BAR2 - Lot 13

BAR2 JOE BAR TEAM Volume 1, Vents d'Ouest, 1990 Original plate no. 21, prepublished in Moto Journal in 1989-1990. Signed. India ink and white gouache on paper 33 × 42 cm (12.99 × 16.54 in.)* Signed. In the Joe Bar Team comic strip, as in real life, there are two kinds of law enforcement officers: those obsessed with ticketing, and the motorized gendarmes or policemen. The latter are special in that they are, above all, motorcycle enthusiasts. This is certainly true of Gégé, alias Lévrier Noir, who also reminds us that, uniformed or not, a sport biker - that is, a motorcyclist with a penchant for daring riding and competition - is still a sport biker. "I've come across a few like that, and that's what gave me the idea for this gag. And what amused me most about the story was that it went against all the other stories in movies and comics that take pleasure in ridiculing the cops and the marshalsea. It's so conventional! And too easy a way, I think, to win the viewer's or the reader's connivance - unless, of course, he's a cop himself. Which doesn't stop this story from being a little subversive. After all, if this cop seems sympathetic, it's because he puts his taste for competition above law and order. But what I really like in this strip is panel 2 of the third strip. It shows Gégé performing a "trapper's brake". I really like this drawing. I also like the first panel. It seems to me that in Gégé's physiognomy, you can see the austerity and stiffness typical of any good police officer, and his ultra-prepared behemoth is imposing. And I'd forgotten it was perched on a racing stand! The little "racing" touch... "