HERMANN

HERMANN ◊ BERNARD PRINCE Objectif Cormoran (T.12), Le Lombard 1978 Original plate no. 44, prepublished in Le Journal de Tintin belge no. 26, June 22, 1976. India ink on paper 36.3 × 47.2 cm (14.29 × 18.58 in.) Aside from the fact that a boat chase is a rarity in comics, the quality of this cutout is to be admired. Hermann multiplies daring shots of great subtlety, such as this truncated image at the beginning of the panel, with its horizon line slightly off-axis to evoke the rolling effect and the viewer's difficulty in pinpointing the action. This is followed by a very close-up shot of Barney Jordan and Djinn inside the cabin, where we are literally suffocating, while, returning to a wide shot where we can breathe again, a tight fieldcontrechamp with a zoom effect sets up a diagonal that leads to a large, low-angle frame, where the final explosion is expressed. A lesson in comics!