson. He also published numerous books with Gallimard-Jeunesse, Nathan, Grasset Jeunesse, Casterman, Bayard…)

“There are some illustrators who have to be published.
Armel Gaulme is obviously one of them.”

-JC Caurette

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This book was produced with the help of the Conseil Régional Grand Est and the DRAC Grand Est.