Halfway between science-fiction novel and thriller, this tale by Nicolas Ancion, illustrated by Killoffer, draws freely on François Taddéi's research on the ageing process of bacteria and the transmission of knowledge in nature, from unicellular organisms to human beings. A tell of robots and organ traffic, L'Homme qui refusait de mourir revisits the figures of the mad scientist and the sorcerer's apprentice.
Dying is undoubtedly the greatest concern of man, and to put an end to death is one of the most ambitious objectives of modern science. However, though contemporary research is indeed incapable of fulfilling such fantastic dreams, futuristic fiction writing offers a possibility to imagine that one day humanity will be able to pursue its course ad infinitum. When man defies death and forces science to find solutions to his projects of immortality, one enters fully that obscure zone of contemporary imagination in which machines, biology and artificial intelligence combine to give birth to a new man. But is he also immortal? Patrice Killoffer's drawings combine robots, bacteria, scientists and intestines to encourage the mind to circulate more efficiently in the piping of this captivating tale.
Nicolas Ancion (born 1971, Liège. Lives and works in Carcassonne, France) is a Belgian writer.
Killoffer (born 1966, Metz, France) is a French illustrator, founding member and publisher at l'Association. Leading figure of the alternative comics movement in France, his work has been translated in English (Six-hundred and Seventy-six Apparitions of Killoffer, Typocrat Press) and is now exhibited in art galleries.
