BAR2

BAR2 JOE BAR TEAM Volume 1, Vents d'Ouest, 1990 Pitoyable relique, original plate no. 43, prepublished in Moto Journal, 1989-1990. Signed. India ink and white gouache on paper 38.2 × 47 cm (15.04 × 18.5 in.) Come on! Let's not be in any doubt any longer: yes, the tall, unshaven, hairy fellow who is visited by Manchzeck in this plate is indeed Christian Debarre, alias Bar2. And if the author has invited himself into his story, it's not out of coquetry, but because the pilot mentioned at the end of this gag is none other than Barry Sheene, his childhood idol. "And that's why I wanted to give him a friendly wink. For the uninitiated, Barry Sheene was an intrepid and whimsical British racing driver, one of whose greatest feats was to emerge alive (but broken all over) from a crash at nearly 300 km/h on the Daytona oval in Florida. This was in 1975, and of course, back then, drivers didn't have the same high-performance equipment as today. Which meant that, at the end of many antics and a good hundred meters on his back, all that was left of poor Barry's suit was the pitiful rag you can see at the bottom of this board. And having had the opportunity to see the original in photographs, I can assure you that it was no less dilapidated than the one shown in this drawing."