Coping With The White Stripes' Breakup with Funny French Cartoons

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As you may have heard -- here, if you know what's good for you -- the White Stripes called it quits yesterday, capping off their 14-year career with one final middle finger pointed in the direction of Punxsutawney Phil. In all the weeping and hand-wringing and mixtape-making that has followed, let's not neglect the impact of this США-МУЗЫКА-ГРУППА-РАСПАД (which Google translates, helpfully, as "US-MUSIC-GROUP-DECAY") on the other nations of the world, who of course look to us as cultural ambassadors of blah blah whatever.

So how are they taking it across the pond? Not only does the blog of French culture rag Les Inrockuptibles have an open letter to Jack White ("sacred Pygmalion of my lost years"), but it's also run a cartoon reminiscence in its Gimme Indie Rock segment, a personal account of the author's time spent with the group's œuvre, memories of its impact, the tough questions that come in the bargaining stage of the grieving process:

But why them? Why not Muse? Coldplay? Vampire Weekend?

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It's really not important to be able to read French to absorb the essentials, but for the record "jeter l'éponge" means to throw in the towel (literally, "to throw the sponge"), the cartoonist has indeed spelled De Stijl wrong, and "post-crépesque" is exactly what it sounds like.

And that caricature of Meg and Jack is wildly unflattering in any language.

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