Juillard - Lot 87

Juillard ANDRÉ JUILLARD BLAKE AND MORTIMER Signed Olrik (T.30), Blake et Mortimer 2024 Original cover, accompanied by inks on paper. India ink on paper 24.4 × 31.9 cm (9.61 × 12.56 in.) Color: 20.8 × 29.5 cm "You obviously don't know who I am, gentlemen," he assures his "roommates". Locked up in London's Wandsworth Prison, Olrik has lost none of his morgue or his dandyish streak. In all circumstances, the rascal continues to sport his eternal cigarette smoker, as he did for the first time in The Swordfish Secret. This is how a legend is made. André was very keen on this cover showing Olrik behind bars. He always liked to draw him. In my opinion, of all the artists who took over Blake and Mortimer, he was the one who made Olrik his own. He gave him a kind of elegance, while making him an ambiguous character, somewhere between spy and fallen aristocrat. In other titles in the series, Olrik is rarely featured on the cover. He only appears in L'Affaire du collier, L'Onde Septimus and Le Cri du Moloch. When we considered the idea of having him "win", so that he wouldn't be the eternal loser, we raised the possibility of featuring him prominently. Yves Schlirf