MÉZIÈRES - Lot 110

MÉZIÈRES JEAN-CLAUDE MÉZIÈRES VALÉRIAN Métro Châtelet direction Cassiopée (T.9), Dargaud 1980 Original plate no. 38, prepublished in Pilote Mensuel n° 73 of June 1980. Signed. India ink on paper 39.8 × 50 cm (15.67 × 19.69 in.) Métro Châtelet direction Cassiopée, followed by Brooklyn station terminus Cosmos, is probably one of the most successful diptychs (and the first!) in the Valérian saga. Firstly, because Pierre Christin, in the skein of his time loops, sets the story in 1980. Burning monsters appear in the Paris metro and aquatic creatures in the Poitevin marshes. Galaxity is alerted and sends Valérian to investigate in 1980s France. There, he meets Monsieur Albert, a charming man who takes full advantage of his position as Galaxity's correspondent in twentieth-century Paris: he takes him to meet eminent, somewhat philosophical scientists who can help him interpret these potential threats to the time system. One of these is Abraham Chatelard, a philosopher of science and myth, who likes to quote Lucretius while analyzing the situation. The model is undoubtedly Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher of science, poetry, education and time, one of the leading exponents of the French school of historical epistemology. Christin's script was probably inspired by his writings, which explains why he pays homage to him here. Mézières' drawing - which deals here, unusually, with contemporary times - is bucolic and luminous. It's good to see Valérian, hero of the cosmos, a little out of step. In any case, it's proof that Mézières knew how to do it all when it came to drawing.