After the Rain, the new book by Margaux Duseigneur, released in bookstores on October 17, 2025.

The book sits between comics and a short story collection, on the border between surrealism, autobiography, and fiction.

In this 160-page story, Margaux presents her joyful and supportive vision of the world to come - where new ways of inhabiting the Earth are celebrated.

In this interview, discover the context behind the creation of After the Rain, Margaux’s influences, and what drove her to imagine this comic book.

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The short story Rain was published in the collective magazine Lagon, and Before the Rain in self-publishing. After the Rain appears as a continuation, and your first long-format work. What was the context for creating this publication with Fidèle?

After the publication of the short story Rain in Lagon, Vincent suggested I make a long-format comic inspired, in one way or another, by that story. It was quite intimidating for me because I had made very few comics, but I had enjoyed creating those pages for Lagon. For the short story Rain, I had combined topics close to my heart (political renewal, communal living, school cafeterias…) with purely formal desires (drawing soft, flowing shapes, abstracting forms, dishes, landscapes). This gave rise to this story, between realism and surrealism. I included so many elements that were meaningful to me that it was quite enjoyable to expand this material into a long format.

In the end, it came quite naturally to incorporate elements of my family life, friendships, politics, reading, and aspirations. I wanted it to be polymorphic, like a testimony of a world, with multiple registers: documentary, narrative, cooking recipes, short stories, long stories, chatty or silent. Then I had fun intertwining everything, searching for balance.

It’s a book about communal life, but I ultimately had to isolate myself far from the bustling life in Uzerche to find the time to create this comic!

You are used to working with materials and volume: ceramics, paintings, artist books with original drawings added… What changes in your creative process for a printed comic book?

In the end, I worked in much the same way, contrary to what I might have thought: quite automatically, without going back too much. I often favored the first draft over refining. Even when assembling the stories together, I felt I was thinking the same way I do when staging an exhibition or planning a drawing book: considering the full, the empty, the resonances. The real difference was the format: I’m no longer used to drawing so small, and it pushed me to go straight to the essential.

Après la pluie is a title that evokes the moment after, suggesting calm after the storm. In this story, what crises are you referring to?

The crises leading to the storm in this book are those we ourselves are experiencing today. I would say the story takes place a few years from now, at a time when governments have continued to go further in their wrongdoing, but the people have reached a new stage of self-organization.

There isn’t really a main character in this book; humans appear more as a species than as individuals. Can you tell us about your relationship to the collective?

I share a house with three other people in Uzerche and spend my days working in a place called Le Sénéchal, where there are thirteen of us: artisans, researchers, videographers, painters, and illustrators. This is how I like to share daily life: celebrating joys and facing hardships together. For me, spontaneous mutual support is a real facilitation of life, but also a political necessity to continually learn how to organize collectively.

In any case, it’s a lifestyle I want to testify to because I find there are few imaginaries and resources about communal living. We are often caught up in the stereotypical image of a community, whereas there are very different ways to live collectively.

The book includes detailed recipes and will be presented alongside a food market where you will offer some dishes yourself. You regularly participate in solidarity kitchens with La Calade… Food seems central to your practice. Can you tell us about that?

A good meal is a celebration. I find that when we eat good and beautiful things, we feel cared for, we feel the attention put into cooking to please us. In my family, it is clearly a way of showing love to others. It also works in collective cooking: one feels welcomed when dining somewhere that pays attention to the food, and that matters a lot to me.

I can also say that cooking entered my practice like drawing, volume, or gardening. I feel that moving to the countryside has changed the way I work, making all these things I love do more permeable to each other.

Do you see communal life as a form of resistance? Is it a solution to violence for you?

More than community itself, I would say solidarity between people, the federation of collectives. I believe that connecting our groups, families, friends, creating links among residents and workers, is a real way to defend ourselves, resist, and take action. I believe in a network of individuals and collectives becoming a true counter-power.

The book addresses realistic issues: ecological disasters, police violence, grief… However, the tone alternates between fiction, documentary, and even imagination. Do you see poetry as a form of political expression?

I would say everyone works with the means they have to express their ideas and aspirations. That doesn’t mean it’s an end in itself, but rather that you can make use of everything at your disposal.

Do you have works that accompanied or inspired you during the writing of After the Rain?

My references come from literature, comics, and visual arts. In novels, Tabor by Phoebe Hadjimarkos Clarke left a strong impression on me for its mix of post-apocalyptic story and political essay, and for its frank writing. I also loved Into the Forest by Jean Hegland. In comics, Olivier Schrauwen (Parallel Lives) inspired me with his mix of quirky sci-fi and politics, and his drawing. I was also fascinated by Yuichi Yokoyama and his back-and-forth between figuration and abstraction. In visual arts, Max Ernst for his strange landscapes, Valentine Schlegel for her curved interiors, and Jean Arp for his clear, simple forms.

Discover Après la pluie, the new book by Margaux Duseigneur.