HERMANN

HERMANN ◊ COMANCHE Red Dust (T.1), Le Lombard 1972 Original plate no. 35, prepublished in Le Journal de Tintin Belge no. 41, October 15, 1970. Presence of traces of glue and superficial soiling on the back of the plate. India ink on paper 36 × 47.5 cm (14.17 × 18.7 in.) In those days, the major children's magazines had their heroes with highly codified jobs: the detective, the journalist, the cowboy, the knight, the explorer, the child-adventurer, the racing driver, the aviator... Tintin was no exception. As in Spirou with Jerry Spring, in Pilote with Blueberry, the competitors have their cowboy and their authors - Jijé, Giraud... - are far from being second-rate! With the arrival of Greg in 1966, however, a wind of modernity blew over the embers of a generation eager to express itself. Right from the start, Red Dust shakes up the codes: here, the cowboy isn't a loner. Better still, his employer is a woman with an Indian name: Comanche. Above all, the tone is no longer the same: the rhythm is cinematic, the dialogue is riddled with author's words, and the characterization of the characters is on paper if not on screen.