“Cyrano de Bergerac’s Ballade,” which debuted at the 2011 MoCCA Festival in April, is my artisanal comic adaptation of Cyrano’s famous “duel in rhyme” from Act 1, Scene 4 of Rostand’s play.

Instead of doing a strict literal translation from Rostand’s original French, however, I decided to draw upon my knowledge and experience as a former collegiate foil fencer to emphasize the fencing aspects and language of the scene.

Cyrano’s Ballade is not a folded form like the rest of my origami comics but it  does have an unusual format twist.   It’s what I ‘m unofficially calling a ‘Hybri-gami’ format falling somewhere between my  folded origami comic and the more traditional book/zine-format comics. Specifically, Cyrano’s Ballade takes the form of a pamphlet (saddle stapled) minicomic in which the final page longer than the others so that the touch in Cyrano’s final refrain is repeatedly read as part of preceding stanzas/pages.