Recently we sat down with French artist Marie H. Trope Zanzal to ask her a few questions about art and the library. Zanzal moved to New York from Paris in 1992, and has been working as a contractual museum educator for The Metropolitan Museum of Art. There she leads adult and college student groups through permanent collections and special exhibitions. When she is not at the MET, she makes art, more specifically comic books. Here is what she had to tell us:

What’s your background? 

I have a couple of college degrees in art history and museum education.

Why do you do what you do?

Because I am dyslexic. I have always been torn between literature and the visual arts. But my reading speed became a serious issue in college as a freshman in English and American literature. So I eventually switched to art history and education and became a museum educator. In 2016, I found myself out of a full-time job managing teacher, school, and family programs for a cultural institution in NYC. This is when I decided that I would become an artist.

What work do you most enjoying doing? 

As an artist… making art. Although my first love will always be traditional watercolor, I have developed a passion for the digital media. In 2016, I discovered sequential art (comic book art) and it has become my passion. 

As a museum educator, my favorite thing to do for work is to get people in general, and kids in particular, to talk about and understand art. Until Covid-19 struck and museums closed, I was still enjoying my job as a contractual museum educator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

What themes do you pursue? 

Education is a major theme in my art. Advocating universal access to knowledge through books and denouncing the malevolent deprivation thereof are constant preoccupations of mine. To that I would add abuse of power and inequalities. 

Another theme, which defines my narrative form rather than the content of the story, is the notion of parallel dimensions. My characters, although rather standard in their humanity, often walk a fine line between day-dream and reality, or imaginary and authentic memories. They don’t have special powers, nevertheless, they seem to be given access to an alternative dimension, which is the locus to cosmic, and somewhat Manichean battles.  

What does your work aim to say? 

So far, my work advocates education for all, and denounces anything or anyone standing in the way.   

Which current art world trends are you following? 

Well, sequential art is a fast-growing trend per se. But within the comic book art community, I really don’t consider myself “trendy.” I hope to find my ideal audience among school teachers, librarians, and young women.  

Who are your biggest influences?  

Neil Gaiman, as the writer of novellas and novels, is an inspiration. But even more so is Neil Gaiman as the writer of the comic book series The Sandman. 

As is the case for many contemporary comic book artists who look to express human figure realism with a strong, flowing, clear line, my first influence is Czech illustrator Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939). For landscapes, I like to look at the Shin-Hanga (wood block prints) Japanese school of landscape, including most notably the artists Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950) and Kawase Hasui (1883-1957). As is the case for many French contemporary comic book artists, Moebius—aka Jean Giraud (1938-2012), is my first comic artist influence. My contemporary influences tend to shift as I discover new ones every day. Of late the Brazilian Renato Guedes is on the list, as well as the Italian Riccardo Federici, and the American couple Rachel and Terry Dodson. The Australian Nicola Scott has been my female artist role model for a while, and Scott McCloud, American comic book artist, teacher, writer, and historian is a constant reference when I work. 

What most of these artists have in common are a fair amount of realism, very strong drawing skills defined by clarity and fluidity of line, and in many cases, a subtle palette that sings rather than shouts.  

Why art? 

Asking an artist “Why art?” is like asking a fish “Why water?” It is not a choice. 

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given? 

Neil Gaiman gave me the best advice I ever received in a speech entitled “Make Good Art” he delivered May 17, 2012 at the commencement ceremony at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia: 

“Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art.” 

Are libraries a part of your world? How important are libraries to you as an artist? 

For eighteen years, I worked in the education department of a cultural institution that served both as a museum and a library in New York City. So, I would say that during that time, a library was an integral part of my life. As manager, I created, developed, and implemented school and family programs related to the art and literary collections. In my star school program, students in grades 3 to 12 wrote, illustrated, and built books inspired by medieval manuscripts. 

After I left the library, I was torn between the need to write stories and draw them— until the idea of writing and illustrating comic books came to mind. My stories center around libraries and books, and my “superheroes” are people who write, read, and love them.

What have you been working on recently? 

The comic book I have been working on for the past year or so is entitled "The Salmon of Knowledge". The story revolves around a librarian forced to confront the Demon of Ignorance who threatens to flood her library and destroy the world’s knowledge if she doesn’t deliver to him “The Salmon of Knowledge,” an ancient book invested with magic powers. Her quandary reaches a dramatic climax when her fate and that of a dyslexic little girl become inexorably linked to the coveted book. 

Has literature impacted your art making?  

It has, in a vast measure. 

I like gothic novels and in general dark fantastical or dystopian stories, with well-developed characters—in comic and traditional book form. My Audible.  account is also replete with 19th century British and American authors including Mary Shelley, Jane Austin, Bram Stoker, H.G. Wells, Somerset Maugham, Edgar Alan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.P. Lovecraft, Mark Twain, to name a few. I have also binged multiple times on Ray Bradbury. And among contemporary authors I most consistently go back to is Neil Gaiman. 

To prepare for my current project, I have recently re-(re)-read Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, and George Orwell’s 1984. These works emphatically denounce one particular aspect of autocracy: the tyrannical obliteration of knowledge through censure and the physical destruction of books. My comic book, The Salmon of Knowledge is a variation on the theme, and in a way, the aforementioned four novels are characters in my story. 

Have the recent events had an impact on your art practice? 

I am not sure to which “recent events” you are referring. So much has been happening lately. 

Let’s see: 

1. Covid19 / Stay-at-home 

Being forced to stay at home, I have had no other choice but to draw. Every day. Five to eight hours a day. I have allowed myself to be totally absorbed in what I love best in life. I have also been able to improve my digital art skills and experiment with new digital art software. 

2. Racism issues 

Since I started to work on comics in 2016, my stories have been populated with multi-racial characters. This is the world I live in and this is the world I wanted to recreate in my stories. So, I cannot say that the events following George Floyd’s murder impacted my work. But they certainly reaffirmed for me the absolute necessity of telling stories in which people of color and white people have equal representation. 

3. Other major political issues

“The Salmon of Knowledge” is also about abuse of power and the consequences of speaking truth to power. My heroes struggle to overcome the nefarious forces intent on gaining access to absolute power through the spread of ignorance.  These are themes as old as autocracy and I didn’t need to wait for recent events to address them. But once again, as an artist, I have felt the increasing urge to speak out now, albeit metaphorically.

Thank you to YA Librarian Joe Pascullo for help putting this blog post together.