FRANCQ - Lot 85

FRANCQ PHILIPPE FRANCQ LARGO WINCH L'Heure du tigre (T.8), Dupuis 1977 Original plate no. 22. Signed. India ink on paper 36.7 × 51 cm (14.45 × 20.08 in.) For the diptych La Forteresse de Makiling (The Fortress of Makiling), Jean Van Hamme was thinking of drawing inspiration from his novel of the same name, but realized that there was too little material to fit into two volumes. So he merged the story with his other Largo Winch novel, Les Révoltés de Zamboanga. It's an album with no economic stakes, just a story of adventure, kidnapping and rescue, fairly linear, but set in a novel setting that's particularly exotic for Western eyes: Burma. But it gets better: we learn more about the hero's past. We discover that Largo Winch spent part of his adolescence in Asia, and that he incurred a debt there, the subject of his future adventures in China: The Three Eyes of the Guardian of the Tao and The Way and the Virtue. In this sequence, Largo has managed to break out his friend Simon Ovronnaz and the leaders of the Chan rebellion from a fortress. In this reunion scene, Largo is treated by the niece of the opposition leader, and something happens between them... It's worth noting that Philippe Francq knows how to draw helicopters perfectly: he has a pilot's license on these machines.