Vance - Lot 117

Vance WILLIAM VANCE XIII Unleash the dogs! (T.15), Dargaud 2002 Original cover. Signed. Gouache on strong cardboard 36.2 × 50.6 cm (14.25 × 19.92 in.) XIII, born in 1984, crosses the threshold of the 2000s with this album, and still hasn't clarified his identity. The man with no memory has become the symbol of a world saturated with political and moral manipulation. He continues to be accused of God-knows-what crimes and is constantly pursued, embroiled in a mechanical chase whose deus ex machina is Jean Van Hamme. It has to be said that the Belgian scriptwriter has a multitude of government agencies on hand, all intent on shooting each other in the foot and neutralizing each other. The attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, which took place a year before this episode, is a clear demonstration of this, not to mention the foreign meddling that will continue thereafter... The frozen post-war world has mutated and is engaged in a mad sarabande. This 15th volume reflects this evolution. In this album, XIII has had to ally himself with people as unsavory as the assassins pursuing him. Can he feel the threat at his back? William Vance's art is to create, in the blink of an eye, this sudden tension with, as is his style, a touch of icy eroticism.