MÉZIÈRES - Lot 82

MÉZIÈRES JEAN-CLAUDE MÉZIÈRES ◊ VALÉRIAN Le Pays sans étoile (T.3), Dargaud 1972 Original plate no. 6, prepublished in in Pilote no. 574, October 22, 1970. Panel no. 6 is a reproduction affixed to the original. India ink on paper 39.4 × 47.5 cm (15.51 × 18.7 in.) Here's an album from the 1970s with a contemporary resonance: Valérian and Laureline discover a hollow planet, Ukbar, with a solar system inside, and in which two warring cities are waging a war of the sexes, unaware that the entire system is heading for destruction. The battle rages between Malka, the citadel city of the Amazons, and Valsennar, the garden city of the Alzafrar emperor, a decadent monarch. And while they're fighting, they don't realize how imminent the danger is. Valérian and Laureline set out to reconcile the two sides, rejecting both machismo and feminism. Of course, it's not that simple, especially as we can see in this panel that Valérian can't hold his liquor... Mézières' consistently modern drawing and inking have influenced their time, starting with George Lucas, who took a close look at this creation to make his Star Wars.