The Bellybuttons
Encyclopedia
The Bellybuttons is a French Canadian
comic book
series written by Maryse Dubuc
(credited as "Dubuc") and illustrated by her husband, Marc "Delaf" Delafontaine. Dubuc and Delafontaine are based in Sherbrooke, Quebec
.
bande dessinée
(BD) magazine, Spirou
. Spirou's publisher, Dupuis
, published its first BD album, Pour qui tu te prends ?, in 2006.
An English version of the series, with its title directly translated to The Bellybuttons, was introduced in 2009 by British
publisher Cinebook.
By 2009, Les Nombrils has become one of the best-selling BD album titles on the market, with its third volume, Les liens de l'amitié, having sold over 220,000 copies.
In 2010, Dubuc won the Joe Shuster Award in the "Outstanding Writer" category for her work in the fourth Les Nombrils album, "Duel de belles"; she was the first francophone winner in this category since the awards were created in 2005. She was first nominated in 2009 in the "Outstanding Writer" and "Outstanding Colourist" categories for her work in Les liens de l'amitié.
In 2011, this volume was chosen by Communication-Jeunesse as the book most-preferred by Québécois readers aged 12 to 17.
The series was on hiatus
from late 2009 until February 2011, when Les Nombrils returned to Spirou in issue 3802.
in graphic novel
format" by Cinebook, focuses on three girls—two glamourous and vain, and one homely and down-to-earth—who test their friendships against popularity, boys and jealousy. To each other, they are considered frenemies
-- at times they help each other out, while at other times they compete for the same man.
In both languages, the name of the series is derived from the body piercing jewellery that the main characters Jenny and Vicky wear in their navel
s. The title also refers to Jenny and Vicky referring themselves as the "world's bellybutton".
The tagline
for the series is "Life is Cruel. Deal with it." In the original French version, "La vie est cruelle. Et puis après ?" (Life is cruel. And then what?)
French Canadian
French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series written by Maryse Dubuc
Maryse Dubuc
Maryse Dubuc is a Canadian comics writer, known particularly for The Bellybuttons which she creates together with artist Delaf.-Biography:She was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, growing up at a dairy farm...
(credited as "Dubuc") and illustrated by her husband, Marc "Delaf" Delafontaine. Dubuc and Delafontaine are based in Sherbrooke, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
.
History
As Les Nombrils, the series was introduced in 2004 in a Québécois humour magazine, Safarir; it was later picked up in 2005 by the BelgianBelgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
bande dessinée
Franco-Belgian comics
Franco-Belgian comics are comics that are created in Belgium and France. These countries have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are known as BDs, an abbreviation of bande dessinée in French and stripverhalen in Dutch...
(BD) magazine, Spirou
Spirou (magazine)
Spirou magazine is a weekly Belgian comics magazine published by the Dupuis company...
. Spirou's publisher, Dupuis
Dupuis
Éditions Dupuis S.A. is a Belgian publisher of comic books and magazines.Based in Marcinelle near Charleroi, Dupuis was founded in 1922 by Jean Dupuis, and is mostly famous for its comic albums and magazines. It is originally a French language publisher, but publishes many editions both in French...
, published its first BD album, Pour qui tu te prends ?, in 2006.
An English version of the series, with its title directly translated to The Bellybuttons, was introduced in 2009 by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
publisher Cinebook.
By 2009, Les Nombrils has become one of the best-selling BD album titles on the market, with its third volume, Les liens de l'amitié, having sold over 220,000 copies.
In 2010, Dubuc won the Joe Shuster Award in the "Outstanding Writer" category for her work in the fourth Les Nombrils album, "Duel de belles"; she was the first francophone winner in this category since the awards were created in 2005. She was first nominated in 2009 in the "Outstanding Writer" and "Outstanding Colourist" categories for her work in Les liens de l'amitié.
In 2011, this volume was chosen by Communication-Jeunesse as the book most-preferred by Québécois readers aged 12 to 17.
The series was on hiatus
Hiatus
Hiatus may refer to:*Recess *Hiatus, a small difference in pitch between two musical tones *Hiatus , a phonological term referring to the lack of a consonant separating two vowels in separate syllables, as in co-operation*Hiatus , a break of several weeks or more in television scheduling*Hiatus...
from late 2009 until February 2011, when Les Nombrils returned to Spirou in issue 3802.
Format
The series, characterised as "chick litChick lit
Chick lit is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. The genre sold well during the 1990s and 2000s, with chick lit titles topping bestseller lists and the creation of imprints devoted entirely to chick lit...
in graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
format" by Cinebook, focuses on three girls—two glamourous and vain, and one homely and down-to-earth—who test their friendships against popularity, boys and jealousy. To each other, they are considered frenemies
Frenemy
"Frenemy" is a portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" that can refer to either an enemy disguised as a friend or to a partner who is simultaneously a competitor and rival. The term is used to describe personal, geopolitical, and commercial relationships both among individuals and groups or institutions...
-- at times they help each other out, while at other times they compete for the same man.
In both languages, the name of the series is derived from the body piercing jewellery that the main characters Jenny and Vicky wear in their navel
Navel
The navel is a scar on the abdomen caused when the umbilical cord is removed from a newborn baby...
s. The title also refers to Jenny and Vicky referring themselves as the "world's bellybutton".
The tagline
Tagline
A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...
for the series is "Life is Cruel. Deal with it." In the original French version, "La vie est cruelle. Et puis après ?" (Life is cruel. And then what?)
Central characters
- Jenny is a redhead who dresses herself in a glamourous and revealing fashion. She thinks that the world revolves around her. She is also not too bright, often turning to reference material to find answers to even the simplest questions. She also considers pets to be more fashion accessories than living beings. Despite her glamour, Jenny lives with an impoverished family in a Broken HomeBroken HomeBroken home is a term used to describe a household, usually in reference to parenting, in which the family unit does not properly function according to accepted societal norms. This household might suffer from domestic violence, a dissolved marriage, drug abuse, or anything else that interferes...
-- her mother is an alcoholicAlcoholismAlcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
; her father's whereabouts are unknown; and her little sister Jenna (who looks a lot like Jenny) turns to her for advice.
- Vicky is an affluent blackBlack peopleThe term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
brunette. She is fluent in English (in the original French version) because of her origins. However, despite being one of the popular girls in her cliqueCliqueA clique is an exclusive group of people who share common interests, views, purposes, patterns of behavior, or ethnicity. A clique as a reference group can be either normative or comparative. Membership in a clique is typically exclusive, and qualifications for membership may be social or...
, her older sister, Rebecca, sees her as an inferior person.
- Karine is a very tall, thin, blonde girl who's often the foil in Jenny and Vicky's jokes. Karine has a boyfriend, Dan, who Jenny and Vicky try to steal or at least keep away from her. Karine plays basketballBasketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
at her school; however, her abnormally-long torso and arms are a major disadvantage on the fashion scene. After breaking up with Dan (who cheated on Karine as he was also seeing Mélanie, in a series of events that almost landed Karine in jail), Karine drastically changed her look, dyeing her hair black and switching to a more-fashionable black colour scheme.
Supporting characters
- Dan is Karine's boyfriend in the first four volumes, who with Karine is a target of Jenny and Vicky's practical jokes, as they attempt to woo Dan away from Karine and more towards them. However, the love triangleLove triangleA love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
takes more of a shape of a pentagon, as he later has a crush on Mélanie, leading Karine to think that she is betrayed.
- John John is a male motorcyclist who Jenny and Vicky have a crush on; he is never seen without his motorcyclist helmet on. And with good reason—John John is a Siamese twinConjoined twinsConjoined twins are identical twins whose bodies are joined in utero. A rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 50,000 births to 1 in 100,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence in Southwest Asia and Africa. Approximately half are stillborn, and a smaller fraction of...
, with part of his twin's head fused onto his own. Jenny and Vicky don't know the truth, but Karine does, after an online search to see why he always has his helmet on.
- Murphy is a geekish, teenage boy, not treated well by pubertyPubertyPuberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...
: his face is plagued with a bad case of acneAcneAcne is a general term used for acneiform eruptions. It is usually used as a synonym for acne vulgaris, but may also refer to:*Acne aestivalis*Acne conglobata*Acne cosmetica*Acne fulminans*Acne keloidalis nuchae*Acne mechanica...
, he talks with a hoarse voice (as indicated by fonts), and he always threatens suicideSuicideSuicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
when he doesn't get his way—usually in the form of going out with Karine. While his crush on Karine waxes and wanes, he eventually succeeds in getting a girlfriend of his own—the equally-geeky Lizon.
- Mélanie is a woman who studies African cultureCulture of AfricaThe culture of Africa encompasses and includes all cultures within the continent of Africa. There is a political or racial split between North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa, which is in turn divided into a great number of ethnic cultures...
as a hobby. She successfully wooed Dan into joining her on a study trip to Africa to help volunteer to help the people and animals there. However, her real motive was to keep Dan away from Karine, having him all to herself. She succeeded, leading Karine to break up with Dan, but she also failed, as Dan saw Mélanie's evil ways.
- Albin is an albinoAlbinismAlbinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to absence or defect of an enzyme involved in the production of melanin...
street musician who plays original, personalised songs with his guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
. Following Karine's breakup with Dan, Albin would become her new boyfriend. However, as the relationship kindled, it was discovered that Albin was nicknamed "Le démon blanc" ("The White Devil"), as he was accused in the past, perhaps wrongly, of the murder of his classmates in a fire at a cottage one winter. The lone survivor of the fire heard Albin say "Je vais faire un monde meilleur" ("I will make a better world"); however, Albin and the survivor, who later became a member of Albin's band, said that it wasn't true.
Other languages
In addition to English, Les Nombrils has been translated into these languages. Unless specified, all translate to "Bellybuttons".| Language | Local Title | Publisher | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Czech | Pupiky | Albatros Media / CooBoo | |
| Danish | Navlerne | Egmont Serieforlaget Egmont Group The Egmont Group is a media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark. The business area of Egmont has traditionally been magazine publishing but has over the years evolved to comprise media generally.... (backup feature in "Tempo" magazine) |
|
| Dutch | Mooie Navels ("Beautiful Navels") |
Dupuis | |
| Italian | Le Ombeliche | ||
| Norwegian | Jentelus ("Cooties Cooties Cooties is in American childlore, a kind of STD usually found on the male penis infectious disease found only in boys. The term may have originated with references to lice, fleas, and other parasites. A child is said to "catch" cooties through any form of bodily contact, proximity, or touching of... ", lit. "girl lice") |
||
| Spanish (Spain) |
Ombligos | Dibbuks |
English
- The Bellybuttons: 1 - Who Do You Think You Are? (ISBN 9781905460885) May 2009
- The Bellybuttons: 2 - It's Ugly Out There! (ISBN 9781849180177) Feb. 2010
- The Bellybuttons: 3 - The Bonds of Friendship (ISBN 9781849180702) Feb. 2011
- The Bellybuttons: 4 - Clash of the Beauties (release date and ISBN TBA)
French
, unless specified.- Les Nombrils: 1 - Pour qui tu te prends ? (ISBN 9782800144122)
- Les Nombrils: 2 - Sale temps pour les moches (ISBN 9782800138749)
- Les Nombrils: 3 - Les liens de l'amitié (ISBN 9782800140315)
- Les Nombrils: 4 - Duel de belles (ISBN 9782800144122)
- Les Nombrils: Jeunes belles et vaches (ISBN 9782800148823) (omnibus volume; collects first four albums)
- Les Nombrils: 5 - Un couple d'enfer (ISBN 978-2800150222) Available as a traditional album and as a three-part series:
- Les Nombrils: 5, 1er partie - Noir cauchemar (ISBN 978-2800149899)
- Les Nombrils: 5, 2e partie - Rouge enfer (ISBN 978-2800150284)
- Les Nombrils: 5, 3e partie - Blanc albinos (ISBN 978-2800150376)