BAR2

BAR2 JOE BAR TEAM Volume 1, Vents d'Ouest, 1990 Original plate no. 39, prepublished in Moto Journal in 1989-1990. Signed. India ink and white gouache on paper 34 × 40.5 cm (13.39 × 15.94 in.) Ed has just been nabbed by the Marshalsea, but doesn't protest. Perhaps to save a couple of squares? After all, one page is a very short space in which to write a gag. So much so, in fact, that you often have to start straight into the story, as if you were running a kilometer. It's up to the dialogue and the characters' attitudes to make you imagine what came before. "Managing the first panel is not the easiest part of making a gag strip. Most of the time, even if you strip it down to the bone, it's hard to fit the story you've imagined onto a single page. As a result, the more introductory panels you eliminate, the better. But figuring out how to get the story off to a fast start without depriving the reader of all the information they need to understand the scene can be a real headache. In this case, I think I've managed quite well. And there are two details in this panel that really amuse me. Firstly, the name of the village: "Ravelin-le-vieux" (in old-time biker jargon, an old ravelin refers to a faded, dusty motorcycle); secondly, in the background of panel 3, the battered, overloaded R16, driven by a drunk driver, if its haphazard trajectory is anything to go by. Incidentally, I remember taking great pleasure in writing the dialogue for this panel. It's always a treat to get police officers talking, when they think they're smarter than the people they've nabbed."