LE GALL

FRANK LE GALL THEODORE POUSSIN Capitaine Steene (T.1), Dupuis 1987 Original plate no. 38, prepublished in Le Journal de Spirou no. 2431, November 15, 1984. Signed. India ink on paper 26 × 36.3 cm (10.24 × 14.29 in.) This plate sets the series in interwar Asia, where Corto Maltese was also roaming at the time. It's clear that, for Westerners, a new page is being turned. Gone were the passport- and visa-free voyages around the world of Lord Byron's day: colonial appetites were setting up frontiers with slightly troubled characters who embodied adventure, the real thing, free and terrible. They play a definite role in the last fires of empires in decline. Le Gall's graphic virtuosity increasingly expresses itself in these well-felt atmospheres, while the hero forges his character under the rough edges of destiny.