TED BENOIT - Lot 66

TED BENOIT TED BENOIT BLAKE AND MORTIMER L'Étrange Rendez-vous (T.15), Blake et Mortimer 2001 Original plate no. 14. Signed. India ink on paper 36.9 × 48.4 cm (14.53 × 19.06 in.) In L'Étrange Rendez-vous, set in the 1950s, Van Hamme and Ted Benoit create a time loop in which Professor Mortimer meets his grandfather, a Scottish fighter in the American War of Independence. It's the first time the professor has set foot in the USA, despite being approached by American universities. The result is a story of anticipation, time travel and extraterrestrials, with the return of Olrik and the "Yellows". Ted Benoit's drawing is undoubtedly one of Jacobs' finest successors in this series. It's clear from this plate that his "ligne claire" is not strictly Jacobsian. His approach is more realistic, less schematic. This allows us to evolve in American settings that the author of Ray Banana knows like the back of his hand.