"I imagined a love story during a party": comic book author Caroline Nasica has revamped the walls of Frigo 16 in Nice

After eighteen years in the business, we still experience firsts. Never, before meeting Caroline Nasica, had a person we were about to interview asked us if we could help them repair their bumper. Our bodywork skills were disastrous, so we left three kind souls to handle the repair in the blazing sun, in the parking lot of 109, the former site of the Nice slaughterhouses, converted into a cultural wasteland.

We continued our journey in the company of the whimsical comic book author and illustrator to Frigo 16, the concert hall where she came to wander the tips of her Posca pens (gouache markers popular with street artists ), at the invitation of Panda Events.

Black and white, party and fiery temperament

"I imagined a love story at a party, with people looking for each other at a party, who don't get along and end up meeting up to dance. Clearly, that could be me!"

On the entrance doors and in the dressing rooms of Frigo 16, Caroline Nasica offers a glimpse of the tone she adopts in her albums and on her Instagram account, @zinzin_nsc, followed by 55,000 people. In black and white, with a line that clearly depicts her hyperactive temperament, a volcano constantly on the verge of eruption, the 28-year-old always goes straight. Without shying away from shaky sex stories, nighttime drunken outings, or family spats.

"I don't make myself look good at all, I try to be as honest as possible. I make as many mistakes as I do good things. It's still reassuring to think that we can all do shit," she told us by phone during a previous interview.

"The character is less than 95%. But over time, I'm evolving. In terms of drawing, narration... and even vocabulary. I try to use fewer swear words. When I look back at my old boards, I tell myself that I was a real truck driver," she adds three years after this exchange.

"Zia Zinzin", the album of maturity

Having settled in Marseille after spending a large part of her youth in Nice, between the ages of 8 and 19, the illustrator can now measure how far she has come. After publishing two volumes of Caro et les zinzins with Exemplaire, then 5, rue du Boucan with Larousse, Caroline Nasica is now in the big leagues with Dargaud (176 pages, 23.50 euros).

Last April, the venerable publishing house published Zia Zinzin, the book she was signing on the day of our visit , during a Belaprem session, a recurring, multidisciplinary and free event (1). "It's the comic book where I reveal myself the most. The others were very autobiographical, but here, we are also in the intimacy of my family."

A family taking root near Tox, a village in Haute-Corse where Caroline returned to take a breather after a breakup. Her grandmother and her zie , her aunts, are still there. Her childhood memories too. But she's still feeling the pinch: everyone has aged, the streets are deserted, and old quarrels often come up again. "I didn't want to overwhelm anyone; I try to portray people as they are, with their own way of life."

Another look at his Corsica

Over time, Caroline Nasica's view of her island has evolved, as she observes. "When I was a teenager, I felt obligated to go there, I had to follow, without having a choice. Now, I want to stay connected to certain places, to keep in touch with the people who saw me grow up. I don't want to be the girl who comes back in ten or twenty years, after having disappeared, to reclaim a piece of land or a house. In truth, I see this book as a declaration of love, to my family, to the values I received."

Carulina's luck, in the Corsican version, is undoubtedly being surrounded by relatives who almost all have the potential to be comic book characters. "Oh, but obviously! The starting point for this book is my aunt, who constantly told me endless stories, without ever getting to the end. My father told me I should write about it. Did he like the result? I don't even know if he read it. He's quite modest. Maybe he's a little scared of what he'll find in it too," she laughs.

1. Concerts, exhibitions, market and workshops at 109, from 5:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Last events of the summer on July 30 and 31 at 109, in Nice, with carte blanche to the Épisode and Funkytown collectives.