GIRAUD - Lot 74

GIRAUD JEAN GIRAUD BLUEBERRY Fort Navajo (T.1), Dargaud 1965 Original plate no. 31, prepublished in Pilote no. 255 February 13, 1964. India ink and white gouache on paper 32.5 x 40.7 cm (12.8 x 16.02 in.) From the very first volume, we learn that Lieutenant Blueberry is a Southerner disinherited by his family, enlisted in the Northern army out of disgust at the slavery suffered by blacks, and that Colonel Dickson will trust him if he abandons his strong-headed ways. This first Blueberry album, still under the strong influence of Giraud's mentor Jijé, nonetheless lays the foundations for a Western series that will soon become legendary. The script, based on a real episode from the Indian wars that followed the American Civil War, is full of action from the outset. Every page has its own action and hard-hitting dialogue. Jean-Michel Charlier is in top form. As for Jean Giraud, although he perfectly portrays the wholehearted, understanding and humane Colonel Dickson, he's still a little vague on the definition of his main character, who takes on the features of the actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. Nevertheless, the atmosphere of the board, in this scene lit by a single oil lamp, is perfectly convincing. Giraud manages to balance Charlier's (talkative) text from one panel to the next. Between panels 5 and 6, he plays with the smoke from the colonel's pipe as a phylactery, heralding the Moebiusian dimension of the artist to come.