Mazzotti’s contribution to Selen continued with Soumission impossible, published by Vents d’Ouest as volume 23. The title Soumission impossible is a reference to the 1960s television series Mission impossible, replacing mission with soumission (submission), signalling the album’s erotic subject matter with a neat piece of wordplay. It brings together six short stories, with Mazzotti moving between contemporary situations and historical settings.

The stories are Une première au Strange Day (A First at Strange Day), Le passeur courtois (The Courteous Ferryman), C’est ça, la vie! (That’s Life!), Nobles et paysans (Nobles and Peasants), La cave (The Cellar) and La jalousie (Jealousy). Their settings range widely, including a contemporary private party, nineteenth-century Emilia-Romagna, modern urban life, and revolutionary France in 1793. The historical material is particularly distinctive –  Le passeur courtois is set near Cesena in 1850, while Nobles et paysans takes place in the Vendée during the French Revolution. What all the stories have in common, of course, is that their participants inevitably end up naked in bed, enjoying full-on intimacy.

The album demonstrates Mazzotti’s command of coloured-pencil and drawn line work, with carefully constructed interiors, period costumes, landscapes and character studies.