Henriette Valium (May 4th, 1959 - Sept. 3, 2021), whose real name is Patrick Henley, was a comic
book artist and painter based in Montréal, Québec.
Although Valium did gain substantial recognition from the underground
comics scene in Europe and North-America since his beginnings
in the early eighties, his provocative and hallucinogenic style
kept him well away from the mainstream comic book industry. Valium's creations are
widely dispersed through numerous anthologies, fanzines, self-published
comics, and various mixed-media collaborations, which makes it
difficult to establish a detailed chronology of his work.
The 1980's
With the exception of Vagorbine 14 (1981), his first self-published
title, Valium's early incursions into the comic book world can
be found through various québecois compilations and fanzines.
One notable contribution during that period was made to Iceberg
(1984), in which he introduced himself for the first time under
the pseudonym "Henriette Valium".
Many of the stories
written during the eighties were compiled into 1000 Rectums, It's
an Album (1987), a self-published anthology. The book introduced
many themes and characters that became the author's trademarks
over the years. In particular, Valium brought in some of his most
recognizable protagonists, such as his alter-ego Pattou, the enigmatic
Mister Iceberg, and the evil scientist, Doc Lekron. The stories,
often one-page short, mostly revolved around Valium's usual themes,
mainly sickness, addictions, abnormal sexuality and social decay
in general. Even though the drawings are strongly marked by a
penchant towards punk aesthetics, 1000 Rectums did not yet exhibit
the complex and violent graphical excess that characterized
later publications such as Primitive Crétin.
The 1990's
Along with a brief punk rock experiment as a singer for Valium
et les Dépressifs, and the subsequent release of C'est un
monstre (1992), the early 1990's were a prolific period that led
to the creation of Primitive Crétin! (1993), a self-published
11.5" by 17.5" anthology. The book is a collection
of demented and often absurd stories that carry on with the themes
and characters of 1000 Rectums, along with the addition of short-lived
yet memorable characters like The Boxing-Glove Family or Tiplouplou.
The true remarkable feature of the book, however, lies within
its staggering surreal drawings. Each page of Primitive Crétin!
is a world onto itself, in which images of strange organisms,
distorted everyday objects, and extreme urban density are intertwined
to create a general impression of disorder. The complexity of
the drawings combined with their considerable scale generate an
immersive chaotic environment that is almost impossible to decode
at first glance. In order to achieve this effect in Primitive
Crétin! and his other comics in general, Valium had to
work for several months on each page. Thus, the conception of
a whole comic book represents a long and strenuous process that
takes place over several years.
In addition to frequent collaborations with various independent
zines across Europe and North America, such as Zero Zero (which
led to a US reprinting of Primitive Crétin! in 1996), Valium
also started by the mid-nineties to experiment more formally with
collage, which moved his art toward a more abstract and horrific
form. Among the interesting collages of that period, we find La
Prison Anale des Frères Rouges (1996) and the Curés
Malades ("sick priests") series. The later, through
the depiction of machine parts and pornography blended over portraits
of priests, is a gloomy and graphic criticism on the Catholic
Church's historical influence in Québec.
Valium's collage
work, with its incorporation of explicit sexual imagery (often
going as far as bestiality) and gruesome press photos, prevented
him from getting any kind of public recognition, including government
subsidies. Since the 1980's, Valium has mostly made a living from
printing posters for various Montréal bars, such as Le
Café Campus and Les Foufs.
Later Work
The year 2000 was marked by the publication of Coeur de Maman
("Mother's Hearth"), a self-published 11.5" by
17.5" comic book. Coeur de Maman, a bizarre story about an
oversized, monstrous mother's hearth, picks up were Primitive
Crétin left, with the pages being so heavily illustrated
that they become almost unreadable. In the same year, Valium also
completed The Survivor, a monumental painting centered around
a Joseph Goebbels family picture.
Finally, he also participated,
in the spring of 2000, to an exhibition of his work at the LA-based
La Luz de Jesus gallery. Valium kept experimenting with collage, integrating
Photoshop into his creations, which led among other things to
a series of serigraphs titled Les Héritiers du Rêve
(2002), and a small book, Mutants (2003). He also worked
on a comic book, La Princesse Brune ("The Brown Princess") in
2005.