Les fleurs du mâle (The Flowers of the Male) was published by International Presse Magazine in 2003, although Berteloot had already published a six-page story of the same title in Bédé Adult’ in 1993. In both cases he is credited with the script, drawing, colouring and lettering. The album expands the original idea into a series of loosely connected erotic adventures, framed by four friends who meet for a drink and recount their experiences. The title is a typically Berteloot literary reference, Les fleurs du mâle being a playful transformation of Charles Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal, replacing mal (evil) with mâle (male). Here the ‘flowers’ are the pleasures, fantasies and adventures, recounted with considerably less moral anxiety than Baudelaire.

The conversations provide a convenient framework for Berteloot to move from one episode to another. A recollection leads to another memory, fantasy or anecdote, and the boundaries between what has happened and what might have been imagined are deliberately blurred. The stories range through encounters between couples and groups, with seduction, curiosity and sexual experimentation providing their common thread.

Visually, Les fleurs du mâle is striking for its use of colour. Berteloot combines strong, sometimes almost startling blocks of colour with precise black line, creating figures and interiors that have something of the polished appearance of fashion or advertising illustration. His page designs are equally varied, moving between conventional sequences and large, carefully composed images, while close-ups and changes of scale heighten the sense of intimacy.

Les fleurs du mâle was published by IPM as a Bédé adult’ album.