Tickets
Gallery
28.09.10 > 21.11.10
Tibet and André-Paul Duchâteau
À la Poursuite du Griffon d’Or (On the trail of the golden griffin)
Tibet (1931-2010) was one of the foremost artists of the so-called Brussels school, a movement that cut its teeth, as it were, in Tintin Magazine developed by Hergé. Tibet joined the magazine as a young man in 1950, and is both an important personality in European comic strip art and one of its most solicitous servants.
Without ever taking himself seriously, Tibet played a major role in gaining recognition for the profession of comic strip artist. It was in the same spirit that he was one of the founder members of the Belgian Comic Strip Center, an organisation to which he remained loyal until his death. This exhibition will certainly be very close to the hearts of those who knew him and loved him.
Jean Auquier, BCSC
THE LAST THRILLER OF THE LATE LAMENTED TIBET
To mark the publication of the last Ric Hochet album by Tibet and Duchâteau, « A la poursuite du griffon d’Or » (in bookshops on 29 October, published in French by Lombard Editions), the Belgian Comic Strip Center will be exhibiting the last comic strips drawn by Tibet. While walking in the forest, Ric Hochet found the man called Calewski with explosives strapped round his waist. A bullet fired by M. Bombe detonated them before his very eyes! Who could possibly have a grudge against this treasure hunter who has set off “on the trail of the golden griffin”?
We know that fate did not allow Tibet to conclude the art work for this his hero’s 78th adventure. The artist had started the drawings of the 28th panel of this mystery, written by André-Paul Duchâteau, when he passed away suddenly on 2 January, 2010.
As a tribute to Tibet, Lombard Editions has decided to publish this new investigation conducted by the journalist-detective of the newspaper, «La Rafale», in the form of an album featuring the ink drawings, pencil drawings and sketches that the late lamented creator of the series was working on at the time of his death, with the key to the mystery being revealed in a summary at the end of the story.
Allowing himself a brief, scathing comment on the despoilment of certain heritage by greedy speculators, André-Paul Duchâteau again demonstrates his ability to harness reality to nourish his fiction. But all the distinctiveness and experience of the thriller writer and the scriptwriter of «Hans» with Rosinski and Kas, of «Casseurs» with Denayer and of «Terreur » with Follet among others, will certainly not be enough to suppress the emotion that all comic strip fans will feel at the thought that this is a posthumous work of Tibet’s, one of the great names of the ninth art. Nevertheless, each will find consolation in the idea that the very witty “father” of Ric Hochet, Chick Bill and other memorable characters remained an artist to the very last.
Editor
