Zep: Titeuf
The most recent addition to the city-wide gallery is a contribution from Zep, President of the 2005 Festival. His signature character, Titeuf, is asked by the careers adviser:
"I'll ask you again, are you more attracted by a career in a) computing or b) mechanics?"Don't be fooled by that blond quiff, Titeuf has less in common with Tintin than he has with Bill Watterson's Calvin - notably, a rich imaginative life.
This four-panel strip is painted in four window spaces, one above the other. On the page, as on the screen, the direction in which a vertical strip is to be read is as unambiguous as the direction of a horizontal strip: the eye automatically starts at the top. But in the street, it is the panel nearest eye level which catches the attention, and is liable to be read first. The gag becomes reversible. From the top it is told from Titeuf's point of view, as his contemplation of various brilliant careers is interrupted by an adult who fails to think big: from the bottom, it is the long-suffering adviser who watches Titeuf's thoughts spiralling off in all directions.
