VANCE

WILLIAM VANCE XIII The Judgment (T.12), Dargaud 1997 Original plate no. 24. The phylacteries have been affixed on the support. Signed. India ink on paper 36.5 × 50.8 cm (14.37 × 20 in.) If there's one rare quality in the landscape of Franco-Belgian comics scriptwriters, it's a sense of comedy. XIII is at first sight a hard-boiled, virile suspense series, where gangsters and hard-boiled military men meet. Jean Van Hamme inherits the know-how of his mentor, Michel Greg, who had a flair for the author's word and for light-hearted situations when necessary. This scene is buffoonish and somewhat gravelly. It could even be considered vulgar. But Van Hamme knows he has an exceptional illustrator on hand, William Vance, whose elegance blends perfectly with this kind of vaudevillian humor.