BAR2

BAR2 JOE BAR TEAM Volume 1, Vents d'Ouest, 1990 Original plate no. 25, prepublished in Moto Journal in 1989-1990. Signed. India ink and white gouache on paper 34 × 38 cm (13.39 × 14.96 in.) Looking at the plates presented so far, you'd think that the four Joe Bar madmen, obsessed with speed and competition, were loath to ride in pairs and had little regard for the "weaker sex" as it was then known. Nonsense! This panel proves just the opposite, and that the "weaker sex" isn't always who you think it is. "This is one of the plates I've heard the most about. And I'm delighted because it wasn't easy to make. At the storyboard stage, I was tearing my hair out trying to fit into a single page the many panels that would make this gag work. I'm having fun rereading the onomatopoeia in the penultimate panel. For the uninitiated: WABRO-WABRO refers to Edouard's rapid downshifts; ïïïïïïïï refers to the squeal of a tire; and PAF-PAF-PAF comes from the repeated dribbling of the rear wheel against the asphalt, a recurrent phenomenon on the big four-strokes of the time, which occurred during powerful braking. And I'm sure that anyone who has ever had to perform a "catastrophic" braking maneuver during their motorcycling career will always remember the agonizing din. Unless, of course, the head trauma that followed erased all trace of that terrible moment from their memory."