Abstract The article analyses Eloge de la poussiere ['In Praise of Dust'] (1995), an autobiographical bande dessinee by French cartoonist Edmond Baudoin (1942-). The work is compared with autobiographical writings by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Michel Leiris and Roland Barthes, Alberto Giacometti's approach to painting, and comics by Baru, Herge, Hugo Pratt, Jacques de Loustal and Philippe Paringaux. It is argued that Eloge de la poussiere is a non-linear autobiography that uses collage to suggest connections that readers may choose to make. The article examines how the book thematises the fallibility of memory, the tension between confession and self-censorship, the relationship between art and reality, and difficulty of ending an autobiography. Edmond Baudoin, born in Nice in 1942, has published numerous bandes dessinees. His large and varied body of work shows a marked tendency to experiment with both content and form. Baudoin's first album, Passe le temps ['Pass the Time'], prefigured the 1990s fashion for autobiography.1 In Passe le temps, Baudoin's alter ego, named Paul, returns to the village where he grew up. It resembles Villars-sur-Var, a remote community in the mountains outside Nice, where Baudoin spent much of his childhood. In the village square, Paul revisits his past and he contemplates his future. Un Rubis sur les levres ['A Ruby on the Lips'], a thriller, introduced collage-like effects.2 The story begins in Algeria in 1962, and then moves to 1980s' Europe. The protagonist's diary is a scrapbook consisting of newspaper cuttings, doodles and scribbles. Since the late 1980s/early 1990s, Baudoin has turned back towards more autobiographical concerns. For example, Couma aco ['Like That'] is about Baudoin's grandfather, who lived on the fringes of society in Villars-sur-Var.3 Eloge de la poussiere ['In Praise of Dust'] is Baudoin's most directly autobiographical album; it is also one of his most radically experimental.4 This article examines Baudoin's contribution to autobiography with Eloge de la poussiere, and draws upon an interview that he gave me (Fig. 1).5 Critics have already likened Eloge de la poussiere to collage and poetry. Shortly after Eloge de la poussiere was published, Dominique Herody (128) called the album a 'livre-collage, de textes et d'images' ['collage-book, of texts and images'].6 More recently, Bart Beaty has written: 'It is important that Baudoin is not merely chronicling the passage of his life. His works are framed within poetic narratives complemented by a very loose rendering style.'7 This article offers a more detailed analysis of Eloge de la poussiere than has been undertaken to date. It examines Eloge de la poussiere in the light of major considerations that had previously preoccupied autobiographers and artists admired by Baudoin: the relationship between representation and reality; the problem of memory; self-censorship and confession. As we shall see, Eloge de la poussiere bears an inevitable resemblance to its autobiographical predecessors: it works significant experiences, formative influences, parents, lovers and foreign travels into a vivid portrait of its author. Eloge de la poussiere also meditates upon the challenges posed by autobiographical writing and drawing. Nonetheless, Baudoin's originality stands out clearly when he is compared to his forebears: text/image experiments offer Baudoin formerly untried, highly personalised ways of recounting his life story. Baudoin's Forebears: Debts and Differences Baudoin is a voracious reader, a connoisseur of fine art and a bande dessinee enthusiast. During our interview, so many influential artists and writers were discussed that they cannot all be considered here. When asked which previous autobiographies had impressed him most, Baudoin mentioned, amongst others, Michel Leiris's L'Âge d'homme ['Manhood'] and La Regle du jeu ['The Rules of the Game'],8 as well as Barthes's Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes ['Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes']. …