We first see events leading up to a second party from Emma’s view, then after a surprise Bryon rewinds to show the weeks leading up to them in Madeleine’s life. All that personality comes from a wealth of experience drawing comics and book illustrations in France, which also feeds into the storytelling. That sheer charm and exuberance is sustained all the way through as Ella and Madeleine concoct a clever plan, with the movie Amelie seemingly a big influence on the mood of joyful whimsy.īryon has an evocative line in visual metaphors, a nice one being the water representing the excess of feeling washing over Ella, and she’s such an accomplished cartoonist breathing so much life and detail into her work you’ll wonder why you’ve never seen anything by her before. Well, it turns out Lucie Bryon has a captivatingly funny solution in mind. How’s she going to deal with that? Especially as she’s finally broken the ice with Madeleine. What she doesn’t discover until the following hungover morning is that the party was actually at Madeleine’s house, which makes it ever so awkward that Ella drunkenly stole a number of trinkets before heading home.

Those pages introduce us to Ella, seen enjoying herself at a party on the sample art, and hopelessly infatuated with Madeleine from the moment she first sees her in the classroom. You’re going to have a hard time finding another graphic novel released in 2022 that exudes as much sheer charm and exuberance over the starting pages than Lucie Bryon’s Thieves.

Thieves by lucie bryon