Will - Lot 34

Will WILL TIF ET TONDU Les Passe-montagnes (T.27), Dupuis 1979 Original cover. The title is a reproduction affixed to the original. Signed. India ink on paper 25.5 × 36.3 cm (10.04 × 14.41 in.) Beautiful, cleverly constructed cover for the album Les Passe-montagnes. Although the atmosphere is wintry, the episode nevertheless takes place in the South, in a region below Menton: the Vallée des Merveilles, and notably in the setting of the monumental Saint-Dalmas-de-Tende railway station, built by Mussolini, of which we can make out a part of the décor. It's a place where the young Desberg, the album's co-writer, used to spend his vacations. The story is co-written by Tillieux-Desberg, as the Gil Jourdan artist is about to step down. This was a tough test for the young scriptwriter, as Tillieux didn't let anything get past him. But this four-handed episode was to be the last: having finished proofreading the first fifteen pages, Tillieux died in a car accident on February 2, 1978 on his way back from Angoulême, leaving Desberg to complete the work alone. For him, but especially for Will, it was a shock. We appreciate the solidity of the composition, from the foreground of the snowy grove to the mountain at the very end of the focal length. Along the way, we discover the ominous silhouette that threatens our heroes. Will's line is, as it should be, perfectly legible. Peyo had a theory on this subject, which Will and Franquin were happy to repeat: a good cover should be easy to understand and read from five meters away.