Chien Hurlant is absolutely not a guide to dog breeding but this title evokes the rage that Andrea feels. Will he be able to vent his anger without using his fists?
Violence through the net
Andreas and his friend decide to make a video showing the boy randomly hitting another schoolboy. The video goes viral and Andreas is known for his tapping videos under the pseudonym Tyler D. He becomes this Howler Dog of the title. But what is the origin of this immense internal rage? When Andreas returns home, the reader understands that everything comes from a family problem. After a period of separation, his father returned home. Chien Hurlant is never gory but the reader is nevertheless upset by certain passages. Fights are pure gratuitous violence. We are fighting for no good reason. This outburst is all the more shocking as it is the fact of college students in search of likes or fake respectability. Andrea is a mute and fragile child in many ways. He has the nightmare of being attacked by a dog. However, his violence offers him the status of winner in his college while he is THE repeater of his third class. A reference to the movie Fight Club illustrates that violence – on others and on oneself – is a solution to social violence. He unwinds and reaps views. Indeed, Chien Hurlant is looking on the net for a lost love. Andrea becomes a star but he must assume his status as a brute. No one can disrespect him and his pride forces him to accept challenges like professional boxers. Andrea sinks into a dangerous spiral despite the reminder of the law by the principal and isolates herself more and more. Indeed, the young boy wants to be seen at college while at home he does not want to see his father.
Violence in the home
Andrea plays a role in college and at home. The father returns home at the mother's request. Far from being happy, Andrea is suspicious of this stranger who has hurt her but does not tell anyone. In Hound Howling, the reader enters the mind of a child who refuses to relive a trauma. If Andrea had experienced academic problems the previous year, we can imagine that it is partly because of her father's excesses. He protects his mother by investigating his father. In the midst of all these lies of the spirits, he finds truth through his body. It is especially by leaving this toxic environment that he will find himself. The arrival of his uncle also makes Andreas think. This author lives a nomadic life. Chien Hurlant is Mélissa Morin's first solo work. Scriptwriter, artist, colorist, has an original style by the contrast between the very detailed characters and the background most often empty. To avoid pathos, faces rarely have expressions. Morin also does a great job on inking and colors in dreams. Published by La Boîte à bulles, Chien Hurlant is a very dark series in the first pages. The reader is totally broken by witnessing Andrea's torments and her violent drift. Without revealing the second part of the book, we can say that a fragile hope is being built. This ray of sunshine remains at the heart of the reader by closing this beautiful book. Find another chronicle that has dog from the same publisher and the chronicle of the Yellow Vests.
