FOURNIER

JEAN-CLAUDE FOURNIER SPIROU AND FANTASIO The rigged abbey (T.22), Dupuis 1972 Original cover project. Signed Watercolor, Indian ink and gouache on paper 18 × 24.4 cm (7.09 × 9.61 in.) Like a movie poster, the cover of a comic book should encourage the reader to go further. One wonders: is it necessary to be inspired by one of the most important scenes in the story? Not necessarily. Here, for L'Abbaye truquée, Jean-Claude Fournier prefers to play on the very title of the story with this mysterious building in the background, some ruins, and, in the foreground, just getting out of their sports car, Spirou and Fantasio. One looks to the right, the other to the left. As for Spip, he looks the reader straight in the eyes: "Do you have a little nut?" he seems to say. What, or rather who, is this trio looking for? Answer in the album. To draw the car, a small Honda, I went for a walk with Franquin in the streets of Brussels, hoping to find one to photograph. Finally, we went to a model store located not far from the Royal Palace. They had a model of it. Franquin offered it to me. Once in his workshop, we started to build it, like two kids. J.-C.F.