Vance - Lot 119

Vance WILLIAM VANCE XIII Unleash the dogs! (T.15), Dargaud 2002 Original plate no. 16. Signed. India ink on paper 36.5 × 51 cm (14.37 × 20.08 in.) The XIII saga has at least two ingredients that make for addictive reading. Firstly, the mystery of the hero's identity, whose surname we discover in this panel: this time, is he Seamus O'Neil, an IRA activist, or his university buddy Jason Mac Lane? Because there's a catch: after an accident in the mountains, it's not clear which of the two friends has returned. The other ingredient is the profusion of characters, often female, who gravitate around the amnesiac character. Such as Jessica Martin, a ruthless NSA agent who appears in a short story in episode 13 under the pseudonym Diane Chasseresse. But when confronted with the hero with the gray temple, her relentless killer armor cracks. Her run with XIII helps to endear her to the reader. However, the cruel Jean Van Hamme manages to kill her - or so we think - on the runway of Moon Valley airfield. A panel like this is very welcome: you can breathe and get a bit of height, in a hot-air balloon...