67 - Schwartz

Schwartz OLIVIER SCHWARTZ AN ADVENTURE OF SPIROU AND FANTASIO The Death of Spirou (Vol. 56), Dupuis Original illustration for a promotional poster for the 2023 Angoulême International Comics Festival. Signed. India ink on paper 42 × 29.7 cm (16.54 × 11.69 in.) A magnificent illustration combining a sense of foreboding with fluidity. The anxiety is evident on the faces of Spirou, Fantasio, and Spip. Are they afraid of this moray eel, which is about to tear apart the bubble that allows them to breathe? Or are they threatened by a danger emanating from the wreck of the Discret—resurrected straight from “The Moray Eel’s Lair”—which lies on the seabed behind them? Despite the heavy atmosphere, the scene is strikingly fluid thanks to the undulating lines, while being driven by an unrelenting dynamic, with the vanishing points of the fish, the characters, and the ship’s hull directing us in different directions. This drawing was enlarged to promote the Dupuis booth at the Angoulême Festival. The panel measured nearly 20 square meters. It made quite an impression—and that’s putting it mildly. “I chose the theme of the speech bubble because it seemed essential to me. Here, it prevents the characters from suffocating, but they are also trapped inside a bubble. And it is thanks to speech bubbles that we, as cartoonists, can make our characters speak. ” O.S.