HERGÉ

HERGÉ QUICK AND FLUPKE The Exploits of Quick and Flupke - 9th Series, Blue Books 1960 Original cover pencil. Graphite on paper 35.5 × 48.2 cm (13.98 × 18.98 in.) A personal souvenir In 1958, a new collection of Quick and Flupke's exploits was added to the series: this was the ninth full-color album published in the small format determined by Hergé's redesigns during the Occupation, for the Flemish daily Het Algemeen Nieuws. As usual, the author has carefully selected some 15 previously unpublished gags, which he has revised and retitled where necessary. While none of these have been redesigned (they are all from the original publication in Le Petit Vingtième), a few have required minor intervention on the part of Studios Hergé. Nothing major. All the more reason for Hergé to personally take care of the presentation of the new album. The title page's traditional circular cul-de-lampe shows the two kids running along the sidewalk, under the wary gaze of Agent 15. Naturally, we find them again on the cover illustration: the kids have pitched their tent on the median strip of a wide arterial road, and the policeman is approaching to write them up, while a crowd is forming. This drawing extends or foreshadows the gag entitled Perdus dans la nuit (Lost in the Night), which takes place in the middle of the album. Rather than redrawing the second page of the gag, which showed the same scene, Hergé took elements from it. For example, he made Quick's head appear above his friend's, and brought the neighborhood policeman closer to the two kids, to emphasize their bond. We no longer see the ubiquitous public bench in Brussels, but instead, the lower trunks of the trees are encircled by a cast-iron grille, as in Paris. Cars have replaced the yellow streetcar that used to park there in the gag on the pavement. Are we in Paris rather than Brussels? Not at all: the police officer's white helmet and ample black cape set the Brussels scene. He's given up on the conscript who, in the background, was discovering this unusual campsite. In the crowd of curious onlookers, one can distinguish representatives of different strata of society and different age groups. Among them, a rare representative of the proletariat. To the right, a worker stands pensive and benevolent, cap on, tool bag slung over his shoulder, cigarette in mouth. A rare sight in a Hergéan universe sometimes described as smooth and bourgeois. In terms of content, Hergé's "types" are more than just extras. Graphically, he doesn't isolate any of them, sacrificing his habit of having one encroach on the other in a natural way. Could the appearance of this worker be a reminiscence of Hergé's grandfather and uncles, who were plumbers? On my mother's side, plumbers were passed down from father to son, but that didn't stop Joseph Dufour, the grandfather, from inventing the gas water heater and making his fortune. Another reminiscence, closer to home: the gag is drawn from a rather comic memory of the time when Georges Remi roamed the Black Forest with fellow truckers Paul Werrie, nicknamed Quick, and Philippe Gérard, the inspiration for Flupke. One evening, exhausted and overcome by darkness, they decided to pitch their tent in the wilderness, where their footsteps had taken them. The next day, they were awakened by incessant train traffic and realized that their campsite was right next to a busy rail line. Hence the title "Lost in the night"...