HERMANN ◊ - Lot 10

HERMANN ◊ BERNARD PRINCE Adventure in Manhattan (T.4), Le Lombard 1971 Original plate no. 30, prepublished in Le Journal de Tintin Belge no. 4, January 30, 1969. Superficial soiling on the back. of the plate. India ink on paper 36.3 × 47.5 cm (14.29 × 18.7 in.) Bernard Prince doesn't arrive immediately in Hermann's career. "In my opinion, Greg is the best, far ahead of Goscinny and others, because he possesses an abrasive sense of humor coupled with irony", Hermann judges retrospectively, even if relations between the two men were not always idyllic. In a few full-length stories, Greg imagines an Interpol inspector just starting out on his career. But the hero's profile resembles a little too closely that of the newspaper's other investigator: the journalist Ric Hochet, who has become very popular with readers. Greg therefore reoriented his character towards adventure aboard the Cormoran, a boat inherited by Bernard Prince. Here he's on an adventurous course, roaming Africa, Asia, Central America, Southeast Asia... and ending up in Manhattan, where he has to play look-alike in a twisted caper. As you can see, Hermann is just as at home in a megalopolis as he is in the intricate jungles at the ends of the earth.