For the first time, the Louvre is exhibiting comics and graphic novels. The museum commissioned five artists to each create a graphic novel centered around the Louvre. Giant reproductions of some of the panels are on display, and two of the graphic novels have already been published (with the others on their way).

The two that have been published:

Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert by Marc-Antoine Mathieu (excerpts here):

Glacial Period by Nicolas de Crécy (excerpts here):

The other three artists are Éric Liberge (”Odd Hours”), Hirohiko Araki (”Rohan at the Louvre”), and Bernard Yslaire. Yslaire gave a live performance during the opening, according to this not-always-clear AP article:

In the hazy lighting and hollow stone walls of the Louvre’s Medieval hall, Bernar Yslaire brought the latest character from his comic strip “The Sky above the Louvre” — a tempestuous young revolutionary — to life.

The Belgian cartoonist, 52, invited the live audience into his digital world of comics, where images are created not with a sketchpad and crayon, but at the click of a mouse.

“My comic strip is done exclusively on a digital screen, there is no paper at all,” Yslaire says. “We are in the 21st century of communication.”

Using his “electronic pencil,” each carefully poised click slowly revealed his protagonist: first the raging, raven eyes, then a sharp, angular nose, unkempt curly hair and finally the broad shoulders.

Jeff at Crushing Krisis blog attended the opening day and gives his thoughts here.

The Louvre’s page about the exhibition.

[ADDED:] It’s great that the world’s most famous museum has finally allowed comics into its hallowed halls, but did they have to do it in such a half-assed, self-serving way? To get into the Louvre, these artists had to create new art … about the Louvre. It’s as if the museum is assuring people that comics artists can address serious topics like … the Louvre.  Never mind that they’ve been covering the Holocaust, Israel and Palestine, cancer, the Bible, 9/11, and other weighty topics. Weren’t the existing works of Eisner, Miller, Crumb, Ware, Barry, et al good enough? How about Maus, The Sandman, Watchmen, Lost Girls, Sin City, Love and Rockets, and the wordless graphic novels from the first half of the twentienth century, not to mention comic strips like Little Nemo, Prince Valiant, Peanuts…. Hopefully, this is just the first step. Once the Louvre’s gatekeepers see that this exhibition didn’t cause the walls to cave in, they’ll put together a serious exhibition, and maybe add comic art to their permanent collection.