I honestly don't know why I ended up liking this.
I am absolutely not into meanspirited "comedies" where "everyone is an arsehole" is the crutch of their "humour" - and that goes for irreverent, "edgy", "shocking" "adult" "comedies" that are in reality just lazy, childish, regressive, hateful, toxic, and too easy to write. Yet, miracle of miracles, 'Exquisite Corpse' managed to charm me, and I find it strangely endearing and adorable.
It isn't lazy and cheap, either. There is cleverness to be found in it.
It is an adult French comedy graphic novel about writing, books, and people. It is simultaneously well written and yet not so - it can be contrived, trite, silly and inexplicable. It is funny, yet its "jokes" are often rote and predictable. None of its characters are particularly likeable, yet they are kind of relatable and realistic, with realistic, stupid flaws, and possible mental maladies. You can definitely tell that it is something that came out in 2010.
I dunno, maybe I'm won over by the cartoony, cute art and character designs, complete with the clever use of colours. In fact, it reminds me of what the first draft storyboard drawings at Pixar would look like. I know, 'Exquisite Corpse' is all kinds of weird and
And maybe I find the twist at the end worth celebrating. It lives up to the comic's cartoony style, and comes right out of nowhere and is highly implausible. There are many holes and acrobatic swings and leaps in logic to it. However, after a breather from turning the last page, it is oddly satisfying and wonderful. A remarkable feminist twist (on a love triangle, which is itself a trite trope and cursed writing device) for its time.
The book's whole synopsis - its abstract form in every sense of the word - is like the term "Death of the author", told in many ironic, wiggly, squiggly twists.
And it's like a dark, twisted, less-academic, less-BDSM version of the film 'Professor Marston and the Wonder Women'. Conjointly, I'm sure it's like a lot of artsy French films, only fresher and funnier.
I won't dare spoil anything further.
Except: Despite the title, there is no corpse in this comic, nothing so gruesome and macabre, nothing resembling a black comedy, per say. Nothing so
It contains books, a bookshop, and a cat, too. Sign me the F up for those!
'Exquisite Corpse' - like a sitcom from the 2000s, it is... an acquired taste. It's a time capsule, that would, in spite of its flaws, stand the test of time. For me, it's like an adult, no-ghosts version of another late 2000s-early 2010s comic, 'Anya's Ghost'. Even the art style is similar. Then there's 'Page by Paige'.
I'd wanted to finally check out 'Exquisite Corpse' because I loved Pénélope Bagieu's 'Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked The World'. That is a masterpiece, and it certainly was an experience seeing how far she's come from one of her earlier works.
Well, regardless, 'EC' is unique, enjoyable, fascinating and charming to me. This corpse is far from dead, and also far from exquisite - but it is its own thing; it is its own well rounded, brilliant, satirical genius. A deeply cynical yet oddball, charismatic, delightful, poignant look at the human condition.
Here's a glass, a toast, to another guilty pleasure - the guiltiest of pleasures - graphic novel I read in 2025 (fifteen years after it came out, blimey).
Final Score: 3.5/5
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