Dadaistic sheep

“La Génie des alpages” must be the most bizarre comic I've ever read. At least two of the albums have been translated to Swedish, but no English version seems to exist. The humor is surreal, almost to the point of Dadaistic. The main characters are an old shepherd, his talking dog, a confused lion, a stray sphinx and a whole band of crazy sheep.

The sheep, who live in the Swiss Alps, are terrorists. They habitually attack tourists, kill them and drain their corpses. One of the sheep is interested in the theory of relativity, another is an amateur naturalist, while a third member of this aberrant flock believes she was a bird in a previous life. The sole Shetland sheep of the flock can play the bagpipes and is on a first name basis with the Loch Ness monster!

Do I even have to continue?

Much of the humor seems to be “intellectual”. The Swedish translation contains obscure references to satire, rhetoric, Swedish poetry and Finnish culture. I suppose the French original is more oriented to the Francophone end of such things.

I can't say I *like* F'Murr's brand of kookish humor, but at least I did laugh heartily at the concept. For old time's sake, I'm willing to give “the genius of the mountain pastures” five stars. But please don't tell me that I didn't warn you, LOL.