16 - Will

Will WILL TIF AND SHAVED La Villa du long-cri (Vol. 8), Dupuis 1966 Original cover. Signed. India ink, blue pencil, and white gouache on paper 30.5 × 41 cm (12.01 × 16.14 in.) This is the album marking the return of the prodigal son. A few years earlier, in 1958, Will had followed in Franquin’s footsteps by going to be published by “Jules-dechez-Smith-en-face,” aka Éditions du Lombard, run by the dynamic Raymond Leblanc. The characters had been briefly entrusted, for two episodes, to Marcel Denis, who was assisted for a time by Marcel Remacle, the creator of *Le Vieux Nick*. Six years later, even though Tif & Tondu had completely disappeared from the newspaper three years prior—and likely from the history of comics as well—Will and Maurice Rosy returned with *Choc au Louvre*, immediately followed by *La Villa du Long-Cri*. This marked a new chapter for the shaggy-haired one and the bald one. Gone are the slightly whimsical fantasy stories from Rosy’s early days on the series: they’ve given way to detective stories in the vein of Simenon that foreshadow the Tillieux era. The stories are more structured, the duo’s roles are more clearly defined — Tif the impulsive, Tondu the level-headed — and the artwork proudly displays its “Atom style,” inspired by the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair, a style this cover fully embodies. Didier Pasamonik Even though I was very young, I remember the creation of this story well; we were on vacation, and my father never stopped drawing, but in return, he was always ready to do things with us. That year, we were on vacation at the villa in Long-Cri—at least, that’s how I remember it. My father drew strange automatons that were enough on their own to give you goosebumps, so at the thought that Monsieur Choc would be part of the horror, I had quite a few nightmares about it. This album follows in the footsteps of the excellent *Grand Combat* with that dose of unsettling mystery that delighted us all. Visually, the cover is excellent—simple, effective, and mysterious. It’s beautiful; it’s classic Will from his “thick-pen” era—bold, generous, and sensual. Éric Maltaite