VANCE

WILLIAM VANCE MARSHAL BLUEBERRY On Washington's orders (T.1), Alpen Publishers 1991 Original cover. Signed. Acrylic on canvas mounted on wood (59 × 80 cm (23.23 × 31.5 in.) In 1991, young Swiss publisher Fabrice Giger's Alpen publishing house pulled off a masterstroke: convincing Jean Giraud to script the Blueberry series for William Vance. The result was the Marshall Blueberry triptych, in which Charlier's hero and Gir, still a lieutenant, takes the law into his own hands in the Mexican border town of Fort Navajo. The proposal delighted William Vance, a great fan of Westerns, whom he had introduced with the adventures of Wells Fargo conveyor Ray Ringo in Journal Tintin in 1965. Without conceding the slightest inflexion in his style, William Vance conceived two albums for this spin-off of the regular series. The last album of the triptych was produced by Rouge. William Vance was very proud of it: for a long time, this painting adorned the artist's living room in his house in Santander, Spain. Here we see Blueberry in low angle on his horse, in full uniform and in majesty, riding towards adventure in a magnificently executed painting. A museum piece.