HERMANN

HERMANN ◊ THE TOWERS OF BOIS-MAURY Khaled (T.9), Glénat 1993 Original plate no. 41. Presence of superficial soiling on the back of the plate and slight yellowing on the paper edge. Signed. India ink on paper 36.5 × 47.7 cm (14.37 × 18.78 in.) With Les Tours de Bois-Maury, Hermann proves he can do it all: from anticipation to westerns, from espionage to historical accounts. But don't ask him to do a Jacques Martin: history is there to set the scene for his adventures, not to serve as documentation for schoolchildren. With characters at their most sensitive, each representative of human nature which, in Hermann's case, is rarely ideal, the lure of gain is at the heart of this tale, which will also make Bois-Maury a little wealthier at the end than at the beginning of the episode. In this night scene, where soldiers are killing each other at the edge of a precipice, the vertigo comes above all from the extraordinary constellation of strokes with which Hermann sculpts his scenes, in a play of light and black and white that is as exemplary as it is splendid.