JUILLARD

ANDRÉ JUILLARD THE 7 LIVES OF THE SPARROWHAWK La Marque du Condor (T.7), Glénat 1991 Original plate no. 4. Signed. India ink and white gouache on paper 32.5 × 45 cm (12.8 × 17.72 in.) This is a key plate in the 7 Lives of the Sparrowhawk series. It's the one in which Ariane de Troïl is, as it were, knighted by the original Sparrowhawk, as she takes on the eternity of the mask, following a principle already well explored in comics by Lee Falk's Le Fantôme du Bengale and Funcken's Le Chevalier blanc. What's fascinating is the formal beauty of this panel, in which Juillard recreates the century of Henri IV and Louis XIII with striking perfection. Architecture, costumes, settings, objects... every detail is justified. This series is truly one of the essential classics of late 20th-century French comics.