LOISEL - Lot 72

LOISEL RÉGIS LOISEL ◊ THE QUEST FOR THE TIME BIRD L'OEuf des ténèbres (T.4), Dargaud 1987 Original plate no. 60, end page. Signed. India ink and white gouache on paper 39.4 × 50 cm (15.51 × 19.69 in.) This is a moving plate: it closes the fourth and final volume of The Quest for the Time Bird with a return to the present. Grandfather has just finished his story, and it's time for the children to go to bed. It's a moving finale, tinged with nostalgia and even sadness, as Bragon's grief drives him mad with grief. But at the same time, this sequence has a soothing quality, as all the story loops close - not completely, as a new cycle arrives. The prediction has been fulfilled: the narrator, we discover, is the unknown chosen one who married Kiskill, the new queen of the land of Maran. We also learn that he is the one who, along with Bragon, Pélisse, Fourreux and Bulrog, lived through all the previous adventures. From the union of the unknown and Kiskill will come a reign of prosperity and wisdom. Happy ending? That would be too simple...