FRANQUIN

ANDRÉ FRANQUIN GASTON Dupuis Original illustration created in 1981 for the Sud-Ouest newspaper, on the occasion for the Angoulême Comics Festival. Signed. India ink on paper 29.8 × 21.5 cm (11.73 × 8.46 in.) The amazing thing about André Franquin is that even when he's doing a "special drawing", as here for Sud-Ouest, a French regional daily covering the Angoulême International Comics Festival, a crobard that's of the order of a dedication, he pushes his professional conscience to the point of not only specially creating an original gag (frankly, the compass on the gaffophone, you had to find it!) but also delivering a drawing of unparalleled mastery. Gaston's attitude, the accuracy of his pose, the rendering of the Gaffophone's wood (carved, as Hausman, a bagpipe maker, once told Yvan Delporte, from 100-year-old dogwood), the virtuosity of the line: everything here is delightful, and shows Franquin's drawing to be voluptuous to the point of ecstasy.