JIJÉ - Lot 57

JIJÉ BLUEBERRY Tonnerre à l'Ouest (T.2), Dargaud 1966 Original plate no. 34, prepublished in Pilote no. 252, August August 20, 1964. India ink on paper 32.8 × 41.8 cm (12.91 × 16.46 in.) Tonnerre à l'Ouest is the second album in the Blueberry series by Jean-Michel Charlier and debutant Jean Giraud. It's an episode clearly inspired by the Bascom affair, at the origin of the Apache wars contemporary with the American Civil War. Blueberry has come to Tucson in search of medicine, and finds himself caught up in the city's siege. As the town is set on fire by the Apaches, he and a farmer are besieged in a barn... A great action sequence that Giraud couldn't draw because he couldn't meet the deadline. He enlists the help of his mentor, Belgian cartoonist Jijé, who executes his work with formidable efficiency between plates 26 and 36. His expressive black and white is expressed here with power and vigor.